It's About Power, Not Ideas
I'll probably eventually read Matt Bai's book for the story of bloggers and billionaires interacting, but his core view of the "lack of ideas" among liberals as driving the American reality is just an excuse not to deal with the REAL DC establishment, the core of moneyed corporate power that blocks most real reforms. Europe doesn't have a better welfare state because the French had better intellectuals on the left; they built a stronger welfare state because, unlike in the US, the corporate class in Europe was devastated by World War II, so democratic votes were not thrawted and the labor movement was stronger.
There are lots of good ideas on the progressive side, but most policies proposed are modest not because people have small minds, but because even limited reforms face filibusters and corporate lobbying.
Yet Bai dismisses even the Center for American Progress's anti-poverty program as being just about giving poor people a money handout when it is all about supporting working families to help themselves.
