TLP Weekend Edition (November 8-9, 2025)
What we're reading and checking out.
📝 “Where are the centrist insurgents?: Democrats need to fight the system, not just be more moderate,” by Patrick Ruffini. The always-interesting Patrick Ruffini has an insightful piece on his Substack, The Intersection, focused on something very much missing from the current intra-Democratic debate. Amazing that it takes a Republican consultant to point this out.
Only a handful of times in recent decades have new leaders been able to change the image of their parties for the better. Each of these—Reagan, Clinton, Obama, Trump—campaigned as outsiders disrupting the status quo. They changed their parties as a byproduct of changing the country.
More than an ideological shift, it’s important to have a candidate who taps into public disdain for politics-as-usual. Even if they can project a more moderate image, this is the ingredient that continues to elude the current crop of Democrats.
It’s not just that Democrats have gotten too liberal. It’s that by opposing Trump on all fronts, they’ve been tricked into adopting a posture of defending the elite norms and institutions Trump attacks. And they’ve lost a focus on regular people in the process.
Democrats during the first Trump term pined for the return of “normal politics” and rejoiced when Biden was elected to deliver it. But voters also hate “normal” politics, not just the abnormal kind. After an initial focus on affordability, Kamala Harris pivoted to closing out her campaign as a defender of institutions with a speech on the Ellipse. Disdain for Washington politics is a winning theme on every campaign ever, but here were Democrats tying themselves to the mast as democratic defenders while an affordability and immigration crisis raged around them.
Being too “woke” remains a problem, but potentially the bigger problem is the Democrats’ reputation as the party of hall monitors, those upright defenders of rules and procedures. It’s not just the fact that you come across as censorious scolds, or that you end up focused on D.C. issues that most people don’t care about. There’s also the opportunity cost: you end up unable to deliver a real change message, the most effective kind for the party out of power.
Yes, Democrats want change from Trump or MAGA in the White House, but they don’t come across as wanting fundamental change to the system, and that’s a problem.
🗽 “Zohran’s Park Slope Populists: Conservatives shouldn’t write off the economic pain of New York City’s downwardly mobile professional class,” by John Carney. Back in July, after Zohran Mamdani had secured the Democratic nomination in NYC, conservative writer John Carney wrote an interesting and sympathetic piece about his voters for Commonplace.
The Park Slope-Bushwick Mamdani supporters are not, in any meaningful sense, working class. But they are not exactly elite either. They belong to a group that has become increasingly central to American politics: the downwardly mobile professionals, the overproduced graduates of our university system, raised to expect middle-class stability and discovering instead that the system has little to offer beyond high rent and burnout. Their rage is real, and if the right wants to be serious about building a majoritarian coalition around economic renewal, it ought to start by understanding that rage, not mocking it.
These voters are not clamoring for socialism out of youthful rebellion. They’re reacting to a broken bargain. They grew up being told that education was the path to a stable, meaningful life. Instead, they’ve entered a labor market that treats professional work as disposable, housing as a luxury good, and children as a financial impossibility. Many have good salaries by national standards—$80,000, even $120,000—but in New York City that can still mean roommates, debt, and no hope of buying a home. They’re too rich to be poor and too poor to feel secure.
I lived in Park Slope from 2008 to 2020, most of that time in a fourth-story walk-up apartment with my wife and our two daughters. We had about 1,200 square feet. I know the neighborhood, and I know the people Mamdani represents. These are not revolutionaries and they are not committed socialists. At one point in the not so distant past, their class equivalents would largely have identified as Republicans. They are parents, renters, freelancers, teachers, social workers, policy analysts, and junior lawyers trying to make life work in a city where everything is getting more expensive and nothing feels stable.
Now that Mamdani has dispatched Cuomo to become mayor, this piece is worth revisiting to see why he generates so much enthusiasm among younger voters in Gotham.
🎬 Frankenstein, directed by Guillermo del Toro. Master director Guillermo del Toro has adapted Mary Shelley’s classic story about Victor Frankenstein in a most intriguing manner. The film is visually rich, if a bit gory at times, and the acting is superb. Oscar Isaac as Victor and Jacob Elordi as his creation are riveting to watch as they pursue each other from spooky old castles to frozen seas. This movie definitely needs to be seen on the big screen, but it’s also streaming on Netflix if it’s not in your town.
🚋 “Stay In Your Lane,” by Kemet Coleman. Michael’s hometown of Kansas City recently opened a 3.5-mile extension of its streetcar line, connecting nearly six miles of the city’s central core by rail and marking the next phase in its urban revitalization efforts. KC native Kemet Coleman was tapped to write a song celebrating the new opening, and it’s a banger, showcasing the city’s rich talent and helping ring in the next chapter of its history.
Here’s a good rundown of both the current KC extension and possible future projects:
The streetcar remains fare-free for passengers. You simply hop aboard and ride without having to pay for or present a ticket.
The Main Street Extension cost roughly $350 million to construct. Project leaders said they finished under budget and plan to spend about $7 million in leftover project funds on enhancements—like sidewalk improvements, better signage and landscaping—along the extension.
A federal grant approved during President Donald Trump’s first term covered $174 million of the project.
The Main Street Rail Transportation Development District collects a 1% sales tax from retailers along the route.
Property owners within roughly a third of a mile of the route pay a special assessment.
The sales tax and property assessment combine to cover the local portion of construction and the cost of ongoing operations and maintenance.
🎸 Daylight Daylight, by Steve Gunn. One of TLP’s all-time favs, Steve Gunn, is back with seven lovely new guitar tracks assembled with his longtime pal James Elkington, featuring Macie Stewart on violins and viola, Ben Whitely on cello, Nick Macri on upright bass, and Hunter Diamond on woodwinds.
Gunn will be on tour in December and January, and you won’t want to miss this guitar maestro weave his magic in person. We’ll be at the Baltimore show.
This new song, “Morning on K Road,” gives you a nice feel of the new album and revolves around Gunn meeting an old friend early one day in Auckland, NZ.
So sick of reading about people selecting the most expensive schools (with enormous student debt) and selecting the most expensive cities to live in - and then constantly whining about how you're being ripped off. Sit down and ask yourself: How can I realistically make my life better. (Try to do it without counting on someone else's money.)
The Carney piece was well worth the click through, but the things he’s talking about are nothing new. I was hearing many of the same complaints from my 20 something GenX professional peers back in Seattle in the 90s. I distinctly recall a conversation with a coworker who was complaining that we couldn’t afford to live on what they were paying us. My response was something along the lines of.
Dude, you live by yourself in the trendy part of town and buy a latte at the coffee cart every morning. I’m doing ok because I live with 4 roommates in the crappy part of town and only drink the free coffee in the break room.
The fundamental problem is that too many young people start out thinking they will maintain the same cushy upper middle class lifestyle their parents provided them. They have t-bone tastes on a hamburger budget. They fall for charlatans like Mandami because he promises them t-bone quality at hamburger prices.