Episode 94 Audio: Luke Savage

After years of a pandemic, layoffs, the beginning of a recession, and so many other hardships for working people, why should we be reassured by centrism? What makes this political vision attractive at all, and why do we still have to contend with it? We’ve seen how Biden has scaled down or outright abandoned the central campaign promises that made his candidacy bare-minimum palatable to many leftists. We’re turning to the work of Jacobin writer Luke Savage (especially in his new book, The Dead Center) to understand the legacy of centrism, hoping to get a sense of where it’s headed — and how much longer it’ll be around.

Luke’s book focuses on twenty-first century liberalism, touching on everything from media (The West Wing) to the politics of the Obama years, explaining how we’re left with an undead center in mainstream politics — a politics that’s deeply disconnected from the struggles that everyday people experience, yet continues to go on shaping our day-to-day lives through its entrenchment in our political establishment. We highly recommend listening to this conversation — and checking out Luke’s book — if you find yourself wondering how the lethargic politics that brought Biden back into power and have carried Democrats through various recent elections just keep hanging on by a thread.

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