Podbit · The Bulwark Podcast
The Pew Political Typology Survey shows Democratic Socialists are about 14% of the Democratic Party — but they're the loudest faction. The Tea Party analogy is instructive: a noisy minority can reshape a party's platform without winning the nomination.
Where this was said
At 32:45 · chapter starts 30:30
The conversation pivots to 2028 after a pleasant detour through the Iowa Straw Poll (both hosts are wrong about who won — Michele Bachmann, not Romney, not Santorum). Dickerson opens the Democratic field discussion by citing the Pew Political Typology Survey: Democratic Socialists are roughly 14% of the coalition, but they are the loudest end of the room right now. The Tea Party parallel is instructive: it sent 70 new members to Congress, a far larger structural presence than today's DSA, and yet Mitt Romney still won the 2012 nomination — after winning CPAC and adopting Tea Party positions like self-deportation that he wouldn't have touched otherwise. The DSA doesn't need a nominee to shape the debate; they need the nominee to pander convincingly enough that the progressives come along. The challenge, Dickerson warns, is that being 'handled' — managed rather than genuinely engaged — infuriates the progressive base and creates an opening for a candidate who will run explicitly as their champion. [1] — John Dickerson "The Pew Political Typology Survey shows Democratic Socialists are about 14% of the Democratic Party — but they're the loudest faction. The …" 32:45
According to the Pew Political Typology Survey, Democratic Socialists make up about 14% of the Democratic Party coalition but are the loudest faction.
The Tea Party wave sent approximately 70 new members to Congress, a far larger footprint than Democratic Socialists have today inside the Democratic Party.
Fei-Fei Li went back to Stanford from Google in 2018 specifically to build a multi-stakeholder governance framework for AI. Her argument: market forces are not societal norms. Just as biology uses IRBs and cars have safety laws, AI needs layered oversight from educators, governments, and the public — not just a few industry titans.
Andrew Santino's personal MCU of political villains is collapsing. He and Bobby speculated that a circulating photo of Mitch McConnell with a Chinese official was AI-generated compositing two separate images.
Mass surveillance is here to stay. The real battle isn't stopping cameras — it's ensuring judges and laws keep that data out of family court and civil disputes, admitting it only for violent crimes and national security. The surveillance economy currently yields more upside than downside, but only if we build the legal guardrails now.
When people cite Scandinavia as proof socialism works, Galloway says they've got it backwards. Northern Europe runs highly competitive free-market economies with more competition in many sectors than the US — they just make sure taxes are actually paid and redistributed. Billionaires and universal healthcare can coexist.
Two percent adjustments to income tax and stamp duty tweaks are deck-chair rearrangements. The UK's competitiveness hinges on four structural levers: currency valuation, energy costs, regulatory burden, and tax rates. Devalue the pound, build 56 nuclear plants, slash red tape, introduce a flat tax — and the country transforms.
Lisbon had one of Europe's worst heroin crises. Then Portugal legalised drugs and redirected all enforcement money into rehabilitation and housing. Crime collapsed. Addiction fell. Then politics moved the money elsewhere, and the problem started creeping back. Chesterton's Fence: you forget why you were spending that money.
Congress passed the Boland Amendment 411 to 0, explicitly banning CIA and Defense Department funds for the Contras. Reagan signed it — then immediately moved the operation deeper underground, essentially responding to a bipartisan prohibition by going more illegal.
The CIA planted mines in Nicaraguan commercial harbors, wrote the Contras' press releases taking credit, and promptly blew up ships from four allied nations. The Wall Street Journal broke the story, Congress erupted, and the Boland Amendments multiplied.
Oliver North was a decorated Marine and devout Catholic with zero covert operations experience. He ran the entire shadow war against Congress — planes, airstrips, arms shipments, shell companies — learning on the job. And by every operational measure, he crushed it.
We use essential and analytics cookies to run Vuci. To understand how the site is used: Privacy Policy.
Install Vuci on your phone
Add it to your home screen for a faster, app-like experience.
Install Vuci on your phone
Tap the Share button, then “Add to Home Screen”.
A new version is available
Reload to get the latest Vuci.