The End of the Obama Coalition
About this episode
Michael Lind argues that Barack Obama built a national Democratic machine linking big cities and college towns through campaign finance, nonprofits, foundations, and donor networks, and that this apparatus homogenized progressivism while sidelining organized labor and working-class interests. Klein pushes back: Obama himself restrained the network, the post-Obama party became a 'machine without a boss,' and Biden governed as more captive to coalition groups. They debate whether the donor-nonprofit complex or deeper structural forces drove Democratic losses among non-college voters. Lind's prescription is to curb megadonor and nonprofit influence, restore ideological breadth, staff government with experienced political hands, and elevate leaders answerable to swing voters rather than activist and donor circles.