Perry Bacon
perrybaconjr.bsky.social
Perry Bacon
@perrybaconjr.bsky.social
Government and policy writer. Views are my own. [email protected]
"Black women are disproportionately working-class. So if it was really about class, explain to me why Black women understood exactly what he [Trump] was going to do, which is make life harder for working-class people," says Kimberlé Crenshaw. newrepublic.com/article/2036...
November 25, 2025 at 1:33 PM
"My mentor always tells me, 'Kim, dogs don’t bark at parked cars." They’re coming after critical race theory, 1619, intersectionality because these ideas mobilized people. They gave them the language to actually articulate what they were seeing with their own eyes," says Kimberlé Crenshaw.
November 25, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Reposted by Perry Bacon
He has been giving the same answer for months but he's asked about it every interview. These questions aren't being asked to inform the public. They exist to continually suggest to viewers that Mamdani secretly hates Jews.
WELKER: What is your message to Jewish New Yorkers who feel you won't be tough enough in your response to antisemitism?

MAMDANI: That I am looking forward to being the next mayor and fulfilling the commitment I've made to Jewish New Yorkers to not only protect them but to celebrate and cherish them
November 23, 2025 at 4:41 PM
"It’s cultural erasure, a rollback of DEI promises, and loss of platforms where Black and underrepresented voices are heard. The exact places where we created spaces are being dismantled." www.refinery29.com/en-us/black-...
Where Have All The Black Journalists Gone?
In the wake of the Teen Vogue layoffs and the rollback of DEI initiatives in media, we have to ask: what necessary perspectives do we lose, and what questions go unasked and unanswered, when Black jou...
www.refinery29.com
November 21, 2025 at 4:05 PM
"What necessary perspectives do we lose, and what questions go unasked and unanswered, when Black journalists are among the first to be seen as disposable on a masthead?" www.refinery29.com/en-us/black-...
Where Have All The Black Journalists Gone?
In the wake of the Teen Vogue layoffs and the rollback of DEI initiatives in media, we have to ask: what necessary perspectives do we lose, and what questions go unasked and unanswered, when Black jou...
www.refinery29.com
November 21, 2025 at 4:03 PM
"In surveys conducted this year by eight different organizations, all but one showed Democrats with an edge on education. Voters again now tend to trust Democrats on the issue of education," writes @mattbarnum.bsky.social. www.chalkbeat.org/2025/11/18/w...
Which party really has an edge on education?
Voters still tend to trust Democrats more than Republicans, according to most polls.
www.chalkbeat.org
November 21, 2025 at 4:01 PM
"One side is led by fascists. It’s like saying the Civil War, the problem with the Civil War was polarization ...It’s nonsensical. It’s just fascism enabling." www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
I study fascism. I’ve already fled America.
On this week’s “More To The Story,” former Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley explains his recent move to Canada and calls the Trump administration’s takeover of the US government a “coup.”
www.motherjones.com
November 21, 2025 at 3:59 PM
"I knew that Yale would try to normalize the situation, escape being in the press, urge us to see the fascists as just politically different, and talk about polarization, which is just fascism. All the people talking about polarization are just fascism enablers." www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
I study fascism. I’ve already fled America.
On this week’s “More To The Story,” former Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley explains his recent move to Canada and calls the Trump administration’s takeover of the US government a “coup.”
www.motherjones.com
November 21, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Reposted by Perry Bacon
Surveys -- and WelcomePAC WAR -- predicted that Jared Golden was doing the right thing.
But he was not. He lost his district. He lost Dems

bsky.app/profile/prot...
And Golden’s unfavorability numbers are consistent with him pissing off D voters in his district by catering to R’s, and persuading approximately no R voters to vote for him.

It’s all party brand. Embrace being a D and build that brand. That is t OPPOSITE of the Bazelon WelcomePAC quantbrain plan.
November 20, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Reposted by Perry Bacon
Rep. Velazquez invited me up to present at two roundtables in her district earlier this year, to help explain to people what was coming. I got to spend the afternoon with her and she was a delight. She’ll be missed.
Props to Rep. Nydia Velazquez. This is exactly the right approach from a longtime member of Congress in their 70s. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/n...
November 21, 2025 at 12:44 AM
Reposted by Perry Bacon
This is how a true public servant does it, letting the voters decide.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/n...
Nydia Velázquez, a New York Trailblazer in Congress, to Retire Next Year
www.nytimes.com
November 21, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Reposted by Perry Bacon
workers should democratically control the means of production and the halls of political power
"my least woke opinion is---"

That's enough. We've had enough people indulging in the "thrill of a little conservatism", as a treat. Of considering reactionary thought to be a salacious and taboo in a world descending into reactionary mania.

Give me your MOST woke opinions. We're bringing it back.
November 20, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Reposted by Perry Bacon
Democratic politicians swearing to get attention and demonstrate how angry they are has gotten very played out and they should stop doing it.
November 20, 2025 at 5:59 PM
"Anti-corruption politics builds coalitions across the ideological spectrum: progressives, centrists, disaffected conservatives, and most importantly, people who have checked out of politics because they think both parties are corrupt," says @adambonica.bsky.social. newrepublic.com/article/2030...
November 18, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Reposted by Perry Bacon
Democrats should borrow from their 2005–2008 playbook: careful leadership changes, innovative policies, and, yes, a few well-targeted primary challenges. Not the tear-it-all-down craziness of the Tea Party.

There are better models to follow that can still lead to the needed changes. trib.al/HWinFZr
November 18, 2025 at 7:37 PM
The leadership changes, policy innovations and primary challenges from 2005-08 and 2017-2020 are lessons Democrats can borrow from now. newrepublic.com/article/2033...
A Tea Party for the Democrats? Be Careful What You Wish For
In the wake of the Senate eight’s capitulation, some are calling for extreme measures. There are better models to follow that can still lead to the needed big changes.
newrepublic.com
November 18, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Moderation as a strategy, "It's tapped out. There are no gains left to be had. ....I see anti-corruption as this very open lane for realignment," says @adambonica.bsky.social. newrepublic.com/article/2030...
Transcript: Anti-Corruption Politics Are The Way to Crush Trumpism
Stanford political scientist Adam Bonica says trying to be more moderate is a dead end for Democrats and the solution is for the party to be seen as fighting against corruption, oligarchy and other il...
newrepublic.com
November 18, 2025 at 4:10 PM
In polls "corruption shows up higher in terms of people's concerns than even affordability. If you were a party that said, "We see the problem, we have a plan on how to fix it," that would be a really strong message," says @adambonica.bsky.social. newrepublic.com/article/2030...
November 18, 2025 at 4:05 PM
"Corruption is the Achilles' heel of authoritarians," says @adambonica.bsky.social, explaining why opposing corruption (including the legal kind) should be the center of anti-Trump/Democratic politics. So many insights here. newrepublic.com/article/2030...
Transcript: Anti-Corruption Politics Are The Way to Crush Trumpism
Stanford political scientist Adam Bonica says trying to be more moderate is a dead end for Democrats and the solution is for the party to be seen as fighting against corruption, oligarchy and other il...
newrepublic.com
November 18, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Reposted by Perry Bacon
It is the norm.
This piece makes it sound totally normal that the police gets to decide whether or not to "work with" Mamdani as mayor, and it continues, as nearly all the paper's coverage, to wield normative terms like "moderate" and left" in a prejudicial way. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/16/n...
The N.Y.P.D. Prepares for Mayor Mamdani and a New Era in Public Safety
www.nytimes.com
November 16, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Many of his comments this year suggests he consumes a ton of popularist content and very little pointing out the many flaws in that thinking. I assume his peer group is the audience that consumes popularist content, so he would need real intentionality to get other perspectives.
This is a straightforward Republican attack line, what the fuck is he doing
November 15, 2025 at 7:58 PM
I doubt it. But this did make me laugh.
After all the revelations about Epstein and all his various Harvard pals -- Larry Summers, Alan Dershowitz, Elisa New, etc etc. -- alumni are going to stop saying they went to college "outside of Boston" and start lying that they went to Tufts.
November 15, 2025 at 7:54 PM
I know it’s very early. Newsom would not be my first, second choice or third choice. But I wonder if folks here think this is true? (That Gavin is frontrunner.) Clinton led polls in 2013, same for Biden in 2017. So “early polls don’t matter” is not quite right.
www.politico.com/news/magazin...
Admit It. Gavin Newsom Is the 2028 Front-runner.
For years, Democrats and pundits have rolled their eyes at Gavin Newsom. But he’s positioned better than anyone else for the future of politics.
www.politico.com
November 15, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Reposted by Perry Bacon
Get white men to understand they have an identity and have done nothing but talk to us about their identities and how to politically and culturally accommodate their identities for all of history challenge: impossible
This is a straightforward Republican attack line, what the fuck is he doing
November 15, 2025 at 12:53 PM