Ezra Klein is tearing his hair out. He thinks the left needs to be willing to engage with millions of Americans who don’t share their values and visions of a just America, but he doesn’t want to compromise those values, either. Can those ideas be reconciled?
History shows that successful missionary work is based on three principles. First of all, do everything you can to maximize points of agreement before you try to push on the points of dispute. Second, focus your attention on the individuals who can make the biggest difference; in the Dark Ages, that meant kings, but today, it probably means pundits and influencers. Finally, if you have some sort of technology or magic trick you can use to show the superiority of your ideology, display it as quickly as possible. In today’s world, that probably translates to economic successes on the left and failures on the right.