The Realignment: Hard Lessons for This Populist Moment
Austin Ahlman & Ben Winsor join Marshall Kosloff for a frank but friendly discussion about the political economy of populism and abundance.
In a political landscape defined by anti-status-quo sentiment, DC centrism is no viable. This week, OMI’s Austin Ahlman and Ben Winsor joined Marshall Kosloff on The Realignment to dismantle the conventional wisdom that has paralyzed Democratic strategy.
Breaking down their recent analysis, Ahlman and Winsor argue that true economic populism isn’t just a rhetorical aesthetic—it is a structural necessity for survival.
Key Takeaways:
The “DC Centrist” Trap: Why retreating to the middle fails when voters are demanding a radical break from the status quo.
Beyond the “Abundance Agenda”: Why supply-side liberalism and “a liberalism that builds” will fail if they ignore the corporate bottlenecks and monopolies that control the market—especially in context of the looming AI revolution.
The Limits of Polling: A critique of governing by public opinion polls rather than shaping public opinion through bold leadership that draws direct lessons from FDR’s campaigns.
Operationalizing Populism: Moving beyond vague grievances to concrete policy battles that confront corporate power head-on.
Why it Matters: As the parties undergo a historic realignment, the tools of the last twenty years—technocratic fixes and message-testing—are obsolete. This conversation offers a roadmap for how to wield political power to break market power.
Listen to the full episode here.