Obviously, AI is, I think, going to be the defining political issue of the midterms and for sure the next presidential election, but I feel like what is going on with the DSA is really a fusion of two things. The voting base of the DSA are relatively wealthy white liberals who are downwardly mobile. They're losing votes with working-class people. They're losing votes with poor people. They're losing votes with black Americans. They're losing votes with Hispanic Americans. The people that the Democratic Party I think for a long time tried β and whether they failed or succeeded β tried to represent and give a voice to, they are not of interest to the DSA.
There's a whole class of people who went to an elite school. They grew up in really nice circumstances and instead of going into industry, they went into this kind of giant NGO nonprofit machine β and their outcomes have been very different from people who did productive things for the world.
And I just think there's a whole class of people who went to an elite school. They grew up in really nice circumstances and instead of going into industry, they went into this kind of giant NGO nonprofit machine and their outcomes have been very different from people who did productive things for the world. You know, I've said on this show many times, Elon has done more to decarbonize the planet than every activist combined.
>> Yeah, times 10, by the way.
>> Times 10.
These NGOs and the fact that the government is increasingly outsourcing a lot of funding to them is a really big part of this problem. You can give $600,000-a-year jobs in an NGO that does nothing productive to your friends and allies. It's really organized corruption happening at a massive scale.
And I think these NGOs and the fact that the government is increasingly outsourcing a lot of funding to them is a really big part of this problem. And then you can give jobs β $600,000 a year jobs running an NGO that does nothing productive β to your friends and allies. And it's really organized corruption happening at a massive scale.
And I hope that the mainstream Democrats can find a compelling candidate, because I think the reason that the DSA is increasingly ascendant is not because of their ideas. I think their ideas appeal to this very narrow subset of downwardly mobile rich white people who increasingly maybe live in quasi-genteel poverty because they're not doing productive things. They may be well-intentioned but they're not doing productive things.
The reason they're ascendant is Zoran Mandani. I think he is one of the most talented politicians I've ever seen in my lifetime. He is a singularly talented politician and he is the reason that the DSA is ascendant β not their ideas, not dissatisfaction with AI.
(They need to) find a compelling candidate because I think the reason they're ascendant is Zoran Mandani. I think he is one of the most talented politicians I've ever seen in my lifetime. But I think he is a singularly talented politician and he is the reason that the DSA is ascendant β not their ideas or not dissatisfaction with AI, but it's...