A Crisis of Social Connection

My piece, first published in The New York Times on Friday, argues that the Democrats’ crisis with young voters is also a crisis of social connection. Decades of social isolation and privatization, combined with Democratic Party strategy built around ads, emails, and election-season mobilization has displaced the participatory social life that once made politics communal. Drawing on Milwaukee’s sewer socialists, NYC-DSA, and Zohran Mamdani’s rise, I argue that rebuilding political power requires rebuilding collective life itself. 

That means more than better messaging. It means creating spaces where people actually enjoy things together—sports leagues, potlucks, block parties, organizing, and other forms of face-to-face association—while also confronting the corporate power that has made everyday life more isolated and less fun. Politics can become a source of belonging again, but only if it combines community with material fights over who gets access to the good life.

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