Ezra Klein was someone I read on a regular basis during Trump 1.0. He was one of the first pundits to point out that the Supreme Court is not just undemocratic, but anti-democratic. He was an open advocate for abolishing the filibuster, stating it was the only way to overcome the destructive politics of Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin.
These were pieces he wrote while he was still at the media outlet he co-founded, Vox. I’m a long-time reader of Vox, at least until they started to put their stuff behind paywalls, because I found their explainer form of journalism to be helpful in learning about issues. Then Klein left for the New York Times, and he transformed into just another maddeningly out-of-touch Times opinion writer.
He began offering kind of bizarre takes on obvious stuff like how terrible Trump is, such as this example from late in last year’s election cycle. Hard to put my finger on it, but there’s this strange “I am very smart, so I am the only person who sees the deep truth that disproves the obvious truth that Trump is fucking crazy” vibe to it.
I think he’s reached a bit of a nadir, so far, with two opinions he slung out to the Great American Discourse. One is his absolutely insane and disingenuous defense of Charlie Kirk after Kirk’s murder, with the now-infamous headline “Charlie Kirk Was Doing Politics the Right Way.” I won’t link to it, because I found it maddening and offensive.
As Ta-Nehisi Coates pointed out in an excellent response to the piece in Vanity Fair, Klein didn’t even use an example of a Kirk quote to make his case.
The second ridiculous opinion that Klein dropped on us recently was his claim that if the Democrats want to defeat authoritarianism, they must run pro-life candidates in red states. This was quickly filleted by smart folks on social media.
I genuinely cannot believe that Ezra Klein said we should run pro-life candidates in Kansas, Ohio, and Missouri; three states that recently held abortion referendums where the pro-choice side won!
Just a passing reference to polling, but Klein wrote this nonsense as if the polls on abortion were the opposite. Democrats should not be anti-abortion. Biden stated clearly he’d codify Roe, and this is not the way to do it. Being anti-abortion and pro-women are not compatible, just like being anti-abortion and a Democrat are not compatible. And if the argument is winning elections, the numbers don’t back that up.
Sure, throw women’s health under the bus. How would we codify Roe with pro-lifers in Congress? It’s not necessary to do this. We can win without it.
People like Ezra Klein don’t write for the public; they write to try to browbeat people in power to do what they want. This constant demand to give up baseline principles is tiresome. Where’s the guarantee this would end up being a net gain? Again, the public tends to be pro-abortion.
And people who think he has a good point (like Democratic strategist Neera Tanden), this scenario is for you:
* Time machine set to June 25, 2022 (look up what happened the day before) *
“Hi, I’ve from September 20, 2025. Trump is president again and it’s worse than you think; it’s really bad. What if I told you that as part of combating Trump, in my time Dems are talking about having MORE pro-life Democrats and you’re all for it.”
“WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU! HOW DARE YOU INSINUATE I WOULD THINK THAT!!!!”
“ok…”
We can all do better than Ezra as far as influential opinion-havers. The last word goes to who else?