What Does "Affordability" Mean in Practice?
And why haven't Back of the Newspaper Democrats yet read the memo that the Great Awokening is to be memoryholed?
As I’ve been pointing out since mid-2022, what I call Front of the Newspaper Democrats have begun to realize that their vast national campaign during the Great Awokening to convince Americans who aren’t black or transgender that Democrats, personally, hate you, each and everyone of you, was electorally imprudent.
For the benefit of my younger readers (and only when I was permitted to speak in public again a couple of years ago did I realize I have younger readers), let me explain that a “newspaper” came printed on paper in sections.
The first or front section was devoted to Serious News, such as elections and politics. Later sections were devoted to business, sports, and culture / women’s interests.
So, Front of the Newspaper Democrats include people who have a professional interest in Democrats winning elections, along with the countless pro-Democratic journalists who work in Serious News. Lately, they’ve decided to change the Democrats’ slogan from, in effect, “We hate you, you hateful cisgender straight white male” to “Affordability.”
Granted, nobody is too sure yet what “Affordability” would mean in practice. For example, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, authors of Abundance, want affordability to mean lowering rents by making it more profitable for landlords to build housing. Mayor Mamdani, in contrast, wants affordability to mean lowering rents by making it less profitable for landlords to own housing.
But, at least, “Affordability” sounds more appealing to voters than “We hate you.”
Hence, Front of the Newspaper Democrats have been memoryholing the racial reckoning, sending male rapists to women’s prisons, Me Too, and the Democrats’ other memorable obsessions of the recent past. They just plaintively ask why Republicans insist on engaging in frivolous “culture wars” instead of talking about Affordability?
On the other hand, the many Back of the Newspaper Democrats, such as critics and the institutions they cover, never read the memo about What We Shall Never Speak of Again. The more lavishly funded cultural institutions, such as movies and art museums, have been particularly slow to respond to the winds of change.
For example, it’s now 2026, but …
Paywall here.
