Episode 2235: John Driscoll on why Kamala Harris lost
I did this interview with John Driscoll, co-author of Pay the People! Why Fair Pay is Good for Business and Great for America, earlier this week, assuming that Harris would lose the election. And let’s be clear: she did lose an election that should have been eminently winnable. Driscoll spelt it out clearly in a powerful The Hill article last week about how raising the minimum wage is the key to the White House for Harris. The problem with Harris, and most of the Democratic party, is their failure to offer a coherent and politically sellable economic alternative to Trumpism. John Driscoll and his group of successful business leaders at Patriotic Millionaires offer that alternative. It’s not socialism, but it is an undisguised and unapologetic attempt to recognize the economic predicament of the American working class and to resurrect the American Dream by leveling the playing field. That’s the way to defeat Trumpism. Not by smiling inanely and saying nothing.
John Driscoll chairs the Waystar Corporation and is a senior advisor at Walgreens Boots Alliance. Previously, he was CEO at CareCentrix, president of Castlight, group president at Medco, and SVP at Oxford Health Plans. John also served as a captain in the U.S. Army Reserve and is a longtime board member of the Alliance for Hunger and The Patriotic Millionaires. The co-author, with Morris Pearl, of Pay the People! (The New Press), he lives in Stamford, Connecticut.
Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.
Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
Laura Mason: How the French Revolution and the January 6 American Insurrection Are Bookends in the Struggle for Democracy
Graciela Mochkofsky on The Prophet of the Andes: A Latin American Journey to the Promised Land
Justin Gregg: What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity
Hans Greimel & William Sposato: Is the Carlos Ghosn Story Really a Parable About the Limits of Davos Man and the Globalized Neo-Liberal Order?
Edward Chancellor on the Real Story of Interest: How Low Interest Rates Are Bad For Everyone (Except Central Bankers)
Sean McLain: What Does the Carlos Ghosn Story Tell Us About Contemporary Japan?
Eli Saslow: How Covid Compounded All the Best and Worst Things About the America of the 2020s
Natasha Sizlo: How an LA Real-Estate Agent Went to Paris and Wrote a Memoir of Love, Loss, and Destiny
Mike Rothschild: Is QAnon a Threat to Civilization or Childish Distraction For the Digital Underclass?
Peter Coy: Why Economics Might Not Be the Dismal Science That We Love to Hate
Christopher Kolenda: What Afghan War Veterans Can Teach America About How to Listen Empathically To Our "Enemies"
Richard Vague on Wiping the Financial Slate Clean: The Case For a Debt Jubilee
Dean Schroeder: What Denver and the Danes Can Teach Silicon Valley About Innovating Local Government