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
How To Fix Democracy: Samuel Issacharoff searches for glimmers of hope to strengthen democracies around the world
Retelling the stories of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley: Stephanie Marie Thornton imagines the lost words between the iconic 18th century feminist and her equally visionary 19th century daughter
American Humility and Hubris in Kabul: Jeffrey E. Stern on a many layered story of brotherhood and terror in the Afghanistan war
A Gutenberg Moment in the History of Medicine: Dr Robert Pearl offers 5 ways that generative AI is about to revolutionize healthcare
Digital McCarthyism: Keith Teare on the chilling anti=Chinese and anti-Communist hysteria in Washington DC against TikTok
How to Incentivize People to Change their Behavior: Uri Gneezy reveals how incentives really work
The Power of Hope: Carol Graham on how the science of well-being an save us from despair
Ancient Stories about the Future: Sabrina Orah Mark on telling fairy tales designed to wake us up
Trump as the Road Runner: Kevin O'Brien, former Assistant US Attorney to the DOJ, on hush money, Stormy Daniels and the latest farcical chapter of the Donald Trump Show
How Data Happens: Chris Wiggins on a history of data from the Age of Reason to the Age of Algorithms
When All Else Failed: Dana Sachs on the volunteers at the heart of the worst human displacement crisis in Europe since WW2
Our Brains on Art and Music: Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross on how the arts improve both individual and communal health
The New American Abnormal: Kerry Howley questions the seduction of a singular "truth" in the "Deep State" America of violent rumor, paranoia and perpetual surveillance