It’s Wednesday, August 5. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: How did Cambridge fabulist Jason Arday get away with it? Tyler Cowen on why nothing can stop the AI juggernaut. Arthur Brooks on whether socialism is a fad. And much more.
But first: A crossroads for the Democratic Party.
Ahead of Election Day, the polls suggested that the closely watched Democratic Senate primary in Michigan would be a clear win for Abdul El-Sayed—and the ascendant left wing of the party—over moderate Rep. Haley Stevens. Last night didn’t turn out that way. As of early this morning, Michigan was still counting votes, and the race was too close to call. (At 5.30 a.m. ET, with 95 per cent of the votes counted, El-Sayed had 48.6 per cent and Stevens had 47.4 per cent.)
The tight Senate race chimed with the broader story, with the Democratic Party’s dueling factions fighting themselves to a draw. In St. Louis, the establishment won: Rep. Wesley Bell crushed former Rep. Cori Bush’s comeback bid. In Michigan’s House races, the progressives made gains. One notable example: Will Lawrence, the co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, who was backed by Bernie Sanders, won in Lansing.
The results, in other words, show a Democratic Party split down the middle—between progressives and moderates, between the Democratic donor class and the socialist influencer group chats, between the Blue Dogs and the Mamdani acolytes.
As the Democratic Party figures out a way forward, our political editor Mene Ukueberuwa says the party isn’t paying nearly enough attention to the candidates who could actually deliver a durable majority. Read his column on the pragmatic Democrats hiding in plain sight, and what Democrats nationwide can learn from two Senate races—one in the booming Sun Belt, one in the stagnant Rust Belt—that say more about the party’s potential future than any of the far-left spectacles getting the headlines.
Longtime readers will remember Evan Barker’s explosive 2024 essay in The Free Press, “I Raised $50 Million for the Democrats. This Week, I Voted for Trump.” Her new book, Nothing Left: Confessions of a Democratic Operative, was published last week—but here’s the thing you probably didn’t know about Evan: She used to work for El-Sayed. Whatever Michigan decides, she’s seen exactly how the party got here. Today, she sits down with Lucy Biggers for a tell-all—about her former boss, and how progressives like him captured the Democratic Party from the inside.
—The Editors
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Who Had to Lose for Jason Arday to Win? |
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Jason Arday made history as the youngest black full professor at Cambridge University. He has a remarkable life story—or what, until recently, seemed like one. He is autistic and could not speak until the age of 11. He learned to read and write only at 18. He once ran 30 marathons in 35 days. But last week, it all came crashing down—his résumé, his published research, the ruses he pulled off to get to the top of his profession. How did Arday get away with it for so long? The answer has little to do with Arday himself, writes Yuan Yi Zhu, and everything to do with the ivory tower insiders who enabled his ascent—and the deserving researcher whose career was cut short because a serial fabulist got the job they deserved. | |
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Arthur Brooks: Will Socialism Make You Happy? |
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Is democratic socialism the future of America, or just the latest fad? Arthur Brooks makes the case for the latter. Nearly two-thirds of Americans under 30 now hold a favorable view of socialism, and DSA-backed candidates are winning primaries across the country. But Arthur argues America has always been a nation of political fashions mistaken for permanent truths. Read his recent column on why this one will pass, and what to do in the meantime. | |
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Tyler Cowen: Nothing Can Stop the AI Revolution |
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Tech stocks have been volatile lately. Just ask Leopold Aschenbrenner, whose AI-focused hedge fund lost $35 billion in just a few weeks last month. It’s the latest incident to trigger fears that the AI bubble is about to burst. We asked our favorite economist, Free Press columnist Tyler Cowen, what he thought. His verdict? Firms may rise and fall, but nothing will stop the AI juggernaut. | |
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