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"The theory suggests that when upwards of 60 percent of voters consistently agree that rich people should have their taxes raised, a candidate who promises to do so might be identified as what he actually is: middle of the road. That if Democrats give Democratic speeches on economic issues, voters suckered into Republicanism by refrains like Jihad! Jihad! Jihad! just might try something else. And that new voters might be attracted into politics if they could just hear a candidate cut to the radical quick of the actual problems that are ruining their lives. My new Republican friends didn't know they were not "supposed" to like a "liberal" like Bernie Sanders. Then they heard what he was saying, and liked what they heard. How many are there like them? That's what I've been trying to begin to find out."

"There's something admirable about Sanders's reluctance to attribute his political beliefs to autobiography: he doesn't want voters thinking that his commitment to redistributive economics stems from anything other than a deep-seated sense of fairness. He has neither the conventional politician's instinct for sharing relatable details nor the contemporary left's reverence for personal testimony. Still, he's running for President, and so he has reluctantly cracked open the door to his private life, even if his supporters are drawn to him, in part, because of that reluctance."

"political categories shift. One of the things the best politicians do is work to shift them."

"In 2015, I fell in love with the idea of the protest candidate who was not bought by corporations. A man who sat in a Manhattan high-rise he had built, making waves as a straight talker with a business background, full of successes and failures, who wanted America to re"