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What It Takes

by Eric Rauchway

has a nice piece in Slatethe limits on the New Deal showwe can't get it piecemeal

I think the answer is twofold: (a) you have to go venue-shopping, and (b) you have to rely on whatever arguments seem to work, even if they're not reality-based and technocratic. For example, in my own work I discuss how, prior to the New Deal, Americans supported public-health policies at the local level when they thought it was a good reaction to the perceived threat of immigration. But such policies would require a more populist party, and one more savvy about its state and municipal machines, to promote them.