Kevin Kulinsky
 | |
| Era | Tweeter Is Not Real Life (cast) |
|---|---|
| Age | 30-40 |
| Home | New York, NY |
| Demographic | progressive podcaster, white |
| Lean | Strong Democrat |
| Race | white |
He is a daily political podcaster in New York who covers the news from the left of the Democratic Party. He reserves his sharpest criticism for the party's centrists, and he speaks for the Sanders wing of the party rather than for its activists.
Who they stand for
He stands for the Sanders primary voter. This is an urban, college-educated, secular Democrat under forty-five who gave Bernie Sanders thirteen million votes in the 2016 primary and backed him again in 2020, until the party consolidated behind Joe Biden after the South Carolina primary. This bloc wants Medicare for All, a fifteen-dollar minimum wage, and an end to American wars, and it holds the Democratic Party's donor class responsible for delivering none of these. It votes for the Democratic Party in November, reluctantly but reliably, so the party does not need to work hard to keep it. The 2010s and 2020s taught this bloc that the Build Back Better agenda could be cut in half by two senators, and that a nominee it opposed could still win the presidency. Hasan Radical's audience is moved mainly by foreign policy and identity politics, while Kevin's audience is moved mainly by specific legislation, such as a health-care vote, a drug-price rule, or a war-powers resolution.
Playing to them
He responds to economic populism attached to specific legislation, such as drug-price negotiation, a public health-insurance option, a higher minimum wage, a fight with the insurance industry or the banks, or a vote against a new war. He also wants secular government, and says so openly, which sets him apart from the religious left as much as from the right. He does not forgive a president who cuts Social Security, launches a war of choice, or fills the Treasury with veterans of Wall Street, and a Democrat who does any of these loses his support faster than a Republican would.
Winning his support tends to cost the support of Ben Shindler and Mencius Moldrake, on economics, and of Matt Scots, on religion. It also costs Barbara Wise, who disagrees with his general political direction. It tends to bring in Hasan Radical, Viltch, Cenk Ulusoy, Anna Kasparova and Crystal Ball, and on trade and the drug companies it can also quietly win some approval from Tucker Carlington.