hey, so I don’t write headlines

I’m an eager “author” at The Atlantic, happy to blog whenever I can about the issues that matter most to me. But The Atlantic is a proper publication, which means it exercises editorial control, which always means AT LEAST that they get to pick the title.

I’m 99% of the time fine with that, but sometimes, the title creates an impression different from what I mean. And so it the case with the latest “Why a Democratic Tea Party Is the Best Hope for Fixing Corrupt Government.”

To someone who just read the title, you might think the piece was an argument for a partisan-based movement in favor of reform. And if you have read what I’ve written before, you would be surprised by that (as I work INCREDIBLY HARD to push the idea of a cross-partisan movement for reform). 

But if you read the whole piece, you’ll see that the title gets drawn from this paragraph:

Democrats have a real chance here. While no one doubts that the corruption of this current system is symmetrical — Democrats are just as dependent as Republicans on funding from the tiniest slice of the 1 percent — the reform movement is not symmetrical. The GOP has become the anti-reform party (unless by “reform” you mean increasing the corruption of a system in which the tiniest slice of the 1 percent fund America’s campaigns). Only Democrats are talking about ideas that might actually end that corruption.

It is time for Democrats finally to steal a move from the Republican’s playbook: Boldness inspires. If there’s going to be a Tea Party for Reform, Democrats must start talking about ideas that give people a real reason to get excited.

This isn’t, and wasn’t meant to be, a suggestion that the reform movement should be Democratic. It shouldn’t. The point instead is simply that only the Democrats have begun to take up this corruption — a corruption, again, that afflicts both sides. 

(Original post on Tumblr)