The Free Press
It’s Monday, March 24. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Coming up: Pope Francis finally leaves the hospital. A liberal influencer is canceled for Snapchatting outside of wedlock. The World Happiness Report is a sham. And more.
But first: What do the Democrats do next?
“Look, I’m not stepping down,” Chuck Schumer told Meet the Press yesterday. Over the past few weeks, the Senate minority leader has faced massive blowback from party activists over his support for a Republican-led funding bill that helped avoid a government shutdown earlier this month. He even had to postpone his book tour. As the moderate Schumer flounders, his party’s left wing is gaining momentum—or at least an audience. Last week, Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took Bernie’s “Fighting Oligarchy” tour out west, attracting impressive crowds, including 15,000 in Phoenix and 34,000 in Denver.
To put it bluntly, the Democrats are at rock bottom—and at a crossroads. A recent CNN/SSRS poll found that only 29 percent of Americans think favorably of the party, although Republicans—with a favorability rating of 36 percent—aren’t much better off.
But with no power in the White House, House, or Senate, what’s a Dem to do? Should they turn left and #Resist Trump, like Bernie and AOC? Or pivot to the center?
Since their clobbering in November, we’ve asked a host of Democrats why their party lost. Rep. Ro Khanna, Governor Josh Shapiro, and Senator Elissa Slotkin all agreed that their team had gone too far left and alienated core constituencies. But now, Congresswoman Delia Ramirez, a Democrat from Chicago, tells Free Press senior editor Peter Savodnik that the Democrats failed to beat Donald Trump last November because they didn’t go far left enough.
“When the Democratic Party is the party of the establishment, when it’s the party that’s okay with the status quo, when the Democratic Party just pats itself on the back for minimal, dismal policy progress, then how different are we—how relatable are we?” Ramirez told Peter. “If we hadn’t failed voters, Donald Trump, a fascist, would not be the United States president.”
Read Peter’s full interview with Congresswoman Ramirez: “Delia Ramirez Wants to Lead the New Resistance.”
Liberal journalists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson say there’s another way forward for the Dems. They lay out a more moderate, techno-optimist vision for the party in their new book, Abundance. The idea is that innovations like AI can create a prosperous future for all Americans, but regulations—often promoted by liberals—prevent them from being realized.
In a new episode of Honestly, Ezra and Derek insist the liberal left can dream big and improve housing, energy, transportation, and healthcare, if only they get out of their own way. They don’t want the government to be smaller; they just want it to be better. Read a transcript of Bari’s interview with them both, or listen to the episode below. (And follow Honestly on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.)
Meanwhile, Ruy Teixeira—co-author of Where Have All the Democrats Gone?—has listened to their ideas and has a simple reply: I told you so.
“Not to be that guy, but I was for an ‘abundance agenda’ before it was cool,” he writes in his latest column for The Free Press. In 2022, he wrote a three-point plan to fix the Democrats, but no one seems to have listened. Now, he’s welcoming latecomers to Team Abundance, although he’s worried the Dems won’t easily wear the mantle of the movement.
Find out why in Ruy’s piece: “ ‘Abundance’ Is a Winning Message. But Can Democrats Embrace It?”
Alan Dershowitz on Mahmoud Khalil
On Friday, detained student activist Mahmoud Khalil, who had his green card revoked after leading anti-Israel protests at Columbia University last year, appeared at a hearing. His lawyers are fighting in multiple courts to have him released. His case has attracted the attention of free speech advocates across the political spectrum, including famed defense attorney Alan Dershowitz.
In a new column for The Free Press, Dershowitz argues that however morally condemnable he may find Khalil’s behavior, the Algerian citizen still deserves free speech rights and shouldn’t be deported—unless he lied on his visa application.
Read: “Alan Dershowitz: Mahmoud Khalil Deserves Speech Rights, Not Sympathy.”
It’s a Gay Guy’s World, Harry Sisson Is Just Living in It
Last week, nearly a dozen women emerged online to condemn and cancel a 23-year-old Democrat influencer named Harry Sisson. His crime? Snapchatting multiple women at the same time.
In my latest column for The Free Press, I discuss the horror of the “situationship”—a type of ambiguous and noncommittal relationship that’s taken over the Gen Z dating scene—and argue what straight girls in the digital age can, and unfortunately must, learn from gay men.
Read “The Perils of the Situationship.”
Actually, Scandinavians Aren’t That Happy
For decades, the annual World Happiness Report has consistently ranked Scandinavian countries at the top of their Happiest Country list. Yascha Mounk, who has family in Sweden and Denmark and has spent significant time in the region, was suspicious. So he looked into the annual study’s methodology. What he found was a “sham,” and one that media outlets, NGOs, and the UN have been reporting on uncritically for decades. (His findings will come as no surprise to anyone who knows about the Swedish custom of not feeding young people who visit their homes.)
Read Yascha’s piece, “The World Happiness Report Is a Sham.”
Venezuela agreed to resume accepting deportation flights from the U.S. yesterday. President Nicolás Maduro suspended the flights in early March, after the U.S. Treasury Department barred Chevron from exporting oil from the country. Since Trump took office, only three deportation flights to Venezuela have landed. Zero occurred during the Biden administration.
Yesterday, Pope Francis made his first public appearance since his hospitalization in mid-February. He appeared on the balcony of a Rome hospital to greet well-wishers before returning to the Vatican guesthouse where he lives. Doctors said Saturday that the pope needs to rest for another two months to avoid further respiratory infections and make a full recovery.
On Sunday, Canadian prime minister Mark Carney officially announced a widely anticipated federal election, asking voters for a “positive mandate to deal with President Trump,” referring to the ongoing trade war with the United States. The election, to be held April 28, sees Carney facing off against his main rival, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre. In case you missed it, check out Rupa Subramanya’s piece on the Canadians ready to go to war with the U.S.
The IRS is reportedly nearing a deal to share data with the Department of Homeland Security that could help ICE find illegal immigrants, many of whom file tax returns that disclose their addresses and employers. Two immigrant rights groups sued the Treasury Department and the IRS earlier this month, asking a judge to block the agency from sharing taxpayers’ information with ICE or DHS. They claim federal law “forbids” such information sharing.
Yesterday, a Turkish court formally charged the “highly popular” mayor of Istanbul with corruption and jailed him amid an opposition crackdown by the NATO ally’s authoritarian President Recep Erdoğan. Ekrem İmamoğlu, considered Erdoğan’s most serious political rival, was arrested at his home on Wednesday, leading to massive demonstrations around the country. More than 300 protesters were arrested over the weekend. İmamoğlu’s Republican People’s Party has described the charges as a “coup attempt.”
A new CNN report says the Trump administration is seeking corporate sponsors for this year’s annual Easter Egg Roll, with the promise of logo and branding opportunities starting at $75,000 and ranging to $200,000. Some ethics experts are reportedly displeased, but frankly, I’m not scandalized by the idea of a Secret Service–flanked Easter Bunny forced to read a Blue Apron ad in front of the White House. It’s 2025. That’s pure America—whether you like it or not!
Does anyone know why the comments section was turned off on Yascha Mounk's "The World's Happiness Report is a Sham" column that TFP published on Monday? I had a comment I wanted to make but by the time I got to it on Monday afternoon, the comments were shut down and that's the first time I've seen TFP do that on an article. I guess, just for the record, my comments are that the Cantril Ladder question they asked was what was based on the "best POSSIBLE life for you" vs the "worst POSSIBLE life for you" - and if you live in Finland, a Socialist country, like much of Northern Europe, your possibilities are pretty limited, so their citizens resign themselves to their place on the ladder. They are not an aspirational or dynamic society like America. I was curious about this last year when the results were released and, like this year, it was topped by small, Socialist, cold-weather countries so I read the report and in it the Scandinavian respondents seemed somewhat bewildered by being considered "the happiest people in the world" and said that really, it's just that they're not very unhappy rather than being overtly happy. Also, my next door neighbor for the last 30 years was born and raised in Finland, however she doesn't really like to go back to Finland to see her family because the Finnish people are so dour and unfriendly compared to Americans (she's been an American citizen for about 45 years). And she's a loyal Democrat!
I definitely think more arson will help the Democrats demonstrate their true convictions and give people something to vote for. Hating Trump isn't much of a platform unless you REALLY hate Trump and are willing to do something about it. We want the BURN MORE TESLAS tour. Forget the oligarchs! People with car payments are much more vulnerable and easy to terrorize. If they get really scared they'll learn to HATE TRUMP too and we sweep the 2026 elections.