So, this is the second year of having both a blog and a Medium account. For any reader not in the know, you can check out the Medium page here.

But this 2024 review is all about the blog! Here’s a quick snapshot of how things have gone in 2024. I hope you enjoy and keep reading!

Most Viewed Posts

Each year, I like to take a look at the most popular posts. I know I say this every time, but the blog has a good base of posts from the early 2020s that still get regular views. If I made a list of the most popular posts of all time, a couple of them would come from 2018, and a few others would come from 2021 or 2022.

But let’s look at just this year. Here’s what you’ve been reading the most from the 2024 posts:

1. Purity Politics and the 2024 Election
2. Progressive ‘Organizing’ vs. Leftist Organizing
3. How Mandi Remington Won

At first glance, that’s an eclectic collection. The first post concerns the 2024 U.S. presidential election, while the second takes a look at political organizing at a more grassroots level. The third, by contrast, is a hyper-local post about a primary in my own county.

Digging a bit deeper, though, I think we can find similarities. The ‘purity politics’ post argues for the claim that it’s centrist and moderate Democratic voters who practice purity politics, not leftists or progressives. The second post – the one on organizing – provides us with some of the basis for that. Moderate and progressive Democrats share in a shallow kind of ‘organizing’ that involves calling on the usual suspects and asking them to vote or support a campaign. With that as a mindset, it becomes difficult to even imagine a deeper base out there that might be willing to join and fight for a better political world.

And, finally, there’s the hyper-local post, which puts some of these points together. Remington was a county supervisor candidate who, to at least some degree, practiced a deeper form of electoral organizing. At the very least, she activated a wider range of community and non-profit groups than candidates usually activate.

Question for readers: what was your favorite post this year?

2025 Preview

Let’s take a quick look at what’s coming in the new year.

Obviously readers know that Donald Trump will take office in a few weeks. No doubt that will generate some new topics for us. For one, I plan to do a more thorough analysis of Trump’s voter coalition. Mostly I want to see the degree to which it has changed since 2016 and 2020. Some readers no doubt remember that I look a close look at the last two election cycles and found Trump’s coalition to be far less ‘working class’ than people claim.

Does that hold up for 2024?

Beyond that, I’ve been thinking a lot in the last couple of weeks about leftist media and organizing. I might have a few things to say on those topics.

What would you like to see on the blog in 2025?