Matt Bruenig | |
|---|---|
| Born | Matthew Bruenig November 22, 1988 |
| Education | University of Oklahoma (BA) Boston University (JD) |
| Occupations |
|
| Employer | People's Policy Project |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | mattbruenig |
Matthew Bruenig [1] (born November 22, 1988) [2] [3] is an American lawyer, blogger, policy analyst, commentator, [4] and founder of the left-leaning think tank People's Policy Project. He was a blogger for the American think tank Demos covering politics and public policy [5] and has written on issues including income distribution, taxation, welfare, elections, the Nordic model, and funds socialism. [6] [7] [8] [9]
Bruenig's writing has appeared in a range of publications including The New York Times , [10] Current Affairs , [11] Jacobin , [12] The Atlantic , [13] Dissent , [14] and The Washington Post . [15] He has been a featured guest of the politics and humor podcast Chapo Trap House , and appeared on other progressive platforms like the NoFilter of The Young Turks and The Michael Brooks Show .[ citation needed ]
In 2016, Bruenig was fired from his part-time job blogging for Demos after he posted a series of what Gawker called "rude tweets" targeting first Joan Walsh and later Center for American Progress president Neera Tanden. [16] [17] Demos stated he was let go due to a pattern of "online harassment of people with whom he disagrees"; [18] some journalists nevertheless speculated there may have been outside pressure on behalf of Tanden. [19] [20] [21]
In 2017, Bruenig founded the People's Policy Project, a left-wing think tank which raises money through crowdfunding. The think tank analyzes politics and produces market socialist [ citation needed ] policy proposals tailored to the United States context. [22] [23]
In 2020, Bloomberg News reported that Bruenig with his wife were producing a podcast that generated about $9,000 per month from listeners. [24]
Bruenig is married to Elizabeth Bruenig, [25] Staff Writer for The Atlantic , [26] formerly an opinion writer and editor at The Washington Post [27] and The New York Times . [28] They have two children. [29]
Bruenig has stated that he was diagnosed as autistic in adulthood. [30]
Bruenig describes his brand of socialism as follows: [31]
Socialism is the idea that capital (the means of production) should be owned collectively. There are divergent ideas about how to achieve this in reality. One approach is to have the government hold it collectively in social wealth funds. This is (more or less) the socialism of Yanis Varoufakis, Rudolf Meidner, and John E. Roemer. It is also my brand of socialism, at least for the time.
Bruenig is an advocate of single-payer healthcare, [32] and has argued extensively in favor of its feasibility. [33]
The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a public policy research and advocacy organization which presents a liberal viewpoint on economic and social issues. It has its headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Tribune is a democratic socialist political magazine founded in 1937 and published in London, initially as a newspaper, then converting to a magazine in 2001. While it is independent, it has usually supported the Labour Party from the left. Previous editors at the magazine have included Aneurin Bevan, the Minister of Health who spearheaded the establishment of the National Health Service, former Labour leader Michael Foot, and writer George Orwell, who served as Literary Editor.
Matthew Yglesias is an American blogger and journalist who writes about economics and politics. Yglesias has written columns and articles for publications such as The American Prospect, The Atlantic, and Slate. In November 2020, he left his position as an editor and columnist at the news website Vox, which he co-founded in 2014, to publish the Substack newsletter Slow Boring. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Niskanen Center.
Ezra Klein is an American progressive journalist, political analyst, New York Times columnist, and the host of The Ezra Klein Show podcast. He is a co-founder of Vox and formerly served as the website's editor-at-large. He has held editorial positions at The Washington Post and The American Prospect, and was a regular contributor to Bloomberg News and MSNBC. His first book, Why We're Polarized, was published by Simon & Schuster in January 2020.
Demos is a liberal think tank based in the United States. Founded in 2000, Demos' stated mission is to "power the movement for a just, inclusive, multiracial democracy." The organization's president is Taifa Smith Butler, formerly of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.
Megan McArdle is an American journalist, columnist, and blogger based in Washington, D.C. She writes for The Washington Post, mostly about economics, finance, and government policy.
Krystal Marie Ball is an American political commentator and media host. She was previously a political candidate, as well as a television host at MSNBC, a regular contributor to The Huffington Post and a co-host of The Hill's Rising along with Saagar Enjeti. In May 2021, Ball and Enjeti announced that they were leaving the show in order to release their own independent project titled Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar. Ball is a co-host with her husband Kyle Kulinski on the podcast Krystal Kyle & Friends. She has made guest appearances on networks such as CNN, CNBC, Fox News and programs including Real Time with Bill Maher.
Third Way is a Washington, D.C.–based public policy think tank founded in 2005. It develops and advocates for policies that it claims represent "modern center-left ideas".
Neera Tanden is an American political consultant and government official who has been a senior advisor and staff secretary to President Joe Biden since 2021. Tanden previously served as president of the Center for American Progress (CAP), a center-left policy research and advocacy organization, where she worked in different capacities since its founding in 2003.
Jennifer Rubin is an American political commentator who writes opinion columns for The Washington Post. Previously she worked at Commentary, PJ Media, Human Events, and The Weekly Standard. Her work has been published in media outlets including Politico, New York Post, New York Daily News, National Review, and The Jerusalem Post.
Jacobin is an American political magazine based in New York. It offers socialist perspectives on politics, economics and culture. As of 2023, the magazine reported a paid print circulation of 75,000 and over 3 million monthly visitors.
Vox is a liberal American news and opinion website owned by Vox Media. The website was founded in April 2014 by Ezra Klein, Matt Yglesias, and Melissa Bell, and is noted for its concept of explanatory journalism. Vox's media presence also includes a YouTube channel, several podcasts, and a show presented on Netflix. Vox has been described as left-leaning and progressive.
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist, policy expert, and conservation strategist. She is the founder and president of Ocean Collectiv, a consulting firm that helps find ocean "conservation solutions grounded in social justice", and the founder of Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank for climate change and ocean conservation policy in coastal cities.
Heather Charisse McGhee is a New York Times bestselling author and policy advocate. She is a former president and currently a trustee emeritus of Demos, a non-profit progressive U.S. think tank. McGhee is a regular contributor to NBC News and frequently appears as a guest and panelist on Meet the Press, All In with Chris Hayes, and Real Time with Bill Maher.
Elizabeth Bruenig is an American journalist working as an opinion writer for The Atlantic. She previously worked as an opinion writer for The New York Times, and as an opinion writer and editor for The Washington Post, where she wrote about ethics, politics, theology, and economics. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in 2019 and in 2023.
Grace Blakeley is an English economics and politics commentator, columnist, journalist and author. She is a staff writer for Tribune and panelist on TalkTV. She was previously the economics commentator of the New Statesman and has contributed to Novara Media.
People's Policy Project is an American think tank focused on social, economic, and political equity issues. It has been described as "left-leaning", "left-wing", "democratic socialist–leaning", and "socialist". The organization has been noted for its unique funding structure: Unlike conventional think tanks, 3P relies on crowdfunding small donations, as opposed to financial support from corporations.
Michael Jamal Brooks was an American talk show host, writer, political commentator, and comedian. While co-hosting The Majority Report with Sam Seder, he launched The Michael Brooks Show in August 2017 and provided commentary for media outlets, making regular appearances on shows such as The Young Turks. Brooks contributed to various publications, including HuffPost, The Washington Post, Al Jazeera, openDemocracy, and Jacobin. His book Against the Web: A Cosmopolitan Answer to the New Right was published by Zero Books in April 2020.
Meagan Day is a writer, editor, and activist. She is an editor at Jacobin, where she was previously a staff writer. She is the author of the 2016 book Maximum Sunlight and co-author of the book Bigger than Bernie: How We Go from the Sanders Campaign to Democratic Socialism. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Vox, n+1, The Baffler, In These Times, Mother Jones, The Believer, and elsewhere, and she's been interviewed by the Washington Post, the Columbia Journalism Review, and the Harvard Political Review. She is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Noah Smith is an American blogger, journalist, and commentator on economics and current events. Smith obtained his doctorate in Economics from the University of Michigan in 2012 and was an assistant professor of Behavioral Finance at Stony Brook University. Smith writes for his own Substack blog, Noahpinion, and has also written for publications including Bloomberg, Quartz, Associated Press, Business Insider, and The Atlantic. Smith left Bloomberg in 2021 to fully focus on his current blog.
..the organization clarified, 'We are not taking issue with our blogger's political opinions or with him challenging prominent, powerful people. What troubles us is a pattern of tone and conduct, not his chosen targets or the content of his ideas.'
As the feminist writer Sady Doyle wrote in an email to Demos, 'Bruenig is not only directly aggressive, he is a ringleader who inspires people to be aggressive and commit harassment in his name. Reports of being stormed after Bruenig points his followers at people are ubiquitous, and they most often come from women and people of color.'
After our tweet apologizing for Matt's personal attacks including the term 'scumbag,' we received emails from multiple individuals who made it clear that we were not aware of the extent to which Matt has been at the center of controversies surrounding online harassment of people with whom he disagrees.
Demos then responded to the ongoing Twitter thread, calling Bruenig's tweets 'unacceptable,' and apologized for his words. The organization released a lengthy statement Friday night detailing its differences with Bruenig, who has more than 270,000 Twitter followers, and his departure from the group.
'Left leaning podcasts have been listener funded,' says Matt Bruenig who hosts a podcast with his wife....'With the podcast there are no costs so it's up to basically $100,000 a year. That's pretty good money.'
Elizabeth Bruenig to Join The Atlantic as a Staff Writer
Elizabeth Bruenig will join The New York Times as an Opinion writer.
the most serious plan for dealing with it comes not from any of Washington's many mainstream think tanks but from the People's Policy Project — essentially a one-man show run by Matt Bruenig, an eccentric socialist who, along with his wife, New York Times columnist Elizabeth Bruenig, is a parent of two young kids. They whimsically call their proposal the Family Fun Pack, and while it's rigorous in its details, it's also strikingly simple in concept.
