Opinion | Democrats Have Power Now. They Shouldnt Waste It on Woke.

The Democrats are back in power with a new economic mandate.But is that how they will actually govern?Our guest host Christine Rosen sits down with Catherine Liu, a left-wing cultural critic and the author of “Traumatized: The New Politics of Public Suffering.” Liu explains why Democratic elites are still invested in culture wars and are focusing on what she calls “trauma politics.”Below is an edited transcript of an episode of “Interesting Times.” We recommend listening to it in its original form for the full effect.

You can do so using the player above or on the NYTimes app, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.Christine Rosen: We’ve just come out of the midterm elections, a historic transfer of power to the Democratic Party.Are we over identity politics?Catherine Liu: I’m afraid not.

And I think that there is going to be a lot of resistance to its demise.I also think that there is too much at stake within the NGO industrial complex to wield trauma as a kind of blunt instrument to make elites fall into line.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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