President Barack Obama had a way with words. Imagine, he rhapsodized, “No racing to an airport and across a terminal, no delays, no sitting on the tarmac, no lost luggage, no taking off your shoes. Imagine whisking through towns at speeds over 100 miles an hour, walking only a few steps to public transportation, and ending up just blocks from your destination.” 

A bit odd, Obama’s enthusiasm given that not 10% of Americans live or work in the middle of a city within walking distance of a passenger train station, reports Edward Ring in American Greatness.

Mr. Ring recently reviewed the book “Abundance,” and the conundrum facing Democrats: To acknowledge that everything they’ve tried has failed.

Dems Own Scarcity 

What better way to deflect criticism than by adopting a concept that is directly opposite to the Democrats’ legacy of scarcity in all things?

• Scarcity of affordable housing
• Scarcity of affordable water and affordable energy.
• Scarcity of quality transportation
• Scarcity of quality education. clean streets, affordable food
• Scarcity of affordable health care
• Scarcity of common sense
• Scarcity of sanity 

Democrat-Owned Scarcity

The Democratic Party, which includes coalescing politicians, activists, and rank-and-file partisans, is trumpeting an unlikely message: the Government is broken.

Co-Opting the Concept of Abundance 

Ambitious Governor Newsom is taking advantage of the just-published book in preparation for 2028. To rebrand the Party, Newsome is focusing on its utility. The California governor is seizing the moment with the “abundance” mantra. Newsom recommends Democrats read “Abundance.” He describes it as “one of the most important books” Dems can read.

Mr. Ring also discusses the importance of “Abundance”, albeit for other reasons:

1. It describes a strategy that Democrats are going to use to reposition and revitalize their party.

2. This book, by virtue of its clarity, reveals conflicts within the Democratic party that are irreconcilable.

Which is to say, continues Mr. Ring, that in the hands of Democrats, “abundance” will never be more than words.

“They are either too corrupt, too operationally incompetent, or too ideologically opposed to the idea itself to ever enact policies that might actually deliver affordable abundance to the American people.”

Edward Ring’s goal is not to dismiss the book entirely. Rather, he looks to expose its serious flaws in Democratic governance, in that the book does ask many of the right questions.

The authors accurately identify numerous causes of scarcity. A system that has become hyper-legalistic and hyper-bureaucratic, where “process” and regulatory complexity create value for attorneys and bureaucrats, while productive results become secondary – a glacial, labyrinthine permitting ordeal for any project involving multiple agencies, compounded by endless lawsuits.

For example, did the authors of “Abundance” think anyone would accept a land area equivalent to “Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Tennessee” being allocated to ethanol plantations, wind farms, and photovoltaic panels?

Did the authors talk with anyone in Kentucky about this? Ohio? Liberal Massachusetts or Connecticut? Did they consider the fact that their Democratic constituency, which pushes so hard for carbon neutrality, are the same people who decry the asphalt lakes, also known as “parking lots,” that already gobble up unconscionable tracts of land?

No argument there, concurs Mr. Ring.

Mr. Ring does question the role of fact-checkers, and the gaping holes happen early. On page 69, you will read, “A plausible path to decarbonization sees wind and solar installations spanning up to 590,000 square kilometers. That is roughly equal to the land mass of Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Tennessee.”

These eight states occupy 619,922 square kilometers (according to the US Census Bureau). Remove Massachusetts, and the figure becomes more admissible.

Special interest groups ARE the Democrat Party, inflicts Mr. Ring. Democrats will never accept reforms that might facilitate affordable abundance.

The Democratic party – both its leadership and its voters – comprises special interests and factions that have little regard for each other, and each has a specific niche that is served by the status quo. Consider these hardwired sources of obstruction:

• Will the heavily subsidized developers of affordable housing consent to a deregulated environment where they would have to compete with private and unsubsidized builders that could again construct and sell single-family homes that people could afford to buy?

• Will the environmentalist NGOs,conservancies, and real estate speculators that profit from artificial scarcity permit new homes to be built on inexpensive land outside the packed cities?

• Will public employees and their unions permit government budgets to again prioritize the enabling infrastructure that might bring roads and utility services to new housing developments on raw land, when they want all that money for their pay and pensions?

• Will public employees and their unions permit government budgets to again prioritize the enabling infrastructure that might bring roads and utility services to new housing developments on raw land that actually solve the homeless problem? (They want all that money for their pay and pensions.)

• Will the “equity” entrepreneurs and the trial lawyers ever agree to a rollback of all the mandates that have made them prosper?

• Will unions consent to projects that aren’t subject to project labor agreements?

Who are these special interest groups? As Ring notes, they’re the heart of the Democrat Party.

• They bankroll the political campaigns for Democratic candidates
• They control what laws Democratic politicians enact and what agency appointments
• They will never accept replacing “process” with results
• They thrive on scarcity, and while they recognize the rhetorical power of an “abundance movement” led by Democrats, will make certain it never crosses the line from rhetoric to action.

Another Gaping Hole

The Dems’ Housing First doctrine denies public funding for any help to the homeless apart from free housing until there is free housing for every homeless person. What could possibly go wrong? The authors lay out scathing and well-documented explanations for the housing shortage without including any serious attempt to address that addiction, mental illness, criminality, lax law enforcement, and indifferent prosecutors have as much to do with the homeless problem as a housing shortage.

A Failed Promise 

Many could argue that regulatory obstacles and an obsession with procedure have prevented liberal governance to deliver on its promises, writes Molly Ball in the WSJ’s book review on “Abundance.” Democrats of all stripes and sizes are rushing to chant that mantra.

• New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis have all name-checked it publicly.
• New Jersey Senator Cory Booker discussed it at length in his recent 25-hour Senate speech.
• Former Vice President Kamala Harris and the U.S. Senate’s Democratic caucus are among the many politicians who have recently sought the authors’ counsel.
• Not one but two congressional caucuses have recently formed to push legislation advancing the ideas laid out in the book.

Abundance even takes its toll on Happy Hour. In San Fran, hundreds gathered on a May weeknight to mingle with fellow devotees. Banners at the gathering read “BUILD AMERICA. DEFEAT FASCISM” as a counterargument to President Trump’s “zero-sum vision of restricted trade and immigration.”

One San Fran devotee joined the “Abundance” Happy Hour for his children, each of whom he wants to be able to afford to live in San Francisco.

“I think Democrats are looking for something to be for right now. With Trump, there’s so much to be against.” 

Oh Joy! Standing in the Way 

People are looking for something more than Harris’s vapid Joy campaign. They want something positive, something to be excited about, muses the San Fran father of four.

The Failures of liberal Governance

Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, the co-authors of Abundance, counsel Democrats to grapple with the lost presidential election. They envision a new beginning that embraces the book’s call to streamline housing, transit, energy, and scientific research. Their simple idea? To build the future America wants, America must build and invent more of what it needs, or what be called “liberalism that builds.”

Cutting Red Tape 

Not everyone on the Left embraces “Abundance.” Many have attacked it in essays, podcasts, and reviews.

Critics argue the authors are blind to—or stooges of—the corporate power that is the true culprit for the problems the book lays out.

Democrats’ task is to convince voters that abundance does not mean confiscating more voters’ money. It is less about removing permitting barriers and more about expanding government and spending more borrowed money.

“Abundance,” counters to Aaron Regunberg and David Sirota in Rolling Stone, encourages Democrats to focus on the wrong solutions. It elevates deregulatory narratives already being weaponized by the right.”

Other reviews of “Abundance” recommend it for its thoughtful analysis and useful perspectives on “the pathologies of the broad left.” One criticism brought to light, already known by readers of conservative publications, is how Joe Biden’s multibillion-dollar program.

• Produced just seven electric vehicle charging stations.

• How the Biden rural broadband project connected no one, how California’s high-speed rail program — authorized by voters in 2008 after spending unpredicted billions — is still struggling to connect the metropolises of Fresno and Merced.

Everything Bagel Liberalism

The authors of “Abundance” understand better than most why most voters think red states are governed better than blue states.

Will authentic abundance ever be restored to Americans, wonders Mr. Ring, so they can again afford to live in their own country?