In Praise of Vox

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/26/opinion/2020-democrats-vox.html

Version 0 of 1.

This article is part of David Leonhardt’s newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it each weekday.

Have you read the Vox article on it?

I’ve heard a version of that question frequently while I’ve been reporting on the proposals of the 2020 presidential candidates. Whether I’m talking with outside experts, campaign aides or other journalists, many people consider Vox’s detailed articles to be a starting point for understanding the proposals.

The articles are usually meaty without being difficult to follow. They avoid pro forma quotations from the candidate’s allies or opponents with obvious praise or criticism of the plans. They focus on how the plans, if enacted, would change people’s lives.

Vox articles tend to be written from a left-of-center perspective, and I don’t agree with every argument they make. But that’s O.K. Vox’s approach reflects the worldview of most Americans under the age of 40 — which happens to describe much of Vox’s staff and audience. It’s also the same approach that many European publications take. They have a point of view, and readers can take that point of view into account when reading them.

For any given policy proposal, I’ve come to expect that Vox is going to have one of the smartest, clearest analyses out there. Many other readers apparently feel the same way. So I wanted to take a moment this morning to congratulate Lauren Williams (Vox’s editor in chief), Ezra Klein (its founding editor) and their colleagues for accomplishing what they have. And if you care about politics and policy, I encourage you to make the site part of your reading during the 2020 campaign.

More from Vox on 2020

Elizabeth Warren’s child care plan, her proposal to increase worker power and her vows to break up big tech companies “are different policies, yes,” Klein wrote. “But they all say the same thing: The wealthy have too much money and power, and Warren wants to change that.”

Cory Booker’s baby bonds proposal to give every newborn a savings account that would accrue value over time “comes close to eliminating the racial wealth gap entirely for young adults,” writes Dylan Matthews.

“The accessible nature of Harris’s plan, which is open to any worker who qualifies, has the potential to give a sweeping boost to some of the country’s most vulnerable workers,” writes Li Zhou of Kamala Harris’s new job training plan. “Nailing the specifics of its ultimate implementation, however, will be crucial to ensuring it avoids the pitfalls that other training efforts have experienced.”

“The 2020 primaries could see a virtuous cycle as candidates compete to see who can put together the more effective anti-poverty platform, with the most resources going to the deeply poor,” writes Matthews of five anti-poverty plans from Democratic candidates. “The competition is already off to a good start.”

Jay Inslee’s climate plan should be a model for the other 2020 Democratic candidates, argues David Roberts. “Inslee’s campaign is systematically translating the [Green New Deal’s] lofty goals — to decarbonize the economy sector by sector, in a way that creates high-quality jobs and protects frontline communities — into policy proposals.”

“Pete Buttigieg is the first Democratic presidential candidate to actually articulate foreign policy proposals beyond general themes and ideas,” writes Alex Ward in an analysis of Buttigieg’s recent speech.

If you are not a subscriber to this newsletter, you can subscribe here. You can also join me on Twitter (@DLeonhardt) and Facebook.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.