"For Every Public Purpose There are Corresponding Private Interests:" See Evan Barker

Evan Barker’s Nothing Left: Confessions of a Democratic Operative is already a best seller after only a few days on the market. 

A former progressive activist and fund raiser, she became disillusioned with the Democrat party’s left-wing factions as the party morphed radically. 

Perhaps that does not mean the Republican party has morphed into that role, though this remains a possibility. 

But for many who are conditioned to think of Democrats as a “party for the working class,” Barker argues it has become a party oriented toward affluent, highly educated, urban and coastal constituencies.

And that is a big big change. 

Barker's criticism	What she thinks happened
Working class → professional class	Economic concerns of ordinary voters became less central than the concerns of activists and educated professionals.
Material politics → identity politics	Race, gender, immigration and other cultural issues increasingly became markers of political virtue and party loyalty.
Grassroots → donor/consultant machine	Fundraising and political professionals acquired enormous influence over what candidates say and do.
Persuasion → ideological conformity	Candidates increasingly face pressure to adopt positions demanded by activists rather than positions that appeal to median voters.
Policy → moral signaling	Political positions become ways of demonstrating that one is on the "right" side morally, even when they may be electorally counterproductive.
Working-class voters → cultural elites	The party's institutional culture increasingly reflects its affluent and highly educated supporters.

Many political junkies (I’m not) might find her insider’s discussion of fund raising as highly informative. 

For me, her broader points are most important: political organizations produce the behavior their incentive systems reward.

It’s a version of the aphorism "show me the incentive, and I will show you the result."

Barker argues that if activists control endorsements and volunteers, donors control money, consultants control campaign machinery, and politically engaged professionals dominate the conversation, politicians have strong incentives to satisfy those constituencies even if ordinary voters have different priorities.

In fact, that might be the outcome despite the best intentions of party leaders. The incentives do not reward behavior that reinforces those intentions. 

Barker starts with an organization whose stated mission is helping ordinary people. 

But “for every public purpose there are corresponding private interests.”

Over time, donors, activists, consultants, professional staff, highly educated voters, each with distinct private interests, are able to get the institution to serve their own interests, while becoming less responsive to the people it was originally created to serve.