Podcast Summary: The Realignment – Ep. 573

Guest: Danielle Lee Tomson
Title: The Story & Authenticity Gap – Why the Center-Left Keeps Losing the Plot
Date: September 16, 2025
Host: Marshall Kosloff

Overview

This episode dives deep into why America's center-left struggles to build compelling stories and authentic movements in the modern political landscape. Danielle Lee Tomson, writer, strategist, and expert on conservative media ecosystems, discusses the decades-long participatory culture-building that has powered the populist right’s media and why attempts by the center-left to imitate this have fallen flat. The conversation critiques the top-down, poll-driven approach of liberal institutions, explores the crucial role of authenticity and narrative (“the authenticity gap”), and offers sharp insight into what makes movements “fuck” (i.e., compelling and vital). Together, Marshall and Danielle detail the generational challenges liberals face—and what might be required to bridge the authenticity and story gap.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Origins of Conservative Media: Not Just a "Podcast Election"

[04:43–07:51]

• The right’s alternative media success isn’t a fluke of recent years. Instead, it’s the outcome of generations of participatory, oppositional culture-building, dating to the New Deal.

• Danielle:

  "The right is interested in cultivating networks of thinkers and ideas and personalities that offer an oppositional view to the mainstream. You could say it's the entire political strategy of the right is alternative media."
  — [04:43]

• Conservative media is inherently participatory and oppositional, while the liberal establishment still sees messaging mostly as “marketing” or “advertising.”

• Liberal attempts at media (“the $100 million project to find the next Joe Rogan” or the “DNC launching a YouTube channel”) are top-down and lack the organic, oppositional energy powering the right.

2. The Authenticity Gap & Worldview Building

[11:38–15:27]

• There is a mismatch between Americans' lived experience and the dominant “common sense” narrative, which creates an “authenticity gap.”

• Danielle:

  "When our story of how reality works doesn't align with our lived experiences...there's like a break, an epistemic break that happens. And I call that the authenticity gap."
  — [12:21]

• Right-wing movements fill this gap by diagnosing problems (elites screwing over ordinary people), offering new, even if vague, answers—something the liberal center cannot replicate with mere messaging.

• Authenticity is inherently transgressive and original, often in opposition to what’s seen as the mainstream order.

3. Storytelling Deficiencies on the Center-Left

[15:27–21:15]

• The populist right and left both have clear, world-explaining stories that resonate. The center-left establishment lacks this, defaulting to technocratic contests of ideas or policy wonkery.
• Attempts to craft story through focus groups or to “wait for the 2028 primary” for a new story are fundamentally misdirected.
• Marshall:

  "If you're on the populist right, the MAGA story is super easy to tell.... The MAGA story actually is basically since the 1990s, the end of the Cold War... the institutions screwed over the entire country."
  — [17:18]

4. "Does It Fuck?": The Missing Life Force in Liberal Story

[21:18–26:34]

• Danielle’s “litmus test” for stories, organizations, or ideas: “does it fuck?”—i.e., does it have life, vitality, sex appeal, and energy. Liberalism must rediscover its primal, libidinal force (“putting the lib back in libidinal”).
• Liberalism once promised more than material sufficiency—it promised meaning, happiness, purpose, and possibility in community.
• Danielle:

  "My whole project... is putting the lib back in libidinal. Like, we got to juicy up the idea of liberalism..."
  — [21:22]

5. Vibes vs. Ideology

[28:25–29:50]

• The right is excelling at “vibes,” not rigid ideology.
• Danielle quotes Bannon’s producer:

  "We don't have an ideology—we have vibes."
  — [22:40]

• But vibes must anchor to a story; shallow attempts to manufacture “vibes” (like Kamala Harris’s 2024 bid) won’t cut it.

6. The Conservative Tradition of Welcoming Participation

[26:34–31:10]

• Conservative institutions invite young talent to write the "next chapter" in a living tradition, making the community participatory and exciting.
• Center-left spaces, by contrast, are gatekept—"get in line," “wait 15 years then you have a voice.”
• Marshall:

  "Come save the Democratic Party at a time that people are more and more uninterested in political parties is like the least sexy iteration..."
  — [29:50]

7. Beyond Wonks: The Need for Subculture and Aesthetics

[31:10–36:39]

• Danielle emphasizes movements need not just policy wonks (“wonkery”) but subculture, style, symbols—a “capture the flag” approach.
• "You don't get a mainstream culture without subculture... You need the wonks, the music nerds, the transgressive meansters, the debates. It’s yes, and—it's an improvisational game."
  — [32:08, Danielle]

8. Philanthropy’s Blind Spot & The Problem of “Attention”

[36:39–48:27]

• The right builds through encompassing, strategic, multi-role investments (not just writers, but publishers, activists, staffers); the left focuses on “attention” and (over)invests in punditry or astroturf influencers.
• There’s a participatory vacuum: “unless you are quite literally running for Congress...or have money, or you can write, the center left liberal establishment has nothing for you to do.”
• The right offers real entry points, networks, meaningful participation—left philanthropy is metrics-driven, risk-averse, and excludes non-wonks.

9. Obama, Organizing for America, and the Lost Tradition of Participation

[48:27–55:16]

• The participatory spirit of OFA (Obama for America) was lost when it was folded into the DNC, reverting to phone banking and top-down operations.
• A generational opportunity for real engagement, experimentation, and decentralized movement-building was lost.
• Marshall:

  "OFA had the potential to be something different... It’s hard to imagine another change stance too. ...I feel like OFA was probably the last, oh, wow, this has juice."
  — [51:55]

10. What Would Worldview-Building Look Like Now?

[55:19-56:45]

• The path forward isn’t just “policy” or “messaging,” but “people getting together, talking about the vibes, the stories, the ideas...on the internet, off the internet, in a lot of different levels of society.”
  — [56:27, Danielle]
• Funding for “gray areas,” nuance, and new, transgressive worldviews is what philanthropy and the left should chase—not just clear-cut oppositional stances.

11. Sense-Making and the Role of Story

[61:46–69:27]

• Danielle defines sense-making as understanding how things work, why they work, and reconciling the stories people hear with what they experience.
• This requires integrating facts with embodied, “feels right” cultural narratives.
• “We cannot take liberal ideas for granted...We have to explain them not just in rhetoric... but in that embodied feeling.”
  — [67:45, Danielle]

12. Lessons from Neoliberalism & “Post-Neoliberal” Storytelling

[75:24–80:06]

• Instead of “defending” neoliberalism on technical grounds, liberals must confront the reality that “neoliberal” is now a slur—a sign the story failed for many.
• “Don’t be an economist about it. Be a person about it and really lean into what that feels like in your life.”
  — [78:55, Danielle]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Does it fuck or doesn’t it fuck?”
  — Danielle, on the life force of a story, [21:18]
• “We don’t have an ideology—we have vibes.”
  — Steve Bannon’s producer, quoted by Danielle, [22:40]
• “The authenticity gap: when reality and the story society tells you about reality no longer align.”
  — Danielle, [12:21]
• “You don't get a mainstream culture without subculture. It's ‘yes, and’—it's an improvisational game.”
  — Danielle, [32:08]
• “Unless you are quite literally running for Congress, or have money, or you can write, the center left liberal establishment has nothing for you to do.”
  — Marshall, [39:58]
• “It’s a chrysatunity… We have to do something else or else someone else is going to come in and give maybe a far uglier vision of what the future could be than we could.”
  — Danielle, [56:00]
• "Don’t be an economist about it. Be a person about it and really lean into what that feels like in your life."
  — Danielle, [78:55]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Introduction & Danielle’s background – 00:00–04:43
• Why conservative media works/how liberal imitators misunderstand the task – 04:43–09:26
• Oppositional culture & the authenticity gap – 11:38–15:27
• Storytelling deficiencies on the center-left – 15:27–21:15
• "Does it fuck?" Liberalism's vitality vacuum – 21:18–26:34
• Vibes > Ideology? – 28:25–29:50
• Participatory traditions on the right vs. gatekeeping on the left – 26:34–31:10
• Subculture, aesthetics, & beyond wonkery – 31:10–36:39
• Philanthropy’s limits and the “attention” trap – 36:39–48:27
• OFA, Obama, and lost participatory energy – 48:27–55:16
• How to fund world-building & nuance – 55:19–56:45
• Sense-making, storytelling, and how to reconnect with reality – 61:46–69:27
• Neoliberalism, story, and feelings vs. wonkery – 75:24–80:06

Takeaways & Themes

• Story, authenticity, and embodied experience matter more than messaging or technocracy.
• Culture changes downstream of oppositional, participatory subcultures—liberals must rediscover this.
• Funding, organizing, and building must expand beyond writers and wonks to participatory, worldview-building events and mechanisms that empower all types of citizens.
• The “vibes” and primal imagination that once fueled liberalism (e.g., the New Deal, FDR, Obama’s early campaigns) have been lost to focus groups, polls, and safe, institutional thinking. Reviving that energy is essential.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone thinking about why the center-left struggles to inspire, and what it might take to rediscover authenticity, story, and meaningful engagement in American politics.