Friends Like These

Francesca Hong’s friends: Over the weekend, Wisconsin candidate for governor (and democratic socialist) Francesca Hong campaigned with streamer Hasan Piker, who wants to force non-socialists out of the Democratic Party (a view he expressed while wearing a Mao Zedong outfit), and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D–Minn.), who once accused Israel of having “hypnotized” the world.

The August 11 primary will determine which Democrat challenges Republican Tom Tiffany in November. Hong, a 37-year-old chef and bartender (in AOC fashion), is the frontrunner.

“When people want to fight for something together, when they see something they believe in, and they start to believe in one another, I think the Dems are going to have to write a new playbook here,” Hong said at the rally. So what is it, exactly, that she’s fighting for?

Hong wants the standard raft of policy proposals that politicians like New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani have promoted: universal taxpayer-funded childcare, schools funded by the “super-rich” (unclear what she means by that). Hong has also said she will roll back school vouchers, expand Medicaid, establish a public health insurance option for those without coverage currently, bring private insurance premiums down (unclear how), “crack down on claim denial processes,” and “recognize gender-affirming care as medically necessary.” She wants to establish a public bank to fund various business owners that she’s deemed disadvantaged. “At the federal level, we need to abolish ICE and prosecute lawbreaking agents,” says her website. “But here in Wisconsin, Fran will use the full force of the executive branch to protect Wisconsinites of all documentation status from secret police.”

“The lowest-earning 20% of Wisconsin households pay over 10% of their income in state and local taxes. But folks making over $1.3 million pay only 6.6%,” reads her website. “When richer people aren’t asked to pay their fair share of taxes, it means our tax system is effectively handing them free money.” Note that when someone is taxed at a lower rate than someone else, the government has not “handed” them anything. It has simply refrained from taking money they earned.

But more to the point, socialist types keep acting like this points to an unfairness in the structure of income taxes. What it tells us is that sales and excise taxes—taxes on consumption—end up looking pretty regressive, hitting the poor hard but being much less significant (as a share of total income) to the rich. And “fair share” doesn’t mean anything: Taxation, to the extent that it must happen at all, should be about how much revenue government needs, and policymakers should raise that revenue via the least distortionary means possible. It’s not about punishing the high-earning or hard-working.

“I do not support the full platform of the national DSA [Democratic Socialists of America] and I am not endorsed by DSA National,” said Hong in a recent debate, who added that she is “not here to govern by slogan.” I dunno, that website I just pored over sure looks pretty slogany, with a loft of lofty rhetoric and a lot of “eat the rich” nonsense and state intrusion into private industry.

When asked by CNN’s Dana Bash whether Hong’s views on defunding the police have changed since the defund fervor of the early 2020s, Hong demurred. “People can evolve,” Hong said. “I am going to be a sensible and practical governor that is going to make sure that public safety is a priority.” It seems like Hong is realizing that old tweets like this may be a political liability:

I support defunding the police as a first step towards abolishing the police.

Jacob Blake is fighting for his life but he shouldn’t have to be. We must also fight for his life and get justice for all those harmed by state-sanctioned violence.

Black Lives Matter

— Francesca Hong For Governor (@FrancescaHongWI) August 24, 2020

But it’s not clear how much of a liability they are. “Democratic socialist Katie Wilson was elected mayor of Seattle last year and another, Janeese Lewis George, is poised to win the mayoral contest in Washington, DC, this November,” reports CNN. “In Los Angeles, democratic socialist Nithya Raman is challenging incumbent mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat. They’ve also won a series of congressional primaries, including ousting House incumbents in New York and Colorado.”

It’s also not clear that Hong herself is convinced as to the best strategy. She seems to want to portray herself as a normie everywoman who understands the average Wisconsinite, regardless of party, but also as someone who pals around with Piker and Omar. Voters might not punish her for the latter, but it’s not clear whether her radical or pragmatic instincts are stronger. In the end, if she gets in office, it might not matter much: She’ll be able to do plenty of damage.

Scenes from New York: 

Some thoughts on life in NYC:

– Much of what makes New York great is that there’s a large contingent of people who donate money the city and its institutions once they’ve made it. John Paulson made a fortune during the Financial Crisis, and subsequently donated $100 million to… https://t.co/Am9HvS3d6U

— David Perell (@david_perell) August 3, 2026

QUICK HITS

• “Everyone knows what the problem is: The organizations that bring young staffers to Washington, D.C. have spent the last decade prioritizing blind ideological loyalty instead of competence or intelligence,” a senior GOP congressional staffer told Politico. “We have a generation of rabid, incompetent idiots.”
• Axios‘ “three dramas to watch” after November: “Trump will flirt with running again in ’28 until the bitter end, but it’s all about PR and keeping Vance and Rubio in their place”; “As potential outside-the-walls competition in ’28, the White House is watching Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.)”; “A constitutional clash over congressional oversight, among the last and most vital powers lawmakers hold dear. What happens if Trump orders his entire administration, family and friends to just ignore Congress?”
• Homeowner associations (HOAs) “are getting more aggressive about pursuing people who rack up unpaid dues, skipping informal grace periods to make up the payments and turning delinquent accounts over to lawyers,” reports The Wall Street Journal. “In the most extreme cases, they are pursuing foreclosures on these properties. There were 6,376 properties with HOA-related foreclosure filings in the first quarter of this year—spanning initial default notices to completed sales. That is up nearly 40% from two years earlier and rising faster than overall mortgage foreclosure rates, according to real-estate analytics firm Attom.”
• In case you missed it: I’m writing a book, and updating folks via Substack. Follow me there if you’d like to stay in the loop. It will be a while before a preorder link is available, but I’m already finding little chunks of research that I don’t think will fit into the book but will probably be adapted into meandering Substack thoughts. If you’re interested in risk/risk aversion, parenting, New York City, skateboarding, death, faith, how “gentle parenting” is screwing up a whole generation, or just YOURS TRULY, you’ll like this book.