At the 2025 CADEM convention, one word was everywhere: abundance.

The word rolled off tongues like it was fresh ideology, a new progressive gospel. It’s not. It’s marketing —polished and packaged for 2026 and 2028 by a party apparatus desperate to look visionary without upsetting the donor class.

At the risk of giving this garbage additional attention, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s new book, Abundance, is being treated as a kind of manifesto for-the-moment. It paints a picture of a stalled America: burdened by regulation, hemmed in by caution, too caught up in redistribution to actually build. They call for a return to big, bold projects. And who could argue with that?

I could. Because beneath the buzzwords is the same old bullshit.

Yes, we need to build more—housing, transit, energy infrastructure, research capacity. But Abundance doesn’t offer anything new. It offers a sleeker version of the same ol’ governmental system we already have: a system that deregulates to “unleash innovation,” while quietly refusing to challenge concentrated wealth and corporate control.

It’s not a coincidence that the people most excited about “abundance” are the ones who panic at the words “wealth tax.” Or that this framing is taking hold just as the left is finally gaining traction in demanding redistribution, accountability, and structural reform.

This isn’t abundance for all. It’s abundance for those who already have the capital, the land, and the lobbyists. Cut the red tape, they say, and everything will flow. But we’ve seen that play out—tech monopolies, unaffordable cities, privatized public goods.

Let’s be real: when the corporate wing of the Democratic Party embraces a word like “abundance,” it’s because they know it sounds like progress—but conveniently avoids power. It lets them posture as bold without ever having to confront the people and systems hoarding the resources in the first place.

Real abundance would mean breaking the grip of corporate landlords and speculators. It would mean taxing the ultra-wealthy, funding workforce and low income housing, and giving workers control over the industries they power. It would mean undoing decades of neoliberal policy—not just accelerating it with slick new branding.

So when “abundance” becomes the new party line in 2026 or 2028, remember this: a buzzword isn’t a vision. And we don’t need new slogans from the same old donors. We need a complete redo. Anything less is just putting lipstick on a pig.