A community of mere liberals. Discussing, defending, and applying the many varieties of liberalism. liberalcurrents.com
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Three years ago this week: "The media treatment of Biden’s foreign policy is significant and ultimately dangerous. If there is no constituency for the most anti-war president since 2001 (and likely since Jimmy Carter), it is unlikely that future presidents will choose to walk this path."
www.liberalcurrents.com/he-will-try/
Ooh we have one for this
"Is the Fed Okay?": @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com with @maiamindel.bsky.social, on our Neon Liberalism podcast www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberal...
ICE forcing firefighters to stop battling a wildfire and make them all show their papers, then arresting some active firefighters and pulling them off the line shows there's no bottom. As @aselrod.bsky.social pointedly argues, it's nothing less than an "active assault on virtue wherever it exists."
maia kind of hit me with a rug pull at the end of this one, arguing that the fed is responsible for the great recession and no one ever faced accountability for that... so yeah, as they say, "trump is a bad answer to a real question"
Useful frame for understanding Trumpism from @aselrod.bsky.social: "It’s not merely rule by the worst but an active assault on virtue wherever it exists. Trump/MAGA have turned the country over to the cruelest, most rapacious, and least honorable among us." www.liberalcurrents.com/let-it-burn-...
It's going to happen soon.
"It’s not merely rule by the worst but an active assault on virtue wherever it exists." www.liberalcurrents.com/let-it-burn-...
Neon Liberalism #41: Join Samantha and guest Maia Mindel as they talk about Trump's latest attack on the Federal Reserve, give some historical context for central bank independence, and struggle with the difficult question of how to balance technocratic expertise with democratic accountability.
"A Second American Midnight?": @caitlinmoriah.bsky.social and @trentrichardnelson.bsky.social with Adam Hochschild, on our Half the Answer podcast www.liberalcurrents.com/half-the-ans...
"We are a nation with a bully-in-chief, an ogre of hate and pettiness who feeds off of the suffering of others. The tools of rule are violence, humiliation, and fear. And the only people who can now make careers of government work are those willing to ply this trade."
"A generation of young people now know Trumpism as a normal aspect of American political life. And many others have found a pleasure in the new politics on offer that the old world of Obamas and McCains could never give them." www.liberalcurrents.com/let-it-burn-...
“Trump and MAGA have turned the country over to the cruelest, most rapacious, and least honorable among us and directed the force of the state against firefighters, aid workers, civil servants, and children. “ www.liberalcurrents.com/let-it-burn-...
Current Readings: "Trump has vandalized the world trading system as casually as he has paved over the Rose Garden," writes Paul Krugman (@pkrugman.bsky.social). "America, he seems to believe, is so powerful that it doesn’t need allies." open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...
Half the Answer #30: Trent and Caitlin talk with author, journalist and historian Adam Hochschild about the historical periods that most inform his view of today's disturbing American politics. What tactics and goals does Trump 2.0 have in common with Woodrow Wilson's post-WWI administration?
"L.A. and DC have both really demonstrated that you can show that you don't want ICE in your communities on a daily basis. You can communicate to those people that your neighbors are under attack and you're standing with your neighbors." www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberal...
Current Readings: "Even people who had come to a conference about how Trump and his movement have duped the country … could still be duped by Trump and his movement," reports Radley Balko (@radleybalko.bsky.social) for @theunpopulist.net. www.theunpopulist.net/p/liberals-c...
"The next Democratic Congress should recreate the Corporation for Public Broadcasting with not just political but financial autonomy." www.liberalcurrents.com/a-renewal-of...
"As the culture war never ends, not fighting constantly on every front is surrender. Culture is upstream from politics, and policy is way downstream from politics." www.liberalcurrents.com/civic-campai...
"It is imperative that the nihilism destroying our society be named and confronted directly if we are to have any kind of future." (from May) www.liberalcurrents.com/universalism...
"A better history education, one that highlights the downsides to extremist governance, can counter extremist political views. Beyond high school classes, we need to urgently replicate this approach through our media outlets." www.liberalcurrents.com/a-renewal-of...
"The Times, the Post, and just about every other major outlet haven’t chosen to make one singular story the dominant framing device of the past six months: The Trump administration is teeming with despicable gutter racists and President Trump and his cabinet are having them call the shots."
"Understandably, we don’t much like talking about death, and have an even stronger cultural distaste for criticizing the recently departed, or senior citizens for their declining health. But sometimes there are more pressing practical problems we have to confront."
After my "case for staying on Twitter" got a bunch of interesting responses, @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com demanded that I debate him. www.theargumentmag.com/p/mad-libs-g...
I still see over 40% of Americans approving of this admin’s deportation regime as a moral disaster. But it does seem clear Trump’s economic policies are hurting him. I just don’t find these numbers to be very encouraging about the American people. www.liberalcurrents.com/inherent-vic...
www.liberalcurrents.com/the-politi/
“The US military changed education policy, conducted war trials, and dismantled laws which censored dissenters and dissenting viewpoints. High-ranking military officers were put on trial and banned from public service. A new constitution created new civil rights including emancipation for women.”
“Since 2005, this country has lost over a third of its newspapers. Over two hundred counties are considered news deserts, without any locally based source of news. Another fifteen hundred have just a single news source. Altogether, about 55 million Americans have limited or no access to local news.”
“Today, as federal programs are being dismantled and military-grade immigration officials are marching through cities, it’s clear that we will need a broad reconstruction plan.” www.liberalcurrents.com/a-renewal-of...
"In the Nazi worldview, people with mental illnesses or other disabilities were not simply a danger to themselves or their immediate families but to the entire nation." www.liberalcurrents.com/degenerate-n...
"There are plenty of non-zoning rules that serve as barriers to building more housing by driving up hard costs and making regulatory compliance difficult." www.liberalcurrents.com/zohrans-5-st...
"The American Anti-Vaxx Movement: Past, Present, and Future": @caitlinmoriah.bsky.social and @trentrichardnelson.bsky.social with @stevanzetti.bsky.social, on our Half the Answer podcast www.liberalcurrents.com/half-the-ans...
“This isn't a matter of left vs. right, or socialism vs. liberalism. Rather, it's a simple example of overly-complex, bespoke regulations that fail to achieve their intended goal.” www.liberalcurrents.com/zohrans-5-st...
"The Ongoing Immigration Crisis": @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com with @daralind.bsky.social, on our Neon Liberalism podcast www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberal...
very excited to announce I have been featured in Liberal Currents, writing about what Zohran’s pro-housing policy should look like! here’s the TL;DR: 1) upzone, upzone, upzone 2) address hard costs & permitting 3) leverage the public sector 4) appoint the right people 5) sell the vision
It’s an objective fact that Jersey City is building housing at a much greater rate than NYC. In fact, if NYC built as much housing per capita as Jersey City, housing in Jersey City would be much more affordable
“What levers are available to Zohran to achieve the goal of a more affordable, sustainable, and livable New York City?” www.liberalcurrents.com/zohrans-5-st...
Half the Answer #29: Trent and Caitlin ask Steven Monacelli about his recent work documenting the history and present of the American anti-vaccination movement. Who is drawn into it? How did we get here? www.liberalcurrents.com/half-the-ans...
“When politicians will be in a position to pass [liberal] laws (. . .)is a matter of electoral calculus that politicians themselves can make. We don’t need to make those calculations on their behalf and it’s simple hubris to believe a bunch of outside commentators are more capable of doing so.”
From time to time we get asked for recommended reading. Rather than coming up with a Complete Liberal Currents Canon, we thought it might be more fun to create a list via the method of a draft, as a bonus for our patrons. Here's the result: www.liberalcurrents.com/the-liberal-...
It’s @daralind.bsky.social on Neon Liberalism What more do you need?
"There is a stacked, intractably corrupt and increasingly servile high court; a Congress hell-bent on giving away even its enumerated powers as a coequal branch of government; and a fourth estate increasingly captured by the very monied interests who should live in fear of it."
"Electoral pushback and public dissatisfaction is not enough. As with so many other professions, from airline pilots to senior military officers, a hard and fast rule is the only workable solution." www.liberalcurrents.com/age-limits-f...
I miss podcasting! @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com is an incisive, gracious and tolerant podcast host with an excellent podcat.
Neon Liberalism #40: Join Samantha and guest Dara Lind, Senior Fellow at the American Immigration Council and former immigration reporter for Vox and ProPublica, as they talk about the state of Trump's mass deportation program. www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberal...
"We can’t sweep it under the rug any longer: too many of our high officeholders, including a disproportionate number of Democrats, are simply too old." My thoughts on the endlessly excruciating gerontocracy problem, and the many disturbing examples we've seen in recent years, @liberalcurrents.com:
"It wasn’t the first time this year Speaker Johnson’s agenda has gotten a boost from the grim reaper." www.liberalcurrents.com/age-limits-f...
"Chasing Opinion Polls or Shaping Opinions?": @caitlinmoriah.bsky.social and @trentrichardnelson.bsky.social with @lexikoren.bsky.social, on our Half the Answer podcast
"Far right parties around the world are no longer really conservative, but stridently antidemocratic, ethnonationalist (white supremacist in the American case), misogynistic, and oligarchic." www.liberalcurrents.com/liberalism-f...
You can sign up for free to receive our articles by email—which, once received, are easily forwarded to others—at www.liberalcurrents.com#/portal/signup
“Beyond that, we need to encourage [Bluesky users] to continue to keep channels of communication open with people who do not use it; to send articles written by opposition media to friends, family, and colleagues over email, group messaging, or whatever channel you might use.”
“America’s political gerontocracy is a genuine problem. It fuels dysfunction, distrust, and concrete negative policy consequences. We can’t sweep it under the rug any longer: too many of our high officeholders, including a disproportionate number of Democrats, are simply too old.”
"Kennedy’s anti-vaccine position is undeniably a view of autism as degeneracy and, crucially, of any form of 'degeneracy' as necessarily contagious." www.liberalcurrents.com/degenerate-n...
"In this struggle between zero-sum and non-zero-sum worldviews, it is the billionaires who are on the side of zerosumness and the closed society." www.liberalcurrents.com/whos-really-...
"Are We Liberated Yet?": @caitlinmoriah.bsky.social and @trentrichardnelson.bsky.social with @beijingpalmer.bsky.social, on our Half the Answer podcast www.liberalcurrents.com/half-the-ans...
"The Long '90s was...a cultural settlement. The cultural settlement was not embodied in any single law or policy, but rather shaped the basic assumptions of Americans about our country—and, most especially, who was a full citizen." (from April) www.liberalcurrents.com/the-present-...
Current Readings: "Liberalism was in a poor position to deal with this new threat. That’s because the ideology—particularly at an elite level—had started to understand itself in ways that were philosophically confused," writes Toby Buckle (@polphilpod.bsky.social) for @newrepublic.com.
“Trump has transformed the sprawling, decentralized, frankly dysfunctional apparatus of nominating and promoting Republican candidates into a system of personal fealty.” www.liberalcurrents.com/americas-pat...
"Liberalism cannot simply be a procedural set of mechanisms for adjudicating disputes among illiberal groups. Liberalism needs liberals as a political force." www.liberalcurrents.com/pluralism-pa...
"Liberals in the twenty-first century have to return to the early 20th century skepticism of the power of concentrated wealth, and of monopoly and oligarchy. This means liberals will make enemies of the ultrarich, and the capitalist cheerleading class." www.liberalcurrents.com/liberalism-f...
[taps Substack Notes] is this thing on
Hell yeah @beijingpalmer.bsky.social on with Caitlin and Trent!
Half the Answer #28: Trent and Caitlin chat with James Palmer about China, the current state of America's relationship with China, and what it means for the U.S. to be constantly proposing wild tariff hikes, changing and pausing those hikes, and effectively withdrawing from international trade.
"Are Liberals Losing the Culture War?": @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com with @lefebvrealex.bsky.social, on our Neon Liberalism podcast www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberal...
"A better policy framework for unions in America would be to effectively de-regulate unions and let them pursue action not just through the 'Exit' channel, but through 'Voice' channels as well." www.liberalcurrents.com/abundance-an...
Great piece! It's also worth noting that Swedish unions are generally pro-automation, both because their constituencies are large enough to benefit from it, and because they can negotiate for the retraining of displaced workers.
If you ever wanted to easily share our articles or podcasts via the Substack app, now you can. Here's today's: liberalcurrents.substack.com/p/abundance-...
"Barro isn’t the only one mad at unions." www.liberalcurrents.com/abundance-an...
“Labor unions have become a bit of a punching bag for abundance thinkers. While no one accuses them of being the only cause for why it’s so hard to “build” effectively and efficiently, many argue that the union as an institution is inherently opposed to a society that builds.”
"January 6, 2021, only served as an exclamation point on the 𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘶𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘴 we had been through. But, as we would soon find out, we had not all lived through quite the same events." www.liberalcurrents.com/priority-one...
"I consider it simply part of the practical work of making a case for anti-oligarchic politics to cast Andreessen as a traitor to the liberal democratic ideals of the country he grew up in, the communities he participated in, and the institutions he benefited from."
But do they have a Substack? liberalcurrents.substack.com
"If liberalism always has some threat or enemy in mind, even if it’s implicit, then to understand how to build a liberalism for the twenty-first century, we should ask ourselves: what are the most acute threats to human freedom?" www.liberalcurrents.com/liberalism-f...
"The trust that builds invisibly from viewer to influencer grows ever stronger over the period they continue to consume the influencer's thoughts and views. In politics you can use this phenomenon to grant legitimacy to your ideology, party, politics and politicians."
had a good time talking with @joestieb.bsky.social (and stieb's extremely good cat, pictured) about the slow decay of liberal internationalism since 1989--and the explosive growth of the authoritarian internationale www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberal...
"For my entire lifetime, conservatives have smeared liberals as being 'anti-American,' 'unpatriotic,' and 'rootless cosmopolitans.' Dissent and disagreement were treated like disloyalty." www.liberalcurrents.com/pluralism-pa...
"Any national election in the US, far from representing democratic continuity or renewal, now marks a potential moment of abrupt, even violent regime change." www.liberalcurrents.com/priority-one...
"An Unsettled Age": @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com with @joestieb.bsky.social, on our Neon Liberalism podcast www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberal...
Neon Liberalism #39: The future of the world order is more uncertain than it has been since the fall of the Soviet Union—which is to say, up for grabs. Join Samantha and guest Joe Stieb as they discuss how the world order has changed since 1989. www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberal...
“There is a stacked, intractably corrupt and increasingly servile high court; a Congress hell-bent on giving away even its enumerated powers as a coequal branch of government; and a fourth estate increasingly captured by the very monied interests who should live in fear of it.”
“There is a stacked, intractably corrupt and increasingly servile high court; a Congress hell-bent on giving away even its enumerated powers as a coequal branch of government; and a fourth estate increasingly captured by the very monied interests who should live in fear of it.”
“Despite what you might hear coming out of the Manhattan Institute these days, no liberal worthy of the name advocates the death penalty for having insufficient commitment to trans rights or the public funding of science.” www.liberalcurrents.com/pluralism-pa...
Had an excellent time talking with Caitlin and Trent about AI as a political project, and why we should be focusing on what AI is actually for, rather than whac-a-moling the lies of the tech industry - listen in, they're super smart and fun to talk with!
Trump’s Kennedy Center announcement, in which he goes on an extended rant about DC’s lawn care, is of a piece with this essay I wrote for @liberalcurrents.com on how authoritarian leaders try to remake the architecture and aesthetics of the places they rule. www.liberalcurrents.com/magic-kingdo...
More and more people are saying this and subscribing to @liberalcurrents.com!
Since the Liberalism for the 21st Century conference is about to kick off, I will re-up the little essay I wrote for it. www.liberalcurrents.com/liberalism-f... @liberalcurrents.com
"The liberal party, or the party with the largest liberal faction within it, must offer a compelling national vision of the public good. In practice, this always means telling their version of what it means to be a good patriot, a citizen seeking to advance the true good of their home country."
"How can I be a liberal committed to a tolerant, pluralist society and yet call Marc Andreessen and his tech reactionary cohort traitors?" www.liberalcurrents.com/pluralism-pa...
Half the Answer #27: Caitlin and Trent check in with Hagen Blix about the ways we talk about AI, the most prominent angle its critics take, and the angle that’s often missing. www.liberalcurrents.com/half-the-ans...
"Win or lose, Kat Abughazaleh will have changed actual lives for the better every day her campaign is running, skyrocketing her credibility, and if wisely embraced by the local, state and national Democratic party, transferred to them as well." www.liberalcurrents.com/civic-campai...
Happy to share my article with the fabulous @liberalcurrents.com which features the innovative @katmabu.bsky.social and @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social’s campaigns and my answer the massive challenge of remerging the left political and cultural spheres. It’s hopeful, heavy and is for the nerds.
“The Death of the First American Republic is tragic, but likewise it means the happy work of building a Second Republic is here, and the effort to obliterate magafascism is our daily labour.” www.liberalcurrents.com/civic-campai...
Periodic reminder that we've got a couple of Starter Packs we update with our authors and patrons, if you want to follows some smart, good folks! go.bsky.app/QC76CyV go.bsky.app/JtF6uD1
"If liberalism always has some threat or enemy in mind, even if it’s implicit, then to understand how to build a liberalism for the twenty-first century, we should ask ourselves: what are the most acute threats to human freedom?" www.liberalcurrents.com/liberalism-f...
"Kennedy describes life with autism as a desolate thing, cut off from the sort of activities he clearly views as necessary for communion with society." www.liberalcurrents.com/degenerate-n...
"The actual assault on free speech is entirely from the right, with real individuals hounded out of their jobs or abducted off the streets for expressing ideas unpopular with the regime. Political correctness and cancel culture were always moral panics concocted by the right."
"One of the ways I like to describe what we're trying to do a Liberal Currents is we're trying to be liberals who mean it." - @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberal...
Listen to Samantha and Adam as they discuss what it means to promote a liberalism that takes its commitments seriously www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberal...