> If you look at the political discourse coming out of the Democratic Party right now, it is really about, “Let’s try and figure out what the median voter wants”—which is basically affordability.
My favorite newsletter is Slow Boring, and the impression I get from them Matt Yglesias there is "We tried campaigning on anti-authoritarianism and Trump being a threat to democracy. It didn't work. To the contrary, the Republican Party is actually more trusted now than the Democratic Party. So we need a different tack. We need to focus on what swing voters want, what low-information voters want in particular." The low-information swing voters, to the extent they care about erosion of institutions or democratic backsliding or corruption, either don't notice these problems or, upon hearing Trump or MAGA operatives saying "actually Democrats are the bad ones", shrug in confusion and vote for whatever words they like to hear coming from politicians' mouths (and, I would add, whatever nutty nonsense they see on Facebook―an underrated problem in the Matty camp)
So yes, let's rebuild institutions, let's have a Project 2029 or whatever, but also recognize you can't win an election on that stuff. It's, as you say, a good thing to have on the shelf or in the drawer, much as whoever came up with the Patriot Act had that in the drawer, ready to go when 9/11 created the demand.
I will spell it out for you: they ARE anti-authoritarian! I am anti-authoritarian! I put a heart on this article before writing a comment here! And I am not dismissing anyone! Jesus H Christ.
The point that resonates most: “The pre-Trump status quo failed and brought us to this moment.” That’s the insight that makes this more than a restoration project.
One observation worth considering: framing reconstruction as a specifically “liberal” agenda—even in the classical sense—may limit the coalition available for it. Congressional dysfunction, executive overreach, and policy whiplash hurt everyone’s ability to get what they want, regardless of ideology. There are principled conservatives who’ve been making structural arguments about congressional abdication for decades (before discovering they liked executive power when their guy held it).
The Juan Linz point about presidential systems being prone to authoritarian consolidation is the right level of analysis. That’s a design question, not a personnel question. And design questions can build broader coalitions than ideological ones.
You say that "Trump has done unprecedented damage to our institutions, our governing norms, and just basic civic virtue. No president has done this much institutional destruction as Trump has." And yet, after four years in his first term, Trump's popular vote in 2020 went up 18%. By 2024, he was re-elected with 23% more votes than in 2016. How could his popularity increase by so much if he did "unprecedented damage to our institutions"?
Because so many Americans have learned to distrust those institutions. Look at the polls by Gallup and the Pew Center. You cannot blame Trump for "institutional destruction". If that has brought him electoral success, that is what a politician ought to do. The fault lies with those institutions for disserving their constituents badly enough to get Trump elected and re-elected. If those institutions now suffer "institutional destruction", they got it the old-fashioned way: They earned it.
You know, the sheer scale of Trump's institutional destruction ought to make good people ashamed of trotting out the same old tired talking points about the institutions themselves are to blame for Trump. Institutional lapses do not justify sending living breathing humans to Gulags in El Salvador or giving Guantanamo-style treatment reserved for terrorists toward peaceful people. For God's sake stop it now. Read this: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/opinion/ice-immigration-green-card-detention.html?smid=url-share
I think this gets the causal relationship backwards. Trump didn't destroy anything. A Trump, or a Mamdani election victory is only possible if our institutions are already destroyed.
Trump and MAGA are symptoms.
The lack of political expertise in the entire political mainstream, across every branch of government, is the cause.
This is also why I think talk of reconstruction is pointless until the root cause is addressed.
This is kinda baloney, sorry. This is the currency of the day among lefties at a distance, many of whom have not voted, or put in their spoiler vote. I’m tired of it. It is a huge undertaking to keep things together at all. At all.
And to say things, as the far lefties often do, like “the system is working exactly as designed” - well, no, it fucking well was not. There is a constant tension between people who basically want to do the right thing, and hope for a system that brings the most prosperity as possible to all, and all the greedy bastards we’ve seen throughout history, people for whom there is no bending arc of history but only more corruption ad infinitum.
Granted that many like me think an effectively fairer system is brought into being thru democratic socialism and a multi party system, and many others think it’s through emphasizing economic policies that prioritize strengthening businesses. If they’re promoting small businesses and family farms, including woman-owned and POC owned, I’m cool sharing a tent with them.
This whole time, since the beginning (yes in the midst of an unfolding and continuing genocide and the stain of slavery), there has been this battle between people with actual morals and ethics, with an instinct toward greater inclusiveness no matter how dimly and incompletely envisioned, and greedy, amoral bastards who have looked for every opportunity to game the system, to seek advantage, to seek sexual and financial gratification at all costs, with truly complete disregard for anyone else, no matter what cloak of righteousness they put on.
Sadly, the bastards often are clever, and band together, and masquerade as decent people of both parties. And no there have NOT been as many of the bastards among liberals throughout our history (the party alignments have changed so much that one can’t really tag this to R or D going way far back, ie Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt were Republicans, and southern racist demagogues used to be Democrats).
If far lefties refuse to talk with Liberals and tar them with the same brush as MAGAs and Nixons and Vought and Koch brothers, then they’re just pissing away any opportunity to gain real power (for anybody except the bastards).
They WANT you to fracture all alliances. They want you to react to the cowardice of too many Dem leaders (yes I agree) by taking your ball and going home, fantasizing about an anarchist society where somehow the power of greedy bastards is de-fanged.
Alright I’m done for now. Just fucking vote in a two party system. After showing up for progressive Dems or Dems period if no progressives are on the ticket, in every primary at every level down to county council, and then in state and national elections, take over the party and enact the reforms that you can get the support for. Show the fuck up. Non voters and spoilers have no fucking influence.
> If you look at the political discourse coming out of the Democratic Party right now, it is really about, “Let’s try and figure out what the median voter wants”—which is basically affordability.
My favorite newsletter is Slow Boring, and the impression I get from them Matt Yglesias there is "We tried campaigning on anti-authoritarianism and Trump being a threat to democracy. It didn't work. To the contrary, the Republican Party is actually more trusted now than the Democratic Party. So we need a different tack. We need to focus on what swing voters want, what low-information voters want in particular." The low-information swing voters, to the extent they care about erosion of institutions or democratic backsliding or corruption, either don't notice these problems or, upon hearing Trump or MAGA operatives saying "actually Democrats are the bad ones", shrug in confusion and vote for whatever words they like to hear coming from politicians' mouths (and, I would add, whatever nutty nonsense they see on Facebook―an underrated problem in the Matty camp)
So yes, let's rebuild institutions, let's have a Project 2029 or whatever, but also recognize you can't win an election on that stuff. It's, as you say, a good thing to have on the shelf or in the drawer, much as whoever came up with the Patriot Act had that in the drawer, ready to go when 9/11 created the demand.
It is not either/or. There is absolutely no reason why an affordability agenda can't be tied to an anti-authoritarian one.
In fact, you can't have an affordability agenda without an anti-authoritarian one. The question is what does one mean by "affordability."
Those of us who are liberals mean capitalism, which is only possible by a rights-protecting government (liberal/anti-authoritarian).
I don't think that's what the democrats mean...
You think they're not anti-authoritarian? smh
Your point? Other than to dismiss this excellent woman??
What's this, hostility?
I will spell it out for you: they ARE anti-authoritarian! I am anti-authoritarian! I put a heart on this article before writing a comment here! And I am not dismissing anyone! Jesus H Christ.
(And for further points, see original comment)
I don’t know what hearts you put up. I still can’t tell who you mean by “they”. A cryptic dismissive comment accompanied by “smh”.
The point that resonates most: “The pre-Trump status quo failed and brought us to this moment.” That’s the insight that makes this more than a restoration project.
One observation worth considering: framing reconstruction as a specifically “liberal” agenda—even in the classical sense—may limit the coalition available for it. Congressional dysfunction, executive overreach, and policy whiplash hurt everyone’s ability to get what they want, regardless of ideology. There are principled conservatives who’ve been making structural arguments about congressional abdication for decades (before discovering they liked executive power when their guy held it).
The Juan Linz point about presidential systems being prone to authoritarian consolidation is the right level of analysis. That’s a design question, not a personnel question. And design questions can build broader coalitions than ideological ones.
You say that "Trump has done unprecedented damage to our institutions, our governing norms, and just basic civic virtue. No president has done this much institutional destruction as Trump has." And yet, after four years in his first term, Trump's popular vote in 2020 went up 18%. By 2024, he was re-elected with 23% more votes than in 2016. How could his popularity increase by so much if he did "unprecedented damage to our institutions"?
Because so many Americans have learned to distrust those institutions. Look at the polls by Gallup and the Pew Center. You cannot blame Trump for "institutional destruction". If that has brought him electoral success, that is what a politician ought to do. The fault lies with those institutions for disserving their constituents badly enough to get Trump elected and re-elected. If those institutions now suffer "institutional destruction", they got it the old-fashioned way: They earned it.
You know, the sheer scale of Trump's institutional destruction ought to make good people ashamed of trotting out the same old tired talking points about the institutions themselves are to blame for Trump. Institutional lapses do not justify sending living breathing humans to Gulags in El Salvador or giving Guantanamo-style treatment reserved for terrorists toward peaceful people. For God's sake stop it now. Read this: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/opinion/ice-immigration-green-card-detention.html?smid=url-share
I think this gets the causal relationship backwards. Trump didn't destroy anything. A Trump, or a Mamdani election victory is only possible if our institutions are already destroyed.
Trump and MAGA are symptoms.
The lack of political expertise in the entire political mainstream, across every branch of government, is the cause.
This is also why I think talk of reconstruction is pointless until the root cause is addressed.
This is kinda baloney, sorry. This is the currency of the day among lefties at a distance, many of whom have not voted, or put in their spoiler vote. I’m tired of it. It is a huge undertaking to keep things together at all. At all.
And to say things, as the far lefties often do, like “the system is working exactly as designed” - well, no, it fucking well was not. There is a constant tension between people who basically want to do the right thing, and hope for a system that brings the most prosperity as possible to all, and all the greedy bastards we’ve seen throughout history, people for whom there is no bending arc of history but only more corruption ad infinitum.
Granted that many like me think an effectively fairer system is brought into being thru democratic socialism and a multi party system, and many others think it’s through emphasizing economic policies that prioritize strengthening businesses. If they’re promoting small businesses and family farms, including woman-owned and POC owned, I’m cool sharing a tent with them.
This whole time, since the beginning (yes in the midst of an unfolding and continuing genocide and the stain of slavery), there has been this battle between people with actual morals and ethics, with an instinct toward greater inclusiveness no matter how dimly and incompletely envisioned, and greedy, amoral bastards who have looked for every opportunity to game the system, to seek advantage, to seek sexual and financial gratification at all costs, with truly complete disregard for anyone else, no matter what cloak of righteousness they put on.
Sadly, the bastards often are clever, and band together, and masquerade as decent people of both parties. And no there have NOT been as many of the bastards among liberals throughout our history (the party alignments have changed so much that one can’t really tag this to R or D going way far back, ie Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt were Republicans, and southern racist demagogues used to be Democrats).
If far lefties refuse to talk with Liberals and tar them with the same brush as MAGAs and Nixons and Vought and Koch brothers, then they’re just pissing away any opportunity to gain real power (for anybody except the bastards).
They WANT you to fracture all alliances. They want you to react to the cowardice of too many Dem leaders (yes I agree) by taking your ball and going home, fantasizing about an anarchist society where somehow the power of greedy bastards is de-fanged.
Alright I’m done for now. Just fucking vote in a two party system. After showing up for progressive Dems or Dems period if no progressives are on the ticket, in every primary at every level down to county council, and then in state and national elections, take over the party and enact the reforms that you can get the support for. Show the fuck up. Non voters and spoilers have no fucking influence.