Headwaters: August 17–23, 2026

The weekly roundup of what we’ve done at Liberal Currents includes an assessment of prospects for a left-liberal coalition to defeat Trumpism and a critique of right-wing efforts to boost a concept of “Western civilization.”

Articles:

• “Natalie Harp and the American Don (Juan),” Alan Elrod: Even as the right cheers Trump dispensing punishment to their enemies, they crave to be disciplined themselves.
• “The Voter Roll Purge That Helped End Trinamool Rule,” Haseeb Khot: Are elections more safely run by one accountable body, or by 10,000 uncoordinated ones?
• “The Reasonable Liberal,” Guillaume A. W. Attia: We must begin the process of making our political rivals not just more legible but human in a way we can also recognize in ourselves.
• “The Western Hemisphere After Trump,” Matthew Downhour: The aim of neighborly and mutual integration with the Western Hemisphere, including free trade and the free movement of people, is a noble one.
• “Making a Popular Front Work,” John Deisinger: Navigating the pitfalls of a DSA-liberal alliance.
• “The School Shooter Civilization,” John Banks: “Civilizationist” thinking, once confined to the radical fringe and the manifestos of mass killers, has moved to the center of American foreign policy.

Podcasts:

• “How the Court Built Trump's Imperial Presidency” (Neon Liberalism #87, with Josh Chafetz): Supreme Court rulings stretching back decades laid the groundwork for expanded executive power.
• “For Back-to-School, It's Measles, Mumps, and Rubella” (Half the Answer #99, with Caitlin Gilbert): Vaccination rates are falling across the country.
• “Natalie Harp Is the Most Powerful Woman in the World” (Liberal Currents Live #3): And that's why we have to talk about Natalie.
• “Midterm Madness: Political Ads from Michigan to Texas” (Half the Answer #98, with Jonathan M. Katz): Floating in a hideous soup of extremism, slander, bad art, and dirty dealings.

Editors’ Notes:

• “Karoline Leavitt Was a Sloppy Hack”: The war on professionalism will continue even with the departure of one of its most visible soldiers.
• “Liberals Need to Know the Reading to Do”: Let’s put some thought toward making a better canon of central works in liberalism.
• “What Is Social Media For?”: Not everything requires the largest platform possible.
• “Never Underestimate the Human Capacity for Earnest Cruelty”: Americans ought to be more familiar with the sorts of atrocities committed both by regimes and by rioting publics.

Videos and shorts:

• “Karoline Leavitt and Steven Cheung Debase Themselves for the Personality Cult”: Adam Gurri on MAGA’s sloppy shills.
• “Fighting Boldly for Palestinian Human Rights”: Brad Lander on what he’ll do in the 120th Congress.
• “Imagine Sports as a Third Space”: Justin Briley says sports betting is damaging America’s social fabric.
• “Rousing the Moral Conscience of Others”: Jason Briggeman on the book that inspired the book that started the war that freed the slaves.

Selections from The Reconstruction Papers:

• Chapter 2: “Institutional Reform That Can Be Done With a Simple Majority in Congress,” by Nicholas Grossman.
• Chapter 1: “Introduction: Beyond Resistance, Beyond Reform,” by Adam Gurri.

What we’re reading and watching elsewhere:

• Samantha Hancox-Li, on winning and losing: “There are real movements that have made real choices in the kinds of tactics and strategies that they've pursued to overcome authoritarian systems, and some of those choices have been more effective than others.”
• Madinah Wilson-Anton, on selling out as a contagion: “There are ways, as an elected official intent on staying true to your values and the community that elected you to represent them, for you to improve your immunity.”
• Brian Beutler, on normalization: "It’s not solely the means by which we allow ourselves to be boiled like the proverbial frog. It’s also something people can, for good or ill, do to themselves or their own priorities."