Headwaters: September 14–20, 2026

The weekly roundup of what we’ve done at Liberal Currents includes a number of different looks at power and the ways it’s wielded now.

Articles:

• “You Should Read Keynes,” Guillaume A. W. Attia: Keynes was a liberal for our age: morally serious, hopeful for a better future, and yet reconciled to the compromises necessary to preserve the fragile liberal order.
• “The Future of the Republican Party After Trump Is in Texas,” Alan Elrod: The white male supremacists of the Texas GOP embody what the national party has become.
• “Nuclear Arms and the New Free World,” Georgiy Kistiakowsky: The free world no longer has the luxury of regarding nuclear deterrence like a snow globe on a shelf.
• “Continued Free Rein” (The Opposition Report #17), Chance Phillips: Deportations, persecuting critics of the administration, bombing foreign countries, and more.
• “America’s Moral Rot in the Age of Trumpism and How to Reverse It,” A. D. Blair: Accountability and court reform must be zealously pursued once Trump is out of power.
• “We Need a New Federal Writers Project,” Zeb Larson: Drawing on and improving the model pioneered during the New Deal.

Podcasts:

• “Let's Impeach Pete Hegseth” (Neon Liberalism #91, with Keira Havens): Regaining a sense of ourselves as constitutional actors.
• “European Election Results, Racist Militias, and Jared Kushner” (Half the Answer #104, with Hunter CG): News of the Old World and the ongoing adventures of our "special envoy for peace."
• “America's Millions of Millionaires Are a Nice Problem to Have” (Liberal Currents Live #7): With great wealth comes great power and great responsibility.
• “How the Tech Bros of Silicon Valley Would Govern Us” (Half the Answer #103, with Adrian Daub): Taking a look at the ways that tech elites exert, and wish to exert, their power.

Editor’s Notes:

• "My Generals": Trump treats the people's government like his personal property.
• “Getting a Grip on Geopolitics”: Is a stable and liberal geopolitics possible?
• “Court Reform in The Reconstruction Papers”: How to cover a well-covered topic.
• “Media Consolidation Is More Dangerous Than Media Fragmentation”: We need to strengthen truly liberal media institutions.

Videos:

• “The Media Oligarchs Promoting Authoritarianism”: Adam Gurri asks if media decentralization or centralization is a greater threat.
• “Reject Fascism Because We Can Have It All, Rights and Results”: Adam Gurri says that would-be dictators are threatened by competent civil servants working to promote the public good.

Selections from The Reconstruction Papers:

• Chapter 10: “Sustainable Fiscal Policy for America,” by Ed Dolan.
• Chapter 9: “Rebalancing Trade in a Fragmented International Order,” by Steven Randy Waldman.

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Some of what we’re reading elsewhere:

• David Schleicher, “The Great American Property Tax Freak Out”: “In the last three years, a number of states have substantially reformed their property tax systems, providing huge tax benefits to owner-occupied homes and shifting the burden of paying for services like schools and police to commercial property owners (including rental apartment buildings), to other local taxes, and to state funding, which itself largely comes from sources like sales taxes and income taxes.”
• Justin Elliott, Brett Murphy, Joshua Kaplan and Alex Mierjeski, reporting for ProPublica: “Kremlev’s previously unreported relationship with Trump Jr. represents an extraordinary development: a member of Putin’s circle financially supporting the president’s son and gaining intimate access to the Trump family.”
• Beth Schwartzapfel, reporting on ICE’s treatment of trans women: “I heard stories of sexual assault, constant harassment—both by staff and fellow detainees—and a sense of betrayal that the country where they had sought refuge and safety was treating them like criminals.”