Unfit to Be the Ruler of a Free People: The Anti-American Presidency of Donald Trump
The Trump administration is an affront to everything good that America has become and everything America has ever sought to be.
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Two Paths to Immortality: Some Civic Religion for Nonbelievers
Reactionary immortality projects explain a lot about American political culture—above all why and how we Americans choose to panic.
The Grift Society
Where neoliberalism required at least the performance of adherence to impersonal rules, the grift economy revels in the scam of it all.
Neon Liberalism #24: The Border Crisis Is an Everything Crisis
Join Samantha and guest Professor Anna Law as they talk about the exploding constitutional crisis over Donald Trump's deportation program, exemplified by the removal of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Along the way they address the importance of due process, the Fugitive Slave Crisis and the origins of birthright citizenship,
Inherent Vice: Can America Come Back From Who We’ve Become?
At the richest moment in world history, in an unparalleled time of comforts and luxuries, we have elected self-harm and self-pity.
What Does “Defending the Constitution” Really Mean?
Does the oath of office I swore as an attorney for the trial court permit or even require me to defend the Constitution by force, if it is threatened by an illegitimate and authoritarian government?
What Congo’s Mobutu Sese Seko Teaches Us About Trumpism
Mobutu and Trump both rule by normalizing corruption, not just to enrich themselves but also to cement their own power.
The Red State Religious Narrative
Southern democracy, like every other aspect of Southern society, was shaped by the political and economic needs of the slaveholding planter class and is maintained by the MAGA movement via shame and projection.
The Present Crisis and the End of the Long '90s
The constitutional settlement that governed America from the end of the Volcker Shock in 1982 to the re-election of Donald Trump in 2024 encompassed three profound domains: politics, economics, and culture.
Half the Answer #9: Language, Identity, and Anti-Woke Academic Slander
Trent and Caitlin talk with Dr. Aris Clemons, an Assistant Professor in Linguistics, about the various slanders and misapprehensions that plague her field of study. We discuss language ideologies, the illusion of objectivity, the futility of being “apolitical” in a political institution, ethnography and lived experience, “other ways of knowing,
Trump Can't Both Deport Millions and Increase the Population
No serious person believes it’s possible to both decrease and increase the US population at the same time.
Trump ‘Alarmists’ Were Right. We Should Say So.
Commentators who got it wrong wouldn’t listen, won’t learn, and can’t lead.
Just Make Your Case and Leave Campaign Strategy to Politicians
Politicians will try to win elections whether you self-censor your principled position or not.
Working Homeless in America
Brian Goldstone doesn’t use the abstract language of structural violence, but his story is full of landlords, bureaucrats, and politicians insulated from the pain they inflict by distance, resources, and power.
Children Are the Future: Authoritarianism, Culture War, and Making Model Citizens
MAGA’s approach to young Americans is about creating adherents and eliminating undesirables.
Palestine and "Free Speech" Hypocrisy
The right and so-called moderate center have framed trigger warnings, the deplatforming of far right speakers, and peaceful protests as urgent free speech crises, but now they downplay the actual stifling of speech and expression.
Elon Musk's Artificial God
In the vision of Musk and other lords of Silicon Valley, the purpose of AI technology is to insulate them, and only them, from any hint that they might live in a society.
The Opposition Report #1
A summary of the second Trump term to date.
Yes, It's Fascism
It’s not an omen or threat or hint of fascism—it’s the thing itself.
Foreign Policy As If Liberalism Mattered
Neither states nor nations are endowed with inalienable rights. Individuals are.
The False Promise of the "Mar-a-Lago Accord"
There is no problem with trade deficits in principle. If we wish for more capital to flow into the “real economy,” we must prevent crowding out from housing.
"Abundance" Does Not Offer a Viable Electoral Strategy
Whatever its policy merits, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson are mistaken to offer Abundance as an answer to Democrats' political woes.
“Adolescence” and the Right’s War on Men
A large part of the media today is devoted solely to making men into terrible people.
You're Not Crazy. America Has Gone Mad
American politics has become so insane that being reasonable feels like a malady, and MAGA agrees.