A Tent Big Enough for Bigots but Too Small for Critical Race Theory
Like so many of critical race theory's detractors, Matthew Yglesias fails to engage with the actual scholarship.
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A New Season of Hope
Looking back on this year's battlegrounds, looking ahead to 2026 and beyond.
The Opposition Report #8
An announcement, Pete Hegseth, Abrego Garcia, and more.
Neon Liberalism #56: The Culture War Eats Foreign Policy
Join Samantha and guest Joe Stieb, assistant professor at UNC Chapel Hill, as they talk about Donald Trump's 2025 National Security Strategy. This strange document treats the European Union as our enemy, Russia as an afterthought, and obsesses over the dangers of "DEI." Stieb argues that
Marriage, Misogyny, and the Pursuit of Happiness: The Right Is Offering a Morally Barren Vision of the Family
Liberals cannot allow the right to monopolize the discourse on virtue and the good life or they will cede space to their rigid and hierarchical visions.
They Were All Our Ancestors
Nationalism chooses sides in the most awful family drama of all time. It sides with the evildoers, and never with their victims, and teaches you to do the same.
Trump's War on Christmas Is a War on Liberalism
After decades of make-believe, the Trump administration is promising an actual war on Christmas that would traumatize religious communities with armed state power.
Half the Answer #54: Touring America with Border Patrol and ICE
Trent and Caitlin catch up with journalist Amanda Moore to hear about her tour of American cities that have been targeted for ICE and Border Patrol operations. Half the Answer can be heard on Spotify, on Apple, on YouTube, on Amazon, and elsewhere via its RSS feed. Resources: https://www.
Ezra Klein, Self-Harm, and Liberal Perfectionism
From the beginning, liberals have felt the need to promote the development and flourishing of human nature in light of the good even if they disagreed about what it might be.
Impeach and Remove the Bastards
A scenario for 2027.
Sovereignty for Me, None for Thee
Donald Trump's 2025 National Security Strategy reveals a radical blood-and-soil conception of national strategy based on maintaining white patriarchal Christian domination at home and abroad.
Neon Liberalism #55: Politics As Culture
Has culture stagnated in the 21st century? Do the last twenty-five years feel like a blur? What can politics learn from the inherent dynamics of cultural change? And is Donald Trump the greatest kitsch artist of our time? Join Samantha Hancox-Li and guest W. David Marx, author of the just-released
American Freakshow: Our Reality TV-Driven Media Is Killing Our Democracy
The lurid details of Olivia Nuzzi's transgressions and the popularity of "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" derive from the same culture of voyeurism.
halftheanswer
Half the Answer #53: Sick in America: Is Everyone Else Lying to You?
Caitlin and Trent talk with Jonathan Howard, a neurologist, psychiatrist, and author of Everyone Else Is Lying to You and We Want Them Infected, both books analyzing the policies and discourses around the COVID-19 pandemic. Half the Answer can be heard on Spotify, on Apple, on YouTube, on Amazon, and
No Ordinary Time
Eleanor Roosevelt remains a striking example of the struggle against authoritarianism in dark times.
The Devil's Bargain
Nazism and the moral collapse of German Christendom.
Finding and Promoting Young Liberal Talent
What Liberal Currents is already doing for liberalism in this country, what we will continue to do.
Medical Research Is a Life and Death Issue
The casualties of the war on research will mount for years.
halftheanswer
Half the Answer #52: Modern Gangsters of Capitalism and the Imperial Boomerang
Trent and Caitlin talk with journalist and author Jonathan Katz about the gangsters of capitalism, the imperial boomerang, and the moral injuries inflicted when officers, agents, and soldiers engage in the inhumane and depraved acts that are demanded of them. Half the Answer can be heard on Spotify, on Apple,
Trans Panic? More Like Trans Apathetic
2025 shows trans rights aren't electoral poison. The truth? Most people just don't care that much.
A Preview of a Project We'll Pursue If Fully Funded
Investing in a positive vision for a liberal future, rather than remaining in a defensive crouch on behalf of a liberal past.
neonliberalism
Neon Liberalism #54: An Army Is a Dangerous Thing to Play With
Join Samantha and guest Kori Schake, author of The State and the Soldier, as they discuss the history of civil-military relations in America—and how that relationship is being pushed to the breaking point. National Guard units are deployed in the streets; DHS rappels from Black Hawks onto civilian homes.
Liberalism or Inertia? Cass Sunstein's "Liberalism: In Defense of Freedom"
Sunstein’s book adopts a small-c conservative defensiveness that belies a now-requisite rejuvenating liberal imagination.
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The Editors Chat #8
Epstein, elections, the shutdown, and more.