"It's time to turn the tables, stop weakly defending the whole idea of public health, and instead turn it into a rallying point for those resisting this administration." www.liberalcurrents.com/propaganda-r...

Latest article for @liberalcurrents.com is a review of @ztameez.bsky.social’s Charles Sumner: Conscience of a Nation (Holt, 2025), with some references to Sean M. Kelley’s American Slavers (Yale, 2024). www.liberalcurrents.com/the-american...

Enter your email address at this link to see our patron tiers or simply to get our essays in your inbox for free: www.liberalcurrents.com/support-us/

"The fact that the American slave population kept growing even after repeated efforts to slow the spread, degradation, and lethality of the institution was a sign to all Americans of good conscience that a new constitutional approach was needed to address the scourge of slavery."

"Rousseau or Locke would be aghast at the idea that individuals have no obligation to work on behalf of the common good. If there is an inalienable right to life, it should follow that I have an obligation to take reasonable steps to minimize disease that could harm or kill my peers."

thank you @danielharper.bsky.social for sitting down with us for an entire morning and talking through the complete shitshow that was the carlson/fuentes bro fest

“What made Charles Sumner a profoundly modern thinker was his commitment to a thorough-going conception of human rights based on the inherent dignity of all human persons.” www.liberalcurrents.com/the-american...

My newest piece for Liberal Currents, and a paean to public health. It needs to be the tip of the spear against fascism and it’s a natural leader in the fight for a better world. Thanks to @gregggonsalves.bsky.social for talking to me as I worked on this.

“Understanding the Covid-19 pandemic as a catalyst for right-wing backlash is misleading because it’s too passive” www.liberalcurrents.com/propaganda-r...

"We don’t need a mass movement. We just need enough people who are willing to step up, change the narrative, and help to create the opposition party we so desperately need." (from March) www.liberalcurrents.com/its-time-for...

"The idea of a desert-based conception of meritocracy is so deeply ingrained, even hardened egalitarians like Ronald Dworkin struggle to entirely give it up." www.liberalcurrents.com/the-utopiani...

Half the Answer #47: Caitlin and Trent check in with Daniel Harper of the "I Don't Speak German" podcast. They discuss the controversial interview between Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes, the role it seems to be playing in the far right, and various reactions (the good and the goofy).

"The far right in America sees women as a national—as well as natural—resource, a means of reversing the mass tide of migration that they think has taken their country from them." www.liberalcurrents.com/women-should...

"It's not enough to have a mass movement that takes to the streets and brings the fight to the enemy. All of us have seen such movements explode and then flame out in our lifetimes. Success against Trump will require genuine tactical acumen and strategic clarity."

Sometime this weekend, take a break from your marathon HOI4 sesh to watch or listen to @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com talk about the game's relationship with real-world politics. www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberal...

"SCOTUS, the Originalism Trap, and the Civil Rights Act": @caitlinmoriah.bsky.social and @trentrichardnelson.bsky.social with @audrelawdamercy.bsky.social, on our Half the Answer podcast www.liberalcurrents.com/half-the-ans...

"We’re no longer in the usual realm of Republicans whitewashing or downplaying the darkness in our history... This administration has upgraded the earlier model, showing through word and action that it believes the shameful sides of America’s past were, in fact, good—even examples to follow today."

Called it, 15 months ago, for @liberalcurrents.com, to which you should lend your support. www.nbcnews.com/politics/imm... www.liberalcurrents.com/mass-deporta...

Neon Liberalism #51: Join host Samantha Hancox-Li as she explores the concept of "meme politics," which pervades the current Trump II administration. In reality, society is an obscure, complicated, recalcitrant system. Meme politics asks: what if it wasn't? www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberal...

"The notion of empathy as a weakening influence in modern life is rampant on the right today." www.liberalcurrents.com/women-should...

"Tracinski urges us to take a step back and get back to our philosophical roots—to 'think like the Founders,' and see Trump II not as a series of outrages but a single coherent picture." www.liberalcurrents.com/fight-on-eve...

"How did we get here? Everyone knows the answer: In 2024, Musk spent a negligible fraction of his vast fortune, now some $455 billion, to effectively buy a government position." www.liberalcurrents.com/billionaires...

“Trump’s leadership rests on a foundation of charismatic attachment, something that by its nature is tied to him personally.” www.liberalcurrents.com/americas-pat...

Good review of my book.

“We have exited normal politics. We are no longer here to have a debate about the importance of the top marginal tax rate. We are here to save our republic.” www.liberalcurrents.com/fight-on-eve...

Miles' piece here is both legal and personal. Mostly I read it with shame and anger at the cruelty transgender people are being put through. Infuriatingly, SCOTUS 6 to 3 today has upheld the administration's equal protection violation. @milesew.bsky.social

“Even without these worst-case scenarios, simple passport revocation could temporarily or permanently prevent transgender people from leaving the country if, and when, life here becomes untenable.” www.liberalcurrents.com/the-politics...

The front page of the New York Times is asking if women belong the workplace and @aselrod.bsky.social and @liberalcurrents.com, come through with this. Incredible timing.

Half the Answer #46: Caitlin and Trent check in with attorney and legal scholar Madiba K. Dennie about the Supreme Court and the originalist reading of the US Constitution—and why the originalist reading is a trap. www.liberalcurrents.com/half-the-ans...

Some on the far right want to repeal the 19th amendment. Many more share a coercive, patriarchal view of women. I wrote about this and how the far right sees subjugating women as key to building the sort of electorate they need to win. @liberalcurrents.com www.liberalcurrents.com/women-should...

“The idea that women shouldn’t vote has existed on the crank right for a long time. But increasingly, it’s made its way into more mainstream MAGA conversations” www.liberalcurrents.com/women-should...

Stolen from the other place:

"Republicans did not do issue polling to decide if they wanted to demonize immigrants and trans people." www.liberalcurrents.com/democrats-mu...

"Radical Liberalism?": @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com with Alex Zakaras, on our Neon Liberalism podcast www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberal...

"Should we get the chance...we must institute a multiparty democracy (via proportional representation like most democracies) and an executive more like a prime minister than the imperial president we seem doomed to endure under our current constitution." www.liberalcurrents.com/the-american...

"𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘢𝘳 𝘰𝘯 𝘚𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 is a paradigm example of Anton Jäger’s concept of ‘hyperpolitics’: a heightened emotional response to momentary moral panics, fads, ‘a form of politicisation without any clear political consequences.’" www.liberalcurrents.com/wars-on-scie...

"It’s still the case that your vote does improve our chances of not having a king, and your vote is worth much more than the time it takes to cast it." (from July 2024) www.liberalcurrents.com/elections-ar...

"The intent might be spiritual revelation but the effect is something like necromancy mixed with a carnival act." www.liberalcurrents.com/the-last-ene...

"It would take immense social engineering for the meritocrat to even partially and very imperfectly impose and then constantly reimpose their preferred pattern of merit." www.liberalcurrents.com/the-utopiani...

Fifty episodes of Neon Liberalism. www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberal...

Please read this wonderful essay by @dennislytton.bsky.social in @liberalcurrents.com. It displays the author's deep well of knowledge in history, institutions, and democracy, and it endorses key insights from Parliamentary America. It is well worth your time. www.liberalcurrents.com/the-american...

Our 249-year-old system -- two-party presidentialism -- has sometimes worked in spite of itself due to favorable conditions, un-codified norms, & a few periodic fixes. That run is clearly over. I argue below that we need a multiparty democracy with the legislature supreme and a limited executive.

"Today, most members of Congress defer to the White House and are content with an advisory, almost sinecure, role. Especially in the GOP, this subservient role supporting the President in the media is now expected." www.liberalcurrents.com/the-american...

"We need to do more than just get checks and balances back. We also need to have a system that permanently enshrines a limited executive whose power derives from a robust multiparty legislature." www.liberalcurrents.com/the-american...

“We cannot go back to anything approaching the old constitutional order, which already had been in a long, terminal decline.” www.liberalcurrents.com/the-american...

"What Does History Tell Us About the Second Trump Term?": @caitlinmoriah.bsky.social and @trentrichardnelson.bsky.social with @antisocialstudies.bsky.social, on our Half the Answer podcast www.liberalcurrents.com/half-the-ans...

My entry in the Trump ballroom discourse. It’s a monument to Trump’s insecurities, a symbol of our descent into authoritarianism, and a gaudy bribery palace all in one. Read at @liberalcurrents.com www.liberalcurrents.com/trump-loeil-...

"Liberalism 101: Liberalism Today": @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com with @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com, on our Neon Liberalism podcast #LIBERALISM

"It’s worth reiterating just how absurdly, laughably large Trump’s White House addition is." www.liberalcurrents.com/trump-loeil-...

Half the Answer #45: Trent and Caitlin talk with Emily Glankler of Anti-Social Studies about moments in American history that could inform us about the events of Trump’s second term as president. Who are some characters who resemble the individuals we are dealing with today? Who are the scapegoats?