I received a review copy of this book. It was enraging. (All the institutions you thought were legitimating genocide were and in ways that are even more clear in hindsight.) But the reporting, data, and analysis were excellent. Buy if you can!

"The cost of ruling," is a concept I wasn't familiar with before this sharp @leedrutman.bsky.social piece. But it explains the midterm effect (party in power always loses.) And it creates a real urgency for Dems if they have a trifecta in 2029. leedrutman.substack.com/p/the-democr...

Freedom House, Bright Light Watch and V-Dem this week all told dire stories about American democracy under Trump. But the details were different---and they matter. newrepublic.com/article/2080...

Excellent @ddayen.bsky.social piece. prospect.org/2026/02/17/e...

Lol.

All of this happened in January in MN. We’re in March. ICE is still in MN but not close to the way they were 2 months ago. People change things. I think we’d all do well to remind ourselves of this daily. People change things. We can change things.

"We've spent the past two years watching the Israeli military murder children in Gaza. No one is being held accountable for that. This is a problem of our foreign policy establishment. It is a bipartisan problem, a problem of elite impunity, zero accountability," says @mattduss.bsky.social.

"Her [AOC in Germany] remarks were tremendous. She's offering a vision of a working class centered foreign policy to combat corruption, oligarchy, authoritarianism. That is really the moment we're in. I thought it was very inspiring," says @mattduss.bsky.social.

"These Iranian leaders are cruel, repressive, often corrupt people. But there is a set of norms against assassinating foreign state officials. This is just the latest in a set of international norms created over the course of many wars that have now been broken," says @mattduss.bsky.social.

Like this. newrepublic.com/article/2068...

Taxation is the compromise. The alternative, as history shows, is that the ultra-wealthy get dragged out of their homes. They should be taxed for their own good as well as ours. We can't maintain our democracy when these unelected and unaccountable kleptocrats hoard wealth on these scales.

When Perry writes something, I read it. He is one of the greatest political commentators we have on the US Left right now—and, for the umpteenth time, this piece illustrates why. Let us help make voices like Perry's the new discursive norm.

"Progressive policies are gaining ground in the Democratic Party. But progressive politicians aren’t advancing as quickly. The cryptocurrency industry, AIPAC, and other groups are spending heavily to keep left-wingers out of Congress. And they are often succeeding." newrepublic.com/article/2079...

"Democrats are no longer framing their tax increases on the wealthy solely as measures to fund programs. They are arguing that America’s super-wealthy simply have too much money and taking some of that away is a public good on its own." newrepublic.com/article/2078...

"We need more arguments for policies on the merits, and less reactionary centrists laundering fascism with the excuse that a little fascism will win every election. There is every evidence that it does not." www.everythingishorrible.net/p/centrism-c...

"In a Magnetism approach, you draw your supporters in by trumpeting causes you believe in that compel them to sustained action,. And you revel in repelling the voters who will never support you." www.weekendreading.net/p/bringing-a...

"The politics of careful positioning and poll-tested moderation have been tested, and on their own, they have failed to deliver the victories needed to protect democracy. The choice is to transform the party’s strategy to meet the scale of the threat, or fail." www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-no...

"We cannot fight the political battles of 2026 with the weapons (or leaders) of 1996." I would add, and I suspect @amandalitman.bsky.social agrees, we also cannot fight the political battles of 2026 with the weapons and leaders of 2012. amandalitman.substack.com/p/what-the-s...

Am excellent antidote to the insipid NYT article.

"As much as the old guard might like to pretend, voters simply do not make decisions purely on policy positions. They vote based on a mix of who they like, who they feel likes them, and most importantly, who they trust," writes @amandalitman.bsky.social. amandalitman.substack.com/p/what-the-s...

The NYT says it is committed to publishing a diversity of viewpoints in the opinion section. Yet the paper has published a dozen articles in the past year about why Dems have to move to the center to win, and few about limits of this thinking or more optimal strategy www.nytimes.com/2026/03/16/o...

"As governor, I have vetoed numerous anti-L.G.B.T.Q. and anti-choice bills, yet I still beat Mr. Trump’s handpicked candidate last fall." www.nytimes.com/2024/11/12/o...

Exactly.

Exactly. newrepublic.com/article/2068...

"A coalition that wants change is out there waiting to be built, and these voters largely already agree with inclusive populism—an economically populist agenda and narrative that also refutes cultural attacks," writes @jenancona.bsky.social. www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-no...

Let me suggest a straightforward litmus test for 2028 candidates. Do they support a wealth tax? If they do not, then they are not going to attack the underlying problem that got us to our troubling position in the first place," writes @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social. www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/the-real-l...

"Stratton is the only one in the field who seems comfortable saying ICE needs to be abolished. She’s the only one comfortable saying she would not vote for Schumer to head the Senate Democratic caucus," writes @nberlat.bsky.social. www.everythingishorrible.net/p/juliana-st...

With a fixture (Clyburn) of both the Dem establishment that keeps losing elections and the party's gerontocracy in the news, worth coming back to this @adambonica.bsky.social piece. A better party is possible. data4democracy.substack.com/p/the-democr...

"The signature policy of the New Deal wasn't really Social Security. It was the payroll tax that funded Social Security ...If you want a broad set of middle class benefits, you need a broad-based middle class tax." Sharp @jamellebouie.net response to Dem tax plans. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXZv...

We are not seeing mass protests because universities and colleges criminalized dissent — not just disciplining students on specious grounds but sending police (sometimes more in # than protestors) and supporting prosecutions. Ppl are terrified.

I’m really not a fan of “where are the student protesters?” discourse. You probably don’t see as much because university administrators, law-enforcement at all levels, many state govts, and the current federal govt have made it very clear that speech on a college campus is effectively criminalized

Had a great conversation with @perrybaconjr.bsky.social about what we can learn from the past 14 months of Trumpism in power - and why Trump’s authoritarian desires are limitless, but his ability to impose them on the country is very much not:

"From city councils to Congress, homeowners have always dominated elected office. But after Mamdani’s victory, a slew of renter candidates want to follow in his footsteps." Excellent @monicapotts.bsky.social piece. newrepublic.com/article/2076...

"What Democrats shouldn’t do is oversell the prospect of small income-tax cuts for working people when the real source of the trouble is FICA." Sharp piece from @timothynoah.bsky.social on the shortcomings of the Van Hollen/Booker tax plans. newrepublic.com/article/2076...

this is endless discourse...so I will just reiterate that *Newsom is not ahead in polls* and talking about him as if he's already the nominee helps him. don't do that. www.everythingishorrible.net/p/we-can-bea...

“Moderate Democratic voters are not centrists clamoring for a return to the Clinton era or rebukes of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders.” Those are the Democratic consultants pushing for that.

"What this data suggests is that moderate Democratic voters are fully in line with the growing economic populism in the party and actually want more of it. And on social issues, they aren’t as worried...as many centrist pundits are." From @perrybaconjr.bsky.social newrepublic.com/article/2074...

What makes a Democrat call themselves moderate may be about demographics (African-Americans, people without four-year degrees) more than policy positions. This bloc is not a bunch of Bloomberg types trying to stop economic populism. newrepublic.com/article/2074...

Moderate Democrats with columns in newspapers are constantly saying the Democratic Party is way too liberal on "social" issues. Moderate Democratic voters in real life do not feel this way. With some polling data from @gelliottmorris.com and @dataforprogress.org. newrepublic.com/article/2074...

Third Way and other "moderate" Democratic groups and elites constantly bash progressive politicians and ideas. But moderate Democratic VOTERS really like raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations, Medicare-for-all, and Bernie Sanders. newrepublic.com/article/2074...

Just realized that with Abolish ICE at +11, it's polling over 30 percentage-points ahead of Trump approval. Guess that means if the media wants to be representative, it should give at least like 40% more airtime to people who support abolishing ICE to Trump supporters

She’s only doing this because she knows how toxic the vote has become, but that itself is significant. But we don’t need senators who can apologize for bad votes a year late. We need senators who won’t take them.

The majority of people in this country do not want us to be involved in this war. Keir Starmer of a few years ago wouldn't have supported this war. The only reason he does now is he will do anything Donald Trump wants - and it makes us all less safe.

Eh. Again, ~90% of the reason it's all politics all the time is <gestures at the daily onslaught of lawless authoritarianism>. This is not a Bluesky problem. It's a society/polity problem. We will all go back to sh*tposting about TV, cocktails, sports, music, food, & puppies in the after-times.

Sen. Ossoff Statement on Iran.

"For the United States to make it out of its own crisis, we need to take this lesson to heart: not marginalize discussion of Trump’s threat to democracy, but bring it to the fore," writes @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social. Great piece. www.vox.com/politics/479...

‘Just go to college’–the Dems’ prescription for four decades–is losing out to ‘tax the rich’ as the populist wing of the Democratic Party ascends. These shifting tides have prompted a furious backlash from centrists," writes @jenniferberkshire.bsky.social. educationwars.substack.com/p/oversellin...

"When it comes to militarism, especially militarism that serves Israel, Dem leadership and liberal institutions are growing further from their base. The two most powerful Dems in Congress are much closer to AIPAC’s position than that of their own voters." therealnews.com/trump-iran-d...

"There are multiple arguments that Democrats need to be making, including the fact that he’s acting illegally, and the fact that he’s acting strategically stupidly. So make all of those arguments. Don’t just ask for a briefing," says @mattduss.bsky.social. www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...

"It seems like Israel’s regional security doctrine, now backed by the United States, is not just that Israel has the right to defend itself but that only Israel has the right to defend itself in the region," says @mattduss.bsky.social. www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...