Practical Politics Highlights from Liberal Currents
A look at what we've been working on
I haven’t been very active on Substack, but I have continued to get a trickle of free subscribers here. I thought I would update you all on what I have been doing, over at Liberal Currents (where, by the way, we run on Ghost, which you can subscribe to via email as well).
Systemic change and activism
Samantha Hancox-Li’s An American Reconstruction argues “The constitutional order must be reforged if it is to uphold the fundamental American ideals of freedom, democracy, and equality.” She provides some thoughts on the difficult path to get there.
Paul Crider has a two parter on Frederick Douglass’ political philosophy, and the practical playbook it provides for resisting MAGA today.
I wrote an essay on the lessons of the Civil Rights Movement, arguing we can adapt their methods of organizing and tactics for today.
Jason Briggeman reminded us that ultimately the most practical thing you can do is vote!
Warnings and encouragement
Not everyone believes that Trump will do great and terrible things in his second term, so I wanted to make as concise an argument as possible that required the least shared agreement. What I argued what that he will try to do a lot of terrible things, which we know based on his track record and what he has explicitly promised. I pushed readers to really take it seriously the difference between a candidate that will definitely try those things from one that definitely will not.
Jason Briggeman wrote an even more concise warning, about what mass deportation under a second Trump term might look like.
Here I am duty bound to say that both of us were greatly inspired (terrified?) by Radley Balko’s detailed, thoughtful, and chilling analysis of mass deportation.
On a more hopeful note, A. D. Blair offered A Case Against Despair. He emphasized that “nothing that happens in the United States is going to make resistance impossible and certainly nothing that has happened yet has done that.”
There’s a lot more to read over there if you find the above interesting!
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