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The natural road from "labor owns itself" to strongman rule is not an accident of history. Michael Munger on why collective rights always end up in the same place. hubs.la/Q04r_mnF0
The Eighteenth Brumaire and Collective Wrongs
What Napoleon’s nephew can teach us about populism.
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"The kind of society that we want to have where we respect each other and we have respect for ourselves does not permit us to just embrace lies for the sake of some guy." — @jamellebouie.net Listen to the full episode: hubs.la/Q04rRZHN0
Tolerating imperfection is not a concession liberalism makes. @shalmarr.bsky.social on why accepting people at their worst is where a genuine commitment to pluralism actually begins. hubs.la/Q04rL4Hl0
Liberal Toleration and Ordinary Vices
Hypocrisy, snobbery, betrayal, and misanthropy are everywhere. Here’s what to do about it.
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AI doesn't need to tell you what to think to shape what you think is possible. Eli Talbert on how our new search tools are quietly narrowing the boundaries of political imagination. www.liberalism.org/p/the-automa...
The Automated Overton Window
How digital systems shape which political alternatives become thinkable
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"The goal is government for the people. You only have that when you have government by the people." — @dsallentess.bsky.social Listen to the full episode: hubs.la/Q04rnPzH0
Americans aren't just disagreeing about politics. Scott Warren on what happens when citizens stop sharing a moral vocabulary altogether, and what liberal democracy must do about it. www.liberalism.org/p/can-democr...
Can Democracy Survive if We Stand on Different Foundations?
Characterizing conservative and liberal beliefs should be just the start of a much larger conversation.
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"If you create the image of dominance then people will feel dominated, and then you've won." — @jamellebouie.net Listen to the full episode: hubs.la/Q04r3y5K0
"It's like we are walking through the museum of wretched ideas and saying, 'Let's do this again.' How about a little fascism? Big buckets of antisemitism; let's throw in dashes of tariffs and a ground war in Europe." — @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social 👂: hubs.la/Q04qTT8b0
The revival of civic education raises a question its advocates have not fully answered. Melvin L. Rogers on whether the tradition being recovered is broad enough to sustain the democracy it claims to defend. www.liberalism.org/p/a-civic-ed...
A Civic Education That Extends America
Educating the next generation in American civic culture has always been important. Now more than ever, we must extend that promise to all.
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World Cup fans came to America expecting one thing and found another. Justin Hayes on why that surprise matters more than it might seem. www.liberalism.org/p/contact-as...
Contact as Cure: What the Research on Travel Actually Shows
Visiting World Cup fans won’t be surprised to learn that travel broadens the mind.
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The debate over whether something is "really socialism" is the surest way to avoid thinking clearly about it. @mattzwolinski.bsky.social on why the label is doing all the work and none of the analysis. www.liberalism.org/p/is-it-real...
Is It Really Socialism?
Don’t fight over mere words. Understand what’s behind them.
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The environmental debate has narrowed to carbon, and Courtney Derr argues that the most serious ecological crises are being left behind as a result. She makes the case for a liberal toolkit that puts decision-making in the hands of those closest to the problem. www.liberalism.org/p/who-owns-t...
Who Owns That Bat?
When conservation goes beyond carbon, local knowledge is the key.
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Behind the scenes of last night's live taping of The Liberalism.org Show at #LibCon2026, with host @aaronrosspowell.com and featuring @jamellebouie.net, @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social, and @dsallentess.bsky.social. The episode drops soon on Liberalism.org. Subscribe so you don't miss it.
#LibCon2026 kicks off today at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC, bringing together scholars, policymakers, and advocates for two days of conversation on the future of liberal democracy. If you're in town for the conference, come find the Liberalism.org booth. We'd genuinely love to meet you.
"How should we navigate ourselves through the dangers and problems of technology? Not through a moralistic lens, through an engineering lens." — Troy Cross Listen to the full episode: www.liberalism.org/podcast/why-...
A nation is not its government or its current political moment. Sarah Skwire on why a forgotten Revolutionary-era poet may have understood America better than we do. hubs.la/Q04pGmRB0
Philip Freneau: The Poet We Need Right Now
Nations always tell stories about themselves. Philip Freneau’s “The Rising Glory of America” tells an especially timely one.
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Rousseau believed the state could have a will of its own. Michael Munger tells us why that idea deserves far more scrutiny than it gets. hubs.la/Q04pmJ1n0
The Ghost in the State
Knowing an individual's will is easy. Knowing the will of a collective is like chasing a ghost in a machine.
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"These figures, from Walker to Baldwin, Anna Julia Cooper, Ida B. Wells in the middle, insisted that we have to disentangle freedom from sovereignty and understand that freedom always meant vulnerability." — Melvin Rogers Listen to the full episode: www.liberalism.org/podcast/free...
Why do ordinary Americans sometimes see rule-breaking as justified? @emilychamleewright.bsky.social draws on ethnographic research, from Katrina's aftermath to COVID lockdowns, to show how institutional failure, not partisanship, drives the collapse of democratic trust. hubs.la/Q04nY1qW0
Conservative Values, Trust, and the Prospects for Democratic Renewal
A new study offers insight into the values of ordinary conservative voters.
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In his @nytimes.com essay on liberalism's future, Thomas Edsall points to Paul Dragos Aligica's case that the classical theory of gains from trade breaks down once interdependence itself becomes a weapon. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/07/o...
Opinion | Is This Liberalism’s Last Stand?
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On this day in liberalism... 250 years ago this weekend, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, grounding a new nation's legitimacy in the consent of the governed rather than the will of a king. Happy Fourth of July, from Liberalism.org.
Political realignment has left many liberals struggling to tell left from right. @janetbufton.ca argues that the answer isn't a more detailed policy agenda, but a clearer set of principles, and explains why that distinction matters more than it might seem. hubs.la/Q04nr4hX0
A Liberalism of Principle, Not Program
Slavery’s opponents knew how to keep things simple. Today’s liberals should do likewise.
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Accreditation began as a voluntary, bottom-up solution to an information problem. Siri Terjesen shows how it became a federally enforced cartel, and why the financial records produced by the accreditors themselves make that case nearly impossible to dismiss. hubs.la/Q04njslm0
The Academy’s Captured Gatekeepers
How a voluntary, bottom-up answer to an information problem became a federally enforced cartel, and why prying it loose is a cause every liberal should own.
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Liberal institutions don't defend themselves. Jonathan Madison talks about how Brazil proved that, and what it means for the United States. hubs.la/Q04mR91M0
Lessons on Liberal Balance from Brazil
Recent events may hold lessons for other countries with presidential systems, including the United States.
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Markets quietly feed people who despise each other every single day. @jkuznicki.bsky.social argues that this uncomfortable fact might be liberalism's best argument. hubs.la/Q04mwk-l0
Against Friends, Against Enemies
On the liberalism of productive ambiguity. And pineapples.
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"How might it encourage a different kind of politics in the United States with respect to race, if we rejected the thought that any particular law we pass would settle the matter." —Melvin Rogers Listen to the full episode: hubs.la/Q04mpkWd0
"For so long the abolitionist movement was a rhetorical movement....Well that only can work if you believe that your fellows can be moved by words because they understand that words are ways of relating to one's fellows." —Melvin Rogers Listen to the full episode: hubs.la/Q04lWNcV0
Slang is spontaneous order in action, and @sarahskwire.bsky.social argues it may be the best way to explain why no one is in charge of the things that matter most. hubs.la/Q04lTQ120
“Sit Down, Theodore!” Slang and Spontaneous Order
Slang words come and go; the language lives on.
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Global integration was supposed to make conflict too costly. Paul Dragos Aligica tells us why it also handed a new set of weapons to rivals. hubs.la/Q04lLl2m0
Liberalism in the Age of Weaponized Interdependence
Liberalism must abandon the assumption that, in international trade, cooperation is the mature stage, and conflict the primitive one.
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“If you want to imagine a world without plastics—which a lot of people think would be better, and I definitely do not—think about brushing your teeth with bristles plucked from animals and a wooden handle." — Virginia Postrel Listen to the full episode: hubs.la/Q04lDBB90