Link Salad, the Nov. 5 Edition
Link Salad, the Nov. 5 Edition
Some of what I've been reading
— Great Power Politics - Adam Tooze, London Review of Books, Nov. 7, 2024
“The name may have been silly, but not only did Warp Speed deliver a remarkable medico-industrial breakthrough, in the process it shaped a new economic policy focused on making lots of important, high-tech stuff fast. In other words, Trump delivered the first demonstration of an industrial policy that a short time later would be claimed as the great historical novelty of Bidenomics. Indeed, if any industrial policy can claim to have helped revive the economy and improve ordinary life for the average American, it is Operation Warp Speed not the CHIPS Act or the IRA.”
— The Democrats’ Defeat - Adam Tooze, London Review of Books, Nov. 21, 2024
“In 2020 what America needed above all was to be reassured that normality was still within reach. But as Biden’s term went on, what came increasingly to the fore was his version of returning the US to its pre-Trump greatness. The Biden presidency was restorationist and Harris promised to continue in that vein. Essentially, they wanted to rerun 2020 and found themselves, instead, in 2016. They were defeated by Trump’s charismatic, free-wheeling, undisciplined promise of nationalist, xenophobic, racist and misogynistic radicalism. It may be that by 2026 the electorate will have tired of this. The economy may not play in Trump’s favour in the way it did after 2017; it is already now close to full stretch. Foreign policy is more vexed than in his first term: Ukraine could become what Afghanistan was for Biden, a humiliating defeat. And despite his calls for peace, his positioning on the Middle East points in the opposite direction. By 2028 a fresh team of Democrats may fancy their chances. Being the party of normality has its appeal, but it reinforces precisely the wrong instinct. The polycrisis that is unfolding demands not a return to the status quo but urgent, progressive answers both at home and abroad. To formulate and articulate those, the Democrats need politicians, not algorithms. They need personalities capable of responding to the profound questions facing contemporary America.”
— Why Democrats Should Proceed to the Center With Caution - Julian E. Zelizer, Foreign Policy, Nov. 8, 2024
“There will be strong pressure for Democrats to veer more sharply toward the center on several key issues, including taxes, regulation, energy, and immigration. One of the historical examples that will be showcased as a model for moving to the middle will be the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), a small group of insiders who came together in 1985 to rebuild their party following the wreckage of President Ronald Reagan’s landslide victory against former Vice President Walter Mondale. While the DLC provides reason to believe that centrism can help pave a roadway back to the White House, which it did in 1992 and 1996, it also offers a warning of the potential long-term costs that centrism can pose to the health of a party.”
Currently reading: Walls Come Tumbling Down: The Music and Politics of Rock Against Racism, 2 Tone and Red Wedge - Daniel Rachel
Currently listening: Falling Away From Me (Cover) - Halocene, Violet Orlandi