https://thenewamericancentury.com/ A working public archive of an argument for a politics of vision and work. en-us Sun, 19 Jul 2026 11:24:38 GMT https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/institutions-and-craft/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/institutions-and-craft/ Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT How does a nation endure? Reading Dan Wang’s book Breakneck , I learned about the Ise Shrine in Japan, a Shinto shrine that is rebuilt entirely using only wood every twenty years. It will be rebuilt for the 62nd time in 2033. Like Notre Dame, the shrine is intended for permanence. But while the builders of Notre Dame… https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/loving-the-nation/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/loving-the-nation/ Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT On July 4, I wrote about Ezra Klein’s conversation with Bryan Stevenson, and what it means to love America despite its faults. Stevenson’s statements at the close of the conversation have stayed with me. Klein: So — what does it mean to love America? To believe in it? To choose it? Stevenson: I — in some ways, I think… https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/platner-and-cynicism/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/platner-and-cynicism/ Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Graham Platner is once again the political story of the week, this time for defeat rather than victory. A month ago, I wrote about his victory , and this video that I watched at the time has stuck with me: I said, none of this will or should stop him from becoming a US Senator. … I think, if what the voters wanted… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-spirit-of-the-century/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-spirit-of-the-century/ Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT A thought experiment A few weeks ago, out of curiosity I asked Claude to identify the ten people whose thought most shaped the twentieth century. After a few turns, it came back with this: Albert Einstein — Rewrote the laws of physics and unlocked the atom. Gave humanity the power to light cities or incinerate them… https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/stevenson-and-patriotism/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/stevenson-and-patriotism/ Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Happy Fourth of July. Bryan Stevenson was on Ezra Klein’s show today, and it’s unsurprisingly a great conversation that’s worth hearing. A few bits caught in my mind, including this one. Klein asks: One of the sources of [MAGA’s] political strength and also the engine of their political argument is that there is an… https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/supreme-court-and-institutional-design/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/supreme-court-and-institutional-design/ Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT The most unexpectedly fascinating class I took in law school was Federal Courts: when federal courts have jurisdiction, and which federal courts have jurisdiction. It didn’t leap off the page of the course catalogue; it looked like the kind of dry class you slog through because studying the law is unfortunately often… https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/helen-lewis-and-strength/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/helen-lewis-and-strength/ Sun, 28 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Today, I read Helen Lewis’ discussion of “masculinism” in the Atlantic. I don’t like paying attention to provocateurs, whether or not they sincerely believe what they say. But, as Lewis points out, these views are leaking into the mainstream, including into the highest levels of the current administration. So, again,… https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/lau-and-restraint/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/lau-and-restraint/ Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT This week, two immigration decisions from the Supreme Court are in the headlines . There’s a third we shouldn’t miss. The case hinges on a detailed timeline and intricacies of immigration law that I don’t understand deeply, but to summarize: Muk Choi Lau is a Chinese citizen who was living in the United States as a… https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/obama-library/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/obama-library/ Wed, 24 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT In the early 2000s, a liberal in America had two go-to sources of televised relief from the presidency of George W. Bush. The first was the sanity-preserving satire of The Daily Show , and the second was the bittersweet escapism of The West Wing. I remember in the years right after college getting the DVDs of West… https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/shteyngart-and-mars/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/shteyngart-and-mars/ Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Gary Shteyngart, in conversation with Ezra Klein : Let me tell you this. I do think that space colonization really is not something I’m terribly interested in. I don’t think going to Mars is going to answer any of our problems… We have a really nice planet here that we’re destroying. We really don’t need to discover… https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/hegseth-and-the-failure-to-understand/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/hegseth-and-the-failure-to-understand/ Thu, 18 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT In WSJ today : Hegseth announces a review of U.S. forces in Europe and threatens NATO cuts. This is not new; the administration has been antagonizing NATO allies since taking office. Since before taking office . What caught my eye was this statement: Trump “gave our allies a test: to support America when we asked for… https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/scammers-and-morality/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/scammers-and-morality/ Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT In the Economist today : “Scammers are preying on America’s illegal immigrants.” Immigrants look for legal help, but their vulnerability (desperation, language barriers, inability to call on law enforcement) makes them easy prey. Scammers pose as lawyers and as services offering help, extract enormous sums, and then… https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/innovation-demands-integrity/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/innovation-demands-integrity/ Tue, 16 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Innovation demands integrity. On Friday, the federal government forced Anthropic to take two of its newest and most capable models, Mythos and Fable, offline. The order came from the Department of Commerce, which ordered Anthropic to block access to the models to foreign nationals as an emergency export control,… https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/character-and-politics/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/character-and-politics/ Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT It’s Graham Platner’s turn to be the center of the nation’s attention. The tattoo, the texts, the posts. In the past, political scandals dwelt on what a candidate’s behavior said about their “fitness” for office, but “fitness” was typically vague: a person who would do such things is not the kind of person who should… https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/the-logic-of-tribute/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/notes/the-logic-of-tribute/ Mon, 08 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Bernie Sanders wants the government to take shares of AI companies . Evidently, President Trump does too, as does Sam Altman. Sanders wants the public to have a say in the development of AI — as usual, a good goal and a bad plan. Trump likes the idea of getting his hands around something powerful and influential. Why… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/were-wasting-americas-most-valuable/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/were-wasting-americas-most-valuable/ Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT Entry-level jobs are getting automated. Let's create something better in their place. https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/our-fractured-future/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/our-fractured-future/ Wed, 29 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT Two videos Does wealth correlate with wisdom? Consider this: David Senra: You don’t have any levels of introspection? Marc Andreessen: Yes, zero. As little as possible. DS: Why? MA: Move forward, go. Yeah, I don’t know. I’ve found people who dwell in the past get stuck in the past. It’s just a real problem. It’s a… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/at-the-end/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/at-the-end/ Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT Today is election day for the primaries in Illinois, and the end of my campaign for the Democratic nomination in my congressional district. For some campaigns, tonight will be a nail-biter. The candidates will wait into the night with their teams, holding both victory and defeat in their hearts until the moment one of… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/living-in-the-shepard-tone/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/living-in-the-shepard-tone/ Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT A couple of weeks ago, when the news about the DoD, Anthropic, and then OpenAI landed, I rushed to post about it online. This was exactly the kind of story that I wanted Complicity Navigator to capture: one company sacrificing its principles to the Trump Administration, the other standing firm and putting its future… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/this-is-corporate-courage/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/this-is-corporate-courage/ Sat, 21 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Anthropic is reportedly in a dispute with the Department of Defense and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the use of its models. Summary from Complicity Navigator : Anthropic’s $200 million Pentagon contract is under review after the company resisted demands to allow unrestricted military use of its Claude AI model.… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/introducing-complicity-navigator/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/introducing-complicity-navigator/ Sun, 01 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT I. Two photos Here are two photos from January 24, 2026 - exactly one week ago as I write this. The first is a still from the video of Alex Pretti’s killing: This is the pile of agents on top of Pretti, moments before he was shot. We have all seen it. It was taken at 9:01 AM CT. Here’s the second photo: This is Apple… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/wishful-thinking/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/wishful-thinking/ Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT I’m getting nervous about an encroaching optimism sneaking into the minds of Democrats. It’s not that they think Trump is going to do anything useful or even sane, or that they’re impressed with Democratic leaders. It’s that they believe that the American people are turning on Trump. Here’s a data point. From Jamelle… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-need-for-dissent/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-need-for-dissent/ Tue, 20 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Martin Luther King, Jr., was arrested on April 12, 1963, for defying a Birmingham judge’s injunction against demonstration. He went to jail and was released on April 20, but only after he’d written the Letter from Birmingham Jail . It was one of 29 times that he was arrested. By getting arrested, King and others in… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/notes-from-an-unserious-candidate/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/notes-from-an-unserious-candidate/ Mon, 05 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT I have a more substantive piece I’m going to write tomorrow, but had one I needed to get done this evening—admittedly with more anger than I usually bring to writing here. I just saw an Instagram video from a prominent, Chicago-area politico with thousands of followers. She said she’d do a breakdown of the candidates… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/we-still-dont-get-what-were-up-against/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/we-still-dont-get-what-were-up-against/ Sat, 03 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT I had other things I wanted to write about today, but Venezuela is the only thing to talk about. Trump’s distractions work because he doesn’t just say “look over there” - he does something genuinely terrible that means we have to look. I don’t like repeating what others have been saying; on a day like this, there are… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/its-the-economy-stupid-redux/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/its-the-economy-stupid-redux/ Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT I spent the summer before my senior year of college in New Orleans, registering people to vote. I’d never been to the city before and was excited to experience it, particularly at night, and particularly the music. That turned out to be a completely unrealistic expectation. Each day, I spent hours walking door-to-door… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/just-getting-started/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/just-getting-started/ Wed, 31 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT Just before Christmas, I had my worst phone call of this campaign. That’s saying a lot. As a candidate, you make thousands of calls, mostly cold calls to potential donors. Aside from the strangeness of calling people I don’t know for money, I’ve had my share of hang-ups and cursing and rants, typically directed at me… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/im-doubling-down-on-my-cheap-shot/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/im-doubling-down-on-my-cheap-shot/ Sat, 20 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT “This is a cheap shot.” Yesterday, I posted a video about a confrontation between Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, one of the frontrunners in this congressional race, and the Border Patrol’s Gregory Bovino. This morning, I sent an email to my campaign list on the same theme. In both, I argued that the confrontation seemed… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/why-im-running/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/why-im-running/ Thu, 18 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT In January 2008, I was a first-year law student who was supposed to be studying for final exams. Instead, a group of us hit the road to New Hampshire to campaign for a candidate for president that we believed in: Barack Obama. We trudged door-to-door through snow-caked sidewalks or stood on street corners, holding our… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/northwestern-caved-its-not-their/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/northwestern-caved-its-not-their/ Tue, 09 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT On November 28, Northwestern caved to President Trump . The university was caught up in the administration’s campaign of intimidation against American universities , in this case leading to a freeze on nearly $800 million in federal funding. To end the freeze, Northwestern agreed to pay a ransom of $75 million as well… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/why-im-applauding-a-trump-executive/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/why-im-applauding-a-trump-executive/ Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT Last week, the Trump Administration issued an executive order launching the “Genesis Mission.” In brief, it kicks off a national effort led by the Department of Energy to coordinate AI-driven scientific research across fields including advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, critical materials, nuclear fission and… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/reflections-on-an-earlier-election/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/reflections-on-an-earlier-election/ Fri, 21 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT Below is an email I sent my family on November 5, 2008. It was a wonderful moment after eight bad years. May we all have another like it, and soon. Hello everyone - I wanted to share my reflections on last night. I spent yesterday in West Philadelphia, watching polling places for signs of intimidation, spurious… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/selected-for-surrender/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/selected-for-surrender/ Fri, 14 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT I’m still processing the surrender that Senate Democrats turned in over the weekend, less than a week after set of resounding victories. I’m not the only one. Why did they do it? Why, after showing the first signs of political life in a year, did they throw it away for nothing? There are theories flying around out… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-triumph-of-possibility/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-triumph-of-possibility/ Thu, 06 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT On Tuesday night, Democrats won big in each of the three elections the country was watching—New York, New Jersey, and Virginia—along with California’s redistricting referendum. Now, every commentator is jumping in with a take: what are the lessons? It’s important to get the lessons right. Tuesday was a good night, but… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/there-are-no-more-sidelines/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/there-are-no-more-sidelines/ Thu, 06 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT On Friday, ICE was in my neighborhood. In the morning, I got a text from a neighbor on a group thread alerting us, along with a video of a confrontation between people in the community and masked agents in unmarked cars, apparently just after they took someone away right outside an elementary school. Shortly… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/my-responses-to-questions-from-a/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/my-responses-to-questions-from-a/ Wed, 29 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT On Wednesday, Oct. 29, at 7 PM CT, NWSOFA is holding a virtual candidate forum for candidates in Illinois’s Ninth Congressional District. You can join here . NWSOFA provided the questions in advance. Since I won’t have a chance to answer all of them during the forum, I’m providing my answers here. There are a few key… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-autocratic-engine/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-autocratic-engine/ Mon, 20 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT Yesterday, I received a Democratic fundraising email telling me that President Trump was “HUMILIATED” because Democrats could win back the Senate and “SLAM THE BRAKES” on his agenda—if I would “express donate” $24. Apparently, these emails work, and I’m sure this one will raise some money. But, telling voters that… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/theyre-playing-a-different-game/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/theyre-playing-a-different-game/ Fri, 10 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT During this campaign, people frequently ask what Democrats in Congress can do to restrain the Trump Administration. It seems like we aren’t doing anything—yes, the government is shut down, but there are still troops and masked agents in our streets, intimidation of the President’s rivals, illegal tariffs choking our… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/from-resistance-to-renewal/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/from-resistance-to-renewal/ Tue, 07 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times, via Associated Press In February, just as the second Trump Administration was kicking off, I watched Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s State of the State address . It already seems like years have passed, but even in its first month the administration in Washington had started to turn… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-test-in-illinoiss-ninth/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-test-in-illinoiss-ninth/ Sun, 05 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT There is nobody in America more outraged than me at this administration. It is an affront to my country at every level, from our loftiest founding principles to the daily safety and security of ordinary people. But I know that the way to defeat Trump is not by shouting the loudest. It’s by winning the votes of the… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/greatness/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/greatness/ Fri, 03 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT The Berlin Wall came down on November 9, 1989, when I was a few months into first grade. I think I remember seeing people standing on the wall and cheering on the nightly news, but that could be a later memory spliced in. I’m sure I didn’t understand the event’s significance, but I do remember hearing my parents and… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-war-on-excellence/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-war-on-excellence/ Thu, 02 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT Kevin Lamarque/Reuters This week, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth summoned hundreds of senior military leaders to a meeting in Quantico so he could lecture them about setting and meeting higher standards . I watched the Secretary’s speech, and then I looked at the photo above. I thought about the journey each of… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/injustice/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/injustice/ Fri, 26 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT The first time a federal judge asked, “Who’s here representing the United States,” and I said, “I am, your honor,” is a moment I will never forget. I was proud to represent my country, and to be part of the Department of Justice, an institution that has been a pillar of American democracy. That makes the disgraceful… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/planning-to-win/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/planning-to-win/ Wed, 24 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT On Friday, the Trump Administration unexpectedly announced a $100,000 fee for H-1B visas. These visas are the way high-skilled immigrants—engineers, scientists, doctors—come to America, and the fee would make the move prohibitive for many applicants. At minimum, it would benefit large companies who could afford the… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/while-we-sleep/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/while-we-sleep/ Thu, 18 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT In 1938, the year that Prime Minister Chamberlain declared that he had negotiated “peace for our time,” Winston Churchill published his account of the United Kingdom’s failure to prepare for the German threat. While England Slept captured Churchill’s deep frustration at his country’s refusal to recognize the danger… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-path-to-american-irrelevance/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-path-to-american-irrelevance/ Wed, 03 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT Vladimir Putin, Narendra Modi, and Xi Jinping. Not pictured: American strength. Suo Takekuma/Pool Photo via AP A photo contest: Which images from the past few months best capture the end of the American era? Andrew Leyden/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom How about this one? Past American presidents have used sanctions against… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-choice-before-us/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-choice-before-us/ Tue, 02 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT The first time I canvassed in an election was in 2002, as a freshman at the University of Chicago. I didn’t know much about the candidate, but I was 19, it was a year into George W. Bush’s first term, and I was eager to get involved however I could. The College Democrats assigned me a street corner and gave me a stack… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/what-america-needs-more-than-ever/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/what-america-needs-more-than-ever/ Fri, 29 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT Abuse of presidential power takes many forms. Sometimes it looks like American troops in American streets , or CEOs presenting trophies to the President in the Oval Office . And sometimes, it looks like the page above. The New York Times reported this week that the administration has moved to cancel a series of wind… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/breaking-the-ai-binary/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/breaking-the-ai-binary/ Thu, 28 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT As a kid, I was a computer geek. I spent hours playing computer games, of course, but also taking machines apart and trying to put them back together, learning to code, and having lunchtime arguments over operating systems. When Windows 95 dropped, I made sure my dad took me to the midnight launch party at our local… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/autocratic-ingenuity/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/autocratic-ingenuity/ Thu, 21 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT Kendrick Brinson for The New York Times The administration has accused Lisa Cook , a Federal Reserve governor, of mortgage fraud and has said it will refer the matter for criminal prosecution to the Justice Department. The reason is transparent: President Trump wants to boost an economy that’s under duress from his… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/why-have-to-win-pt-2/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/why-have-to-win-pt-2/ Wed, 20 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT I already did a post on this , but had to come back to it - On the Ezra Klein show , discussing the firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner and the culture of that agency, Natasha Sarin said: Particularly with respect to the B.L.S., a sort of statement that they make which tells you a little bit about… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-shakedown-economy/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-shakedown-economy/ Tue, 19 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT Bonnie Cash - Pool via CNP/CNP / Polaris/Newscom Last week, the CEO of Nvidia negotiated a deal with President Trump to get the licenses his company needs to export its chips to China. To bypass export controls, Nvidia and fellow chipmaker AMD will give a 15% cut of sales to the United States government. This is a… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/a-party-without-a-plan/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/a-party-without-a-plan/ Mon, 18 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT The question that launched this campaign was: What have Democrats learned? The platform we've been running on for the last decade or more isn’t working. How are we going to bring new people into the party? We got beat in 2024. How are we making sure it doesn't happen again? My campaign is answering with a vision for a… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/beyond-the-safety-net/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/beyond-the-safety-net/ Tue, 12 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT Great American achievements come in many varieties. There are those that demonstrate our ability to work on a grand scale, like great cities or massive public works. Others reflect exploration and creativity, like scientific breakthroughs or major works of art and culture. Others celebrate our strength, like the… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-lost-moon-landing/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-lost-moon-landing/ Thu, 07 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT Earlier this week, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. canceled $500 million in contracts and grants funding the development of mRNA vaccines . This follows a decision in May to revoke a $600 million contract with Moderna to develop a bird flu vaccine. The Secretary’s rationale—that mRNA… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/this-is-why-we-have-to-win/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/this-is-why-we-have-to-win/ Tue, 05 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT On Friday, President Trump fired Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner Erika McEntarfer “after the bureau released monthly jobs data showing surprisingly weak hiring in July and large downward revisions to job growth in the previous two months.” It’s been great to see ongoing, headline coverage of this – after all,… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/we-are-losing-the-future/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/we-are-losing-the-future/ Mon, 04 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT America is stuck. But there is a path forward. Even before President Trump took office for a second term, many Americans, including me, felt a sense of national stagnation. So many of the problems we faced a generation ago are still with us, new ones are piling up, and progress is at a crawl. Climate change and the… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/dreaming-bigger/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/dreaming-bigger/ Fri, 25 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMT Is there any institution more American than the public school? It's central to the fabric of our communities - of course, the place where we learn our times tables, but also where we make lifelong friends, act in plays and put on bake sales, hold community meetings and vote. But the familiarity of schools masks what a… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-problem-with-fighting/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-problem-with-fighting/ Wed, 30 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT Democrats love to talk about “fighting.” In the months since we lost, I’ve heard it over and over again: The fight goes on. Keep up the fight. When we fight, we win. We need fighters—the people who will fight back. It’s a great word for this moment. It’s active, assertive, and powerful, in a time when it’s easy to… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-abu-ghraib-presidency/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-abu-ghraib-presidency/ Thu, 17 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT On March 26, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a maximum-security prison known for its extraordinarily harsh conditions . The Trump Administration has been deporting alleged members of gangs to CECOT Using the prisoners as a backdrop, Noem said: First… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/no-vision-no-victory/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/no-vision-no-victory/ Thu, 10 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT This post is adapted from of a message I sent to friends and family on Nov. 24, 2024, a few weeks after the election. Opportunity This loss was not Harris's fault. She ran a strong campaign given the context. She had very little time, was dragged down by the low popularity of Joe Biden and incumbents worldwide, and of… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-stupidity-is-the-point/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-stupidity-is-the-point/ Sun, 23 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT In 2003, as the United States sought the world’s support for an invasion of Iraq, France opposed the war at the United Nations. In response, some American politicians pushed to rename french fries to “Freedom Fries” in public buildings and restaurants. This was stupid. That is not a word I like to use, and I tell my… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/after-the-fire/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/after-the-fire/ Tue, 28 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT Note: This piece was written as the introduction to an earlier version of this project. In October 1871, a fire raged through the city of Chicago . Strong winds, wooden construction, and weeks of drought fed an inferno that leapt streets and even jumped the river, consuming entire neighborhoods in hours. Those who… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-end-of-america/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/the-end-of-america/ Tue, 21 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT Note: I wrote this in January and published it the day after the inauguration. I took it down, along with most of the other articles published here, as I rebranded this substack for a congressional campaign. I’m publishing it again now. On August 2, 1990, just before I started second grade, Saddam Hussein invaded… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/character/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/character/ Thu, 01 Sep 2022 00:00:00 GMT In the first few posts, I’ve been abstract in defining the full life approach to politics in order to lay some groundwork, but I've wanted to use the space to discuss specific issues and policies and how this approach would handle them. I wouldn't have guessed that the first such issue would be prayer in public… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/missing-the-point/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/missing-the-point/ Mon, 01 Aug 2022 00:00:00 GMT Andrew Yang, Christine Todd Whitman, and David Jolly are forming a new political party, Forward. The party brings together Yang's existing Forward Party with the Serve America Movement and Renew America Movement, led by Jolly and Whitman respectively. Their website is here: Forward Party And an op-ed explaining what… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/on-persuasion/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/on-persuasion/ Tue, 26 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT Persuasion Here's where we left off the summary of the full life view at the end of the last post: Each individual deserves to live a full life, and to decide what that means for themself Government’s purpose is to secure the conditions that make a full life possible for each of us. To accomplish that, government… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/from-v01-to-v02/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/from-v01-to-v02/ Mon, 18 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT Since I wrote the first post, a friend was generous enough to read it and offer some great questions and comments, which I'm going to discuss here. These have also led me to revise the basic outline of this idea (name still TBD), which is great; refining and reworking this work-in-progress idea is the whole purpose of… https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/goodbye-and-hello/ https://thenewamericancentury.com/articles/goodbye-and-hello/ Tue, 05 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT Goodbye I've been a liberal for twenty years, longer than I’ve been almost anything else. I don't know when I decided that's what I was, but I know that by the time Al Gore was pitching the lockbox, I'd chosen my side. Over all these years, my views have deepened with experience and hopefully some wisdom, but they're…