The Realignment

New Consensus | Mission for America: https://www.newconsensus.com/mfa
New Consensus | Reading List: https://www.newconsensus.com/library
Realignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/
Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment
Email the Show: [email protected]
Saikat Chakrabarti, President and co-founder of New Consensus, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Saikat discuss why an anti-status-quo moment requires more from government and politics than "making the DMV work better," his framework for moving government from "failure mode" to "mission mode," the politics of immigration after ICE's crackdown in Minnesota and the killing of two American citizens, the return of ideology to Democratic Party circles, and why the center needs to start believing in big goals, and the left needs to embrace pragmatism.

*Gallup, not Axios as cited in episode, reporting on higher liberal identification: https://news.gallup.com/poll/700499/new-high-identify-political-independents.aspx
Niskanen Center Hypertext Substack: Brink Lindsey | Abundance of What - The Permanent Problem Excerpt: https://hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/abundance-of-what-abundance-for-what
Realignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/
Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment
Email the Show: [email protected]
Brink Lindsey, Niskanen Center Senior Vice President and author of The Permanent Problem: The Uncertain Transition from Mass Plenty to Mass Flourishing, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Brink discuss how an intellectual "mugging" from the 21st century drove his evolution from "professional libertarian" to what he calls a "brokeness liberal," why liberal democratic capitalism is in the middle of a legitimacy crisis, how his "captured economy" thesis from 2017 offers an anti-status quo frame for the center-left and center-right, the different interpretations of the word "liberal," the next frontiers of the abundance debate, and the looming challenges and opportunities posed by the rise of AI.

Failure to Communicate Substack: https://failuretocommunicate.substack.com/
Danielle Lee Tomson: https://failuretocommunicate.substack.com/p/the-authenticity-gap
Realignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/
Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment
Email the Show: [email protected]
Dr. Danielle Lee Tomson, author of the Failure to Communicate Substack and the forthcoming Under the Influence: What's Real When America Feels Fake, returns to The Realignment. Marshall and Danielle revisit her concept of the "authenticity gap": the growing mismatch between our expectations and lived reality, and its defining role in America's turn to populism, why technocratic campaigning and politics crowds out meaning, culture, and first-order questions, why effective storytelling is a critical candidate and movement skillset, and why the next phase of left-liberal politics will require fusion between feuding camps, not factional warfare.

Niskanen Summer Institute: https://www.niskanencenter.org/niskanen-summer-institute-democracy-that-works/
Realignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/
Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment
Email the Show: [email protected]
George M. Dougherty, author of Beast in the Machine: How Robotics and AI Will Transform Warfare and the Future of Human Conflict, joins The Realignment. Marshall and George discuss how robotics and AI are triggering a military revolution as consequential as mechanization a century ago, why the real story isn't "drones" but "universal precision: a 100-1000x leap in lethality on the battlefield, the need to rethink offense, defense, and initiative, how small states and non-state actors are innovating faster than the U.S. and legacy defense ecosystems, and what today's equivalent of the outmoded WWII battleship is.

Niskanen Summer Institute: https://www.niskanencenter.org/niskanen-summer-institute-democracy-that-works/
The Affordability Framework: https://economicsecurityproject.org/news/introducing-the-affordability-framework-a-tool-for-understanding-americas-affordability-crisis/
Realignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/
Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment
Email the Show: [email protected]