"Democrats Must Offer Material Improvements to the Lives of Working-Class Americans, not Just Ironic Camouflage Trucker Hats"

"But the subjects of Shenk's narrative aren't the not-so-great men at the end of history. Rather, they are the insiders, standing behind those men, out of the spotlight: strategists Stan Greenberg and Douglas Schoen, 'political Zeligs' who emerge, again and again, on the scene of left-liberal parties' fabulous failures across the globe, hopping from ship to sinking ship over the past 30 years. But Greenberg and Schoen were no chameleons. They brought with them dueling ideas on how to reverse the losses wrought by dealignment. And through their rivalry, Shenk contends, we can understand the real story of dealignment, and how we might reverse it."

Ben Metzner at The New Republic reviews Timothy Shenk's Left Adrift: What Happened to Liberal Politics.

"Selective Stories, Which Are Neither Completely True nor Exactly False"

"Our addiction to national mythologies—and our inability to create a common meaning for them—has brought us to an unhappy stalemate. It's hard to bargain and compromise with an opposition that you believe has fundamentally misunderstood its own country––to the point that they cannot even be considered good citizens. And with their mythologies as war clubs, both sides want to run an Antonio Gramsci–style takeover of institutions, making their reality the only acceptable paradigm. Slotkin writes an elegant, if depressing, diagnosis of the current mythological crisis. 'The result is a deadly feedback loop: government failure to alleviate these problems leads to deep mistrust of democratic institutions, and the substitution of culture war for rational policy debate,' he argues. '[C]ulture-war hyperpartisanship then prevents government from acting effectively, which intensifies mistrust of institutions and ratchets up the intensity of culture war.'"

Tom Zoellner at the Los Angeles Review of Books reviews Richard Slotkin's A Great Disorder: National Myth and the Battle for America.

September 2024 Acquisitions

Books:

Kevin Bludso, Bludso's BBQ, .

Ellsworth, , .

Hill, Postal: Deliverance, .

Hill, Postal: Deliverance, .

Lau, Chinatown Pretty, .

Wood, DMZ, .

Wood, DMZ, .

The Sociology Book, .

Movies:
Galaxy Quest, 1999.
La La Land, 2016.
A Star Is Born: 3-Film Collection, 2020.
They Live, 1988.

Music:

Beabadoobie, , 2024.

BellRays, Heavy Steady Go, 2024.

Bernard Butler, Good Grief, 2024.

Billie Eilish, , 2024.

Marcus King, Mood Swings, 2024.

Kendrick Lamar, , .

MJ Lenderman, , 2024.

Nada Surf, Moon Mirror, 2024.

Noonday Underground, , .

Redd Kross, , 2024.

Rockpile, Seconds of Pleasure, .

Erik Satie, , .

Waeve, City Lights, 2024.

Various, On the Charts, .

"Trump Is Not Just Toxic for America; He Has Proven Toxic for Conservatism"

"Trump does not merely break norms. He has broken the norm, the indispensable norm for the continuation of the republic, the norm first set by George Washington when he retired from office, the norm that changed the entire world for the better: accepting the results of an election. This is the meaning of America, and Trump despises it. I do not think this is even within his personal control. He is so genuinely psychologically warped that he has never and will never agree to the most basic requirement of public office: that you quit when you lose; and that the system is more important than any individual in it."

Andrew Sullivan at The Weekly Dish writes "[a]n anguished but emphatic endorsement" of Kamala Harris for President of the United States.

The Devil and Donald Trump

"Wallnau's ideas have taken off in particular among a group of Christians often referred to as neo-charismatics, evangelicals who speak in tongues and believe that the Holy Spirit has possessed them with supernatural gifts, including prophecy and healing; this religious cohort is also one of the fastest-growing segments of Christianity in the U.S. Now, four years after an election that many of these Christians continue to think was stolen, Wallnau and his faithful are on the campaign trail. 'People don't know. They're going to look back on it in the future,' Wallnau promised the crowd in Michigan, 'and they're going to say the populist civic awakening began when believers prayed in Trump to disrupt the status quo.'"

Molly Olmstead at Slate writes about those who believe that "under Trump's protection, American Christians will rise up, defeat their demonic enemies, and take their rightful place of power in the country."

And Matthew D. Taylor at The Bulwark describes these beliefs as "victorious eschatology."

"The Former President's Tax Plan Is a Shell Game"

"What is Trump doing to seduce America’s working class? Is he promising to revive the labor movement? Proposing higher taxes on the rich? Endorsing a higher minimum wage? Fat chance."

Timothy Noah at The New Republic writes that "Trump's Pitch to Working-Class Voters Is a Scam."

And Will Saletin at The Bulwark states that "Trump and Vance Are Hypocrites About Political Violence."

"Voters Are Hungry for a Candidate That Will Deliver Meaningful, Material Change to Their Lives"

"By embracing bold ideas that address the day-to-day crises facing America’s working families, Harris can not only win the White House, but create a Democratic party that is responsive to the needs of ordinary Americans."

Bernie Sanders at The Guardian presents policies for Kamala Harris to adopt.

While Timothy Noah at The New Republic advises Harris to embrace "the Biden administration's excellent record on economic policy (which to a great extent is also her own)."

August 2024 Acquisitions

Books:

Rodney Barnes and Jason Shawn Alexander, Blacula: Return of the King, 2023.

Ed Brubaker et al, Friday Book Three: Christmastime Is Here Again, 2024.

Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street, 1991.

Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 1886.

David Thomson, The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, 2016.

Vivek J. Tiwary, The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story, 2013.

Brian Wood, DMZ Vol. 2: Body of a Journalist, 2007.

Movies:

Better Off Dead, 1985.
Past Lives, 2023.

Music:

Aranbee Pop Symphony Orchestra, The Aranbee Pop Symphony Orchestra, .

Black Crowes, Happiness Bastards, 2024. 

Blur, Live at Wembley Stadium, 2024

Steve Cropper and the Midnight Hour, Friendlytown, 2024.

English Teacher, This Could Be Texas, 2024.

Dee C. Lee, Just Something, 2024.

Madvillain, Madvillainy, .

Glen Matlock, On Something, .

Morrissey, Beathoven Was Deaf, 2024.

Pink Floyd, A Saucerful of Secrets, 1968.

Jimmy Reed, The Very Best of Jimmy Reed, .

X, Smoke & Fiction, 2024.

"To Create the Sound of a Council Estate Singing Its Heart Out"

"Beyond all the noise about chart battles, sibling rivalry and Cool Britannia, the Oasis narrative was such a powerful one because it pointed to how a valuable new form of 'oceanic feeling'–Sigmund Freud's term for an all-embracing mass consciousness–might emerge in Britain in the dying days of the 20th century. For all its broadness and frequent crudeness, the collective mood that Oasis inspired was at heart an inclusive one, based on the desire to advocate a more demotic, more democratic way of national being, rooted in the lived reality of working-class experience."

Alex Niven at The Guardian reacts to the Oasis reunion.

"May None but Honest and Wise Men Ever Rule Under This Roof"

"Mr. Jefferson, though too revolutionary in his notions, is yet a lover of liberty and will be desirous of something like orderly Government—Mr. Burr loves nothing but himself—thinks of nothing but his own aggrandizement—and will be content with nothing short of permanent power. . . in his own hands."

At The Bulwark, Mona Charen compares Donald Trump to Aaron Burr.

And Gabriel Schoenfeld describes Trump as "the single largest and most effective purveyor of fake news in the country."

"Collectively the Busiest Shipping Hub in the Western Hemisphere"

"The consequences will play out in the months ahead as pocketbook issues quite likely decide the presidential election. But regardless of the election’s outcome, we should understand that Southern California is never a place apart from U.S. politics and its dilemmas. Instead, these have deep roots in the region. And today, the region continues to invest in imports and real estate as vehicles for prosperity — even as the adverse costs accumulate in national politics."

James Tejani at the Los Angeles Times connects economic past and present via the San Pedro Bay.

Project 1981

"If we feel like we live in a country that isn't working for anyone who isn't wealthy, these are some of the core reasons why. Looking back at the Reagan era and the Heritage Foundation's original 'Mandate for Leadership,' we must remember that our domestic wounds are largely self-inflicted, results of buying into racial, economic and environmental lies that continue to be sold. It is precisely the types of policies that devastated the nation during the Reagan administration that Project 2025 now seeks to resuscitate. Perhaps the only truly new thing Project 2025 suggests is using more authoritarian means to enact its agenda."

At the Los Angeles Times, Joel Edward Goza connects Donald Trump to Ronald Reagan.

Something to Be Scared Of

"Ridicule makes him weaker. Ridicule makes him small. Ridicule makes him desperate. He'll try to respond with ridicule of his own, but he is not a clever man. He's a stupid man. He has no wit. He has no sense of mischief. He doesn't read. He doesn't think beyond first reactions."

Michael Tomasky at The New Republic says that, by mocking Donald Trump, "Democrats have finally found Trump's true Achilles' heel."

"Less Interested in the Truth of the Past Than in Constructing an Alternative Future"

"It is no accident that the ideology of settler colonialism is flourishing today at the same time as right-wing populism. Both see our turbulent political moment as an opportunity to permanently change the way Americans think about their country. And as is often the case, the extremes of right and left are united in disparaging the compromises of liberalism, which they see as weakly evasive. In the case of settler colonialism, this means rejecting the understanding of American history that has been mainstream since the mid-20th century—that it is a story of slow progress toward fulfilling the nation's founding promise of freedom for all."

The Wall Street Journal publishes an essay by Adam Kirsch, based on his new book, On Settler Colonialism.

"Simply by Virtue of Who She Is, She's Already Doing That"

"Republicans plainly hope they can link Harris to all that vexed them in Biden's record—real, exaggerated, and imagined. But the tone and spirit of Harris's campaign has marked such a sharp break with Biden, as does her age, gender, and race, that that link may be harder to make than Republicans hope. The slogan 'We're not going back' refers not just to the antediluvian strictures that Republicans want to impose on American freedoms and Enlightenment values, and not just to the slanders and lies in which Trump daily trafficked, but also to what many Americans viewed as an unwatchable cage match of two out-of-shape relics. Though she and the Democrats are profoundly indebted to Biden for his crucial role in creating that center-left synergy that unifies the Democrats and underpins her campaign, Harris can still run on Biden's policies and yet stand for a break from both Trump and Biden rather than a continuation of Biden and his works.

Harold Meyerson at The American Prospect reacts to Kamala Harris's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.

"A Philosophical Brief in Defense of Liberalism"

"Living this liberal vision, for Obama, means accepting the diversity inherent to a large society made up of people with all sorts of beliefs and worldviews: recognizing that 'our fellow citizens deserve the same grace we hope they'll extend to us.' It means understanding 'true freedom' as something that gives all of us the right 'to make decisions about our own life [and] requires us to recognize that other people have the right to make decisions that are different than ours.' And it means seeing democracy as more than 'just a bunch of abstract principles and a bunch of dusty laws in a book somewhere,' but rather 'the values we live by.'"

Zack Beauchamp at Vox reacts to Barack Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention.

And Harold Meyerson at The American Prospect looks back to the Democrats' 1924 convention.