Derek Thompson

He says there's really been two dominant political orders. And a political order is his term for a set of ideas that underneath the headlines and the scrum between the parties, both sides kind of agree about. So between the 1930s and 1960s, you had what he called the New Deal Order.

And this was a response to an internal crisis, the Great Depression, and an external crisis, which was you had socialism everywhere and FDR needed to redefine liberalism for our age. And he said, look, we're going to spend a lot of money and we're going to build a lot of things. But something happened in the 1960s and 1970s, and it's that America changed.

And this was a response to an internal crisis, the Great Depression, and an external crisis, which was you had socialism everywhere and FDR needed to redefine liberalism for our age. And he said, look, we're going to spend a lot of money and we're going to build a lot of things. But something happened in the 1960s and 1970s, and it's that America changed.

And this was a response to an internal crisis, the Great Depression, and an external crisis, which was you had socialism everywhere and FDR needed to redefine liberalism for our age. And he said, look, we're going to spend a lot of money and we're going to build a lot of things. But something happened in the 1960s and 1970s, and it's that America changed.

There was a new internal crisis, which was stagflation. There was stagnation, no economic growth, and inflation. And you had this new external crisis, which was the Soviet Union meant something very different in the 1970s than it did in the 1930s. And you really had this era where liberalism went from building a lot of things to blocking a lot of things.

There was a new internal crisis, which was stagflation. There was stagnation, no economic growth, and inflation. And you had this new external crisis, which was the Soviet Union meant something very different in the 1970s than it did in the 1930s. And you really had this era where liberalism went from building a lot of things to blocking a lot of things.

There was a new internal crisis, which was stagflation. There was stagnation, no economic growth, and inflation. And you had this new external crisis, which was the Soviet Union meant something very different in the 1970s than it did in the 1930s. And you really had this era where liberalism went from building a lot of things to blocking a lot of things.

And liberalism got very, very good at putting up red tape and suing the state and suing companies to stop doing things. You wouldn't have thrown Vietnam in that? Oh, yeah. I would definitely throw Vietnam into it to the extent that Vietnam was a problem that LBJ couldn't solve with the set of political ideas that he had at his disposal that he inherited from FDR, right?

And liberalism got very, very good at putting up red tape and suing the state and suing companies to stop doing things. You wouldn't have thrown Vietnam in that? Oh, yeah. I would definitely throw Vietnam into it to the extent that Vietnam was a problem that LBJ couldn't solve with the set of political ideas that he had at his disposal that he inherited from FDR, right?

And liberalism got very, very good at putting up red tape and suing the state and suing companies to stop doing things. You wouldn't have thrown Vietnam in that? Oh, yeah. I would definitely throw Vietnam into it to the extent that Vietnam was a problem that LBJ couldn't solve with the set of political ideas that he had at his disposal that he inherited from FDR, right?

There was a period in American history where America just won wars. We just won World War I, won World War II. Korea was a little bit of a mess. Vietnam was a real quagmire, right? The first quagmire where we- We're questioning our ability to win on a global stage.

There was a period in American history where America just won wars. We just won World War I, won World War II. Korea was a little bit of a mess. Vietnam was a real quagmire, right? The first quagmire where we- We're questioning our ability to win on a global stage.

There was a period in American history where America just won wars. We just won World War I, won World War II. Korea was a little bit of a mess. Vietnam was a real quagmire, right? The first quagmire where we- We're questioning our ability to win on a global stage.

And that caused a crisis, I think, in confidence in governments and institutions that was totally of a piece with this general era of, hey, we've had too much government for a while. How about the individual? How about the little guy? And you had this era where there was this really important shift toward individualism.

And that caused a crisis, I think, in confidence in governments and institutions that was totally of a piece with this general era of, hey, we've had too much government for a while. How about the individual? How about the little guy? And you had this era where there was this really important shift toward individualism.

And that caused a crisis, I think, in confidence in governments and institutions that was totally of a piece with this general era of, hey, we've had too much government for a while. How about the individual? How about the little guy? And you had this era where there was this really important shift toward individualism.

And what we're trying to say here in this book is that we kind of have to get back to building. Some of the biggest problems in this country, especially, again, you look at 2020, or 2024, the election. Some of the biggest problems in this country are affordability. And one way that we want to fix affordability is by building a lot more homes where people want to live.

And what we're trying to say here in this book is that we kind of have to get back to building. Some of the biggest problems in this country, especially, again, you look at 2020, or 2024, the election. Some of the biggest problems in this country are affordability. And one way that we want to fix affordability is by building a lot more homes where people want to live.

And what we're trying to say here in this book is that we kind of have to get back to building. Some of the biggest problems in this country, especially, again, you look at 2020, or 2024, the election. Some of the biggest problems in this country are affordability. And one way that we want to fix affordability is by building a lot more homes where people want to live.

San Francisco, LA, DC, New York. Doing that actually requires unwinding a lot of what liberalism has built up in terms of legal norms and legislation and stuff like environmental review. It requires unwinding a lot of that and getting back to basics. That's essentially what the book is trying to do.