Derek Thompson

We don't have enough housing, so what we need are fewer immigrants. We don't have enough money. There's really high debts. What we need is less health care for poor people by cutting Medicaid. There's a lot of let's solve this scarcity here by taking away something that America needs. And I think that by juxtaposition, abundance is the exact opposite message. Yes, we don't have enough houses.

Let's fucking build more. Yes, we don't have enough manufacturing of some critical goods that are essential to national security. Let's have an explicit policy to encourage their construction in America, not by cutting off trade, but rather by working with our allies, our trading partners, to build an industrial base that can take on the future. So I see that being a very, very close fit.

Let's fucking build more. Yes, we don't have enough manufacturing of some critical goods that are essential to national security. Let's have an explicit policy to encourage their construction in America, not by cutting off trade, but rather by working with our allies, our trading partners, to build an industrial base that can take on the future. So I see that being a very, very close fit.

I also frankly see the way this book sits alongside Doge as being very apt, right? You have right now in government, nominally, a department of government efficiency, but it's basically a department of just slamming government to the ground and then grabbing whatever can be discovered in the ruins for Elon Musk, right?

I also frankly see the way this book sits alongside Doge as being very apt, right? You have right now in government, nominally, a department of government efficiency, but it's basically a department of just slamming government to the ground and then grabbing whatever can be discovered in the ruins for Elon Musk, right?

So I think by contrast, we're talking about a vision of government efficiency that is very explicit. going into specific programs, whether it's the CHIPS and Science Act, high-speed rail in California, and saying, this is how government isn't achieving its ends right now. And if we are going to be the party that believes in government, we have to be the party that makes government work.

So I think by contrast, we're talking about a vision of government efficiency that is very explicit. going into specific programs, whether it's the CHIPS and Science Act, high-speed rail in California, and saying, this is how government isn't achieving its ends right now. And if we are going to be the party that believes in government, we have to be the party that makes government work.

That's a true department of government efficiency. And then the last thing I guess I would say is, you know, the book is... very detailed about how government fails and how to make government better.

That's a true department of government efficiency. And then the last thing I guess I would say is, you know, the book is... very detailed about how government fails and how to make government better.

But to your point about speech writing and meeting people in the moment at the level of meme and vibes and emotions, I also think that toward the end in our conclusion, we have this history that we tell about political orders, about how America's changed in the last 100 years with a New Deal order that rose between the 1930s and the 1960s and a neoliberal order that was overseen by Ronald Reagan.

But to your point about speech writing and meeting people in the moment at the level of meme and vibes and emotions, I also think that toward the end in our conclusion, we have this history that we tell about political orders, about how America's changed in the last 100 years with a New Deal order that rose between the 1930s and the 1960s and a neoliberal order that was overseen by Ronald Reagan.

And one thought that I had as I was sort of thinking about these two big political orders that have defined American history in the last century is that each one defined freedom for its own time. You know, Franklin D. Roosevelt said, you know, he talked about the four freedoms, freedom of speech, freedom of belief, from want, from fear. And then Ronald Reagan redefined freedom in the 1980s.

And one thought that I had as I was sort of thinking about these two big political orders that have defined American history in the last century is that each one defined freedom for its own time. You know, Franklin D. Roosevelt said, you know, he talked about the four freedoms, freedom of speech, freedom of belief, from want, from fear. And then Ronald Reagan redefined freedom in the 1980s.

Freedom didn't mean a kind of positive freedom. It was about freedom from the government. I do think that it's not too cheap to say that successful political movements often succeed by defining freedom in the terms that the age demands.

Freedom didn't mean a kind of positive freedom. It was about freedom from the government. I do think that it's not too cheap to say that successful political movements often succeed by defining freedom in the terms that the age demands.

Right now, I think that one of the main issues that Americans have, the main internal crisis of America, which in many ways define the 2024 election, is unaffordability. And at the core of unaffordability is housing. It's the biggest part of a typical family's budget, of almost any family's budget, is rent or mortgage.

Right now, I think that one of the main issues that Americans have, the main internal crisis of America, which in many ways define the 2024 election, is unaffordability. And at the core of unaffordability is housing. It's the biggest part of a typical family's budget, of almost any family's budget, is rent or mortgage.

Donald Trump won the unaffordability election and he's immediately driving up prices with his trade policy. I think that housing policy is about freedom.

Donald Trump won the unaffordability election and he's immediately driving up prices with his trade policy. I think that housing policy is about freedom.

the freedom to live where you want to live, the freedom to stay where you want to stay, the freedom to not feel burdened by costs, especially the cost that's the most important and emotionally intimate part of your life, the walls around your body and the ceiling and the roof.