Derek Thompson

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's a complicated question. You know, something has happened in the last 50 years of liberalism that has marked a really clear shift in its character. If you go back 100 years to the beginning of the New Deal era, America was building like crazy. We were building roads. We were building bridges. We were building energy. We built and built and built.

It's a complicated question. You know, something has happened in the last 50 years of liberalism that has marked a really clear shift in its character. If you go back 100 years to the beginning of the New Deal era, America was building like crazy. We were building roads. We were building bridges. We were building energy. We built and built and built.

And sometime around the 1960s, 1970s, the character of liberalism changed and the politics of building gave way to a different kind of politics that we think of as the politics of blocking, essentially. You had the rise of environmental laws, which were very important in their age. The 1940s and 1950s were absolutely heinously disgusting. We needed a Clean Air and Water Act.

And sometime around the 1960s, 1970s, the character of liberalism changed and the politics of building gave way to a different kind of politics that we think of as the politics of blocking, essentially. You had the rise of environmental laws, which were very important in their age. The 1940s and 1950s were absolutely heinously disgusting. We needed a Clean Air and Water Act.

We needed Need Before It's Time. We needed ways to protect endangered species. But the rules that we wrote in the 1960s to protect the environment have created strictures and rules that keep us from building the things we need in the 2020s, like houses and energy.

We needed Need Before It's Time. We needed ways to protect endangered species. But the rules that we wrote in the 1960s to protect the environment have created strictures and rules that keep us from building the things we need in the 2020s, like houses and energy.

There was also a legal change that we get into in detail in the book, where we made it easier for neighbors to control what could and couldn't be built around them.

There was also a legal change that we get into in detail in the book, where we made it easier for neighbors to control what could and couldn't be built around them.

And when neighbors have the ability to say no to any new development that might have a chance of creating new construction headaches or adding new parking headaches or maybe even reducing the value of their homes, when you give that power at the local level, it has the ability to stop development entirely And that's really what we've seen in so many areas that are governed by liberals.

And when neighbors have the ability to say no to any new development that might have a chance of creating new construction headaches or adding new parking headaches or maybe even reducing the value of their homes, when you give that power at the local level, it has the ability to stop development entirely And that's really what we've seen in so many areas that are governed by liberals.

I mean, the five states with the highest rates of homelessness are all governed by Democrats. There was a study that my colleague Yoni Applebaum talked about in a recent cover story in The Atlantic that found that in the state of California, every single time a city adds 10% vote share of progressives, the number of housing permits declines by 30%.

I mean, the five states with the highest rates of homelessness are all governed by Democrats. There was a study that my colleague Yoni Applebaum talked about in a recent cover story in The Atlantic that found that in the state of California, every single time a city adds 10% vote share of progressives, the number of housing permits declines by 30%.

So as an area becomes more liberal, it permits fewer homes. So I think, as Ezra said, it's so important, I think, to look very clearly in the mirror and say we're at this moment right now where the opposition to Donald Trump needs to be popular and effective.

So as an area becomes more liberal, it permits fewer homes. So I think, as Ezra said, it's so important, I think, to look very clearly in the mirror and say we're at this moment right now where the opposition to Donald Trump needs to be popular and effective.

And right now we have a Democratic Party that is incredibly historically unpopular and also incredibly ineffective in the places that it holds the most power, like New York. and California and Oregon. And so it's really important, I think, not just to have a movement that can criticize Donald Trump effectively, but also have a movement that can say, give us power because we've earned it.

And right now we have a Democratic Party that is incredibly historically unpopular and also incredibly ineffective in the places that it holds the most power, like New York. and California and Oregon. And so it's really important, I think, not just to have a movement that can criticize Donald Trump effectively, but also have a movement that can say, give us power because we've earned it.

Give us power because we deserve it. Give us power because when we have it, we can build the things that are most important, houses, energy, even science and technology.

Give us power because we deserve it. Give us power because when we have it, we can build the things that are most important, houses, energy, even science and technology.