As November draws nearer, Democrats’ electoral prospects are looking very similar to how they were in 2018 before the party swept to victory in many congressional and statewide seats. 2028 is much further away, of course, but there is a very real possibility that Democrats could gain trifecta control of the presidency, Senate, and House. If the recent past is any indicator though, in just two years’ time, voters will swing wildly in the opposite direction, handing control back to Republicans. American voters (and elsewhere) are clearly very dissatisfied with what political parties are offering them, but thus far, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have taken the message. Public opinion surveys keep indicating that people want major societal reforms, including one from last September which found that 77 percent of American adults wanted major political changes, that included 24 percent saying they wanted “complete reform.” Democrats are disadvantaged by the current political system, so it’s in both their ideological and electoral interest to change things. But what would major changes look like? That is the project that Adam Gurri, my guest on today’s program. He’s the publisher of Liberal Currents, an online magazine has just put out a new book on this very topic. It’s an anthology of policy proposals and system reforms called The Reconstruction Papers, that is in a lot of ways similar to the Mandate for Leadership a book that’s more informally known as Project 2025, the collection of policy proposals that has become the centerpiece of the second Trump administration’s agenda. The Reconstruction Papers has a lot of great and interesting ideas, and we get into several of them, but today’s discussion also focuses on the larger question of what liberalism is or should be, which as you might imagine, the publisher of Liberal Currents has thought about quite a bit. If you’re interested in supporting Theory of Change, we are doing a fundraising drive for the show and for Flux on GoFundMe. The video of this conversation is available. Access the episode page to get the full transcript. You can subscribe to Theory of Change and other Flux podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts, YouTube, Patreon, Substack, and elsewhere. Audio Chapters 00:00 — Introduction 07:45 — Defining liberalism 11:21 — A liberal version of Project 2025? 16:22 — Liberalism must be able to take its own side 17:42 — Fixing federalism 26:19 — The importance of more than two parties 31:17 — Reforming the Senate and adding more states 40:01 — The vital importance of judicial reform to protect democracy 47:10 — Restraining the president 52:14 — Reforming higher education and promoting national service 59:22 — The importance of public mixing institutions 01:03:34 — Reclaiming national greatness from the far right 01:06:38 — Housing needs to be cheaper and more plentiful Related Content — As Republicans have radicalized, Democrats have become more passive—and less successful electorally — The economy has collapsed for the middle class, Democrats must admit this and act accordingly — Anglo-American liberal elites have lost the ability to argue for their own principles — Democrats get lots of bad advice, particularly the idea that most voters are ideological — As Trump’s popularity has declined, Democrats’ polls are up, but not their brand-name, why? — Keir Starmer is a cautionary tale for politicians who only want to play it safe About the Show Theory of Change is hosted by Matthew Sheffield about larger trends and intersections of politics, religion, media, and technology. It's part of the Flux network, a new content community of podcasters and writers. Please visit us at flux.community to learn more and to tell us about what you're doing. We're constantly growing and learning from the great people we meet. Theory of Change on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheoryChange Matthew Sheffield on Social Media Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@mattsheffield Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattsheffield Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/matthew.flux.community This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit plus.flux.community/subscribe
