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Danielle Lee Tomson with Oxford University Press | Under the Influence: What's Real When America Feels Fake: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/under-the-influence-9780197847862?cc=us&lang=en& Danielle Lee Tomson Substack | Failure to Communicate: https://failuretocommunicate.substack.com/ Danielle Lee Tomson with the Hewlett Foundation | Weaving a Worldview: https://hewlett.org/library/weaving-a-worldview/ Marshall Kosloff with the States Forum Journal | The Missing Liberal Story: https://www.statesforum.org/the-missing-liberal-story/ Realignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/ Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment Email the Show: [email protected] Danielle Lee Tomson, author of the forthcoming Under the Influence What's Real When America Feels Fake, returns to The Realignment. Wrapping-up this season of The Realignment, Marshall begins with an opening monologue summing up his takeaways from the post-2024 election period and what they mean for the future of American politics. Danielle then interviews Marshall about his Missing Liberal Story essay in the States Forum Journal. They discuss how Danielle's "authenticity gap" and book project sync with the need for the political center to tell a coherent story about the country's past, present, and future, why the left-liberal fusion is the path forward, and where the project needs to go next.   

Realignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/ Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment Email the Show: [email protected] Noam Scheiber, New York Times reporter and author of Mutiny: The Rise and Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Noam discuss how the rise and fall of the "college-for-all" economic model has left a generation of graduates (and non-graduates) feeling betrayed by the system, how downwardly-mobile college graduates are swinging to the economic left, which universities and government policies are responsible for the student debt crisis, and why the Biden administration's debt forgiveness program wasn't a political winner. 

Roosevelt Institute | Building a More Effective, Responsive Government: Lessons Learned from the Biden-Harris Administration: https://rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/building-a-more-effective-responsive-government/ Realignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/ Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment Email the Show: [email protected] Hannah Garden-Monheit, former Director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and co-author (with Tresa Joseph, of the Roosevelt Institute's report, Building a More Effective, Responsive Government: Lessons Learned from the Biden-Harris Administration, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Hannah discuss her interviews with 45 former Biden officials on their struggles with state capacity during the administration, why Marshall believes better "central casting" would better illustrate succesful governance, top recommendations for enhancing the federal governments ability to effectively deliver services and accomplish its goals, and the lessons for future state capacity efforts.  

American Affairs | Henry Tonks - The Rise and Fall of the New Liberals: How the Democrats Lost Their Majority: https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2025/02/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-new-liberals-how-the-democrats-lost-their-majority/ Realignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/ Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment Email the Show: [email protected]

Realignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/ Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment Email the Show: [email protected] Madeline Hart, Co-Founder of Palantir First Breakfast publication and co-author (with Shyam Sankar) of Mobilization: How to Reboot the American Industrial Base and Stop World War III, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Madeline discuss the need for embracing “heretics” in government, the case for “mobilization” as a means of deterring great power conflict and World War III, the roots of defense industry dysfunction in post-Cold War consolidation, and how the American people could materially benefit from investment in national defense.

The States Forum Journal's Latest Issue: https://www.statesforum.org/journals/issue-2/ The States Forum Substack: https://statesforum.substack.com/ Realignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/ Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment Email the Show: [email protected] Michael Laskawy, Editor-in-Chief of The States Forum Journal, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Michael discuss why Americans are increasingly looking to the states for solutions to their problems, how The States Forum's belief in the "American Promise" as a worldview provides a means for addressing the factional fights within liberalism, and explore the implications of Marshall's States Forum Journal essay on "The Missing Liberal Story."

Realignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/ Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment Email the Show: [email protected] Saagar Enjeti, Co-Host of Breaking Points, returns to The Realignment. Marshall and Saagar discuss what the escalating conflict between the U.S., Israel, and Iran means for an "America First" movement and MAGA Republican Party that campaigned on promises to end the past two decades of American intervention in the Middle East.

The States Forum Journal | The Missing Liberal Story: https://www.statesforum.org/the-missing-liberal-story/ The States Forum Journal Substack | The Missing Liberal Story: https://statesforum.substack.com/p/the-missing-liberal-story NYT Article on The States Forum | https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/us/politics/democrats-states-forum.html Today's episode is an audio essay adapted from Marshall's States Forum Journal piece: The Missing Liberal Story. In the essay, Marshall lays out his case for why he believes liberalism’s most urgent task is to craft a compelling story that resonates with the electorate if there is any hope for changing our politics. The broader States Forum Journal issue focused on "Double Security" and features fourteen essays on federalism, democracy, and the role of states in safeguarding American governance.

Roosevelt Institute | Lessons from YIMBYism: Taking “Abundance” Back to Its Fundamentals: https://rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/lessons-from-yimbyism/ Niskanen Summer Institute: https://www.niskanencenter.org/niskanen-summer-institute-democracy-that-works/ Realignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/ Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment Email the Show: [email protected] Ned Resnikoff, Roosevelt Institute and author of Lessons from YIMBYism: Taking “Abundance” Back to Its Fundamentals, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Ned discuss the history of how YIMBY housing activism led to the broader abundance movement, how Abundance supporters should think about bipartisanship and navigating the various political factions on the left of right who find the ideas relevant, and the relevance of abundance/YIMBY policy tools like regulatory reform and public investment to the goal of increasing supply of vital goods like housing, medical care, and childcare.

Niskanen Summer Institute: https://www.niskanencenter.org/niskanen-summer-institute-democracy-that-works/ Steve Teles | Varieties of Abundance: https://www.niskanencenter.org/abundance-varieties/ Realignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/ Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment Email the Show: [email protected] Steve Teles, Niskanen Center Senior Fellow, returns to The Realignment. Marshall and Steve discuss how moderates, centrists, and the Abundance movement can navigate the anti-status quo/economic populist moment, why the modern center naturally trends towards milquetoast, aesthetic moderation, instead of boldly picking fights, and how the fights over school reform in the 2000s and 2010s (regardless of one's opinion of charter schools and unions) offer a better model. Plus, Marshall reminds undergraduates in the class of 2026 and later that Niskanen Summer Institute applications are due February 27th.

Liberty and Power: 7 Hard Lessons Democrats Must Learn in 2026 Realignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/ Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment Email the Show: [email protected] The Open Market Institute's Austin Ahlman and Ben Winsor join The Realignment. Marshall, Austin, and Ben discuss their recommendations on how to effectively wield economic populism in an anti-status quo moment, when polling is and isn't useful, the complicated realities behind the terms "centrist" and "moderate," populist critiques of the abundance agenda, lessons from FDR's campaigns and presidency, and why the center isn't meeting the moment.

Realignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/ Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment Email the Show: [email protected] Laura Field, author of Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Laura discuss the intellectual movement behind Trumpism and the rise of the MAGA New Right, the intellectual branches of the movement: the Claremont Institute, Postliberals, and the National Conservatives, how cultural conflict became the engine of New Right movement-building, the future of higher education,  and why the center-left's obsession with "policy" leaves it vulnerable to populist movements with ideas and language that speak to deeper questions of meaning in 21st century America.

New Consensus | Mission for America: https://www.newconsensus.com/mfa New Consensus | Reading List: https://www.newconsensus.com/library Realignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/ Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment Email the Show: [email protected] Saikat Chakrabarti, President and co-founder of New Consensus, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Saikat discuss why an anti-status-quo moment requires more from government and politics than "making the DMV work better," his framework for moving government from "failure mode" to "mission mode," the politics of immigration after ICE's crackdown in Minnesota and the killing of two American citizens, the return of ideology to Democratic Party circles, and why the center needs to start believing in big goals, and the left needs to embrace pragmatism. 

*Gallup, not Axios as cited in episode, reporting on higher liberal identification: https://news.gallup.com/poll/700499/new-high-identify-political-independents.aspx Niskanen Center Hypertext Substack: Brink Lindsey | Abundance of What - The Permanent Problem Excerpt: https://hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/abundance-of-what-abundance-for-what Realignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/ Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment Email the Show: [email protected] Brink Lindsey, Niskanen Center Senior Vice President and author of The Permanent Problem: The Uncertain Transition from Mass Plenty to Mass Flourishing, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Brink discuss how an intellectual "mugging" from the 21st century drove his evolution from "professional libertarian" to what he calls a "brokeness liberal," why liberal democratic capitalism is in the middle of a legitimacy crisis, how his "captured economy" thesis from 2017 offers an anti-status quo frame for the center-left and center-right, the different interpretations of the word "liberal," the next frontiers of the abundance debate, and the looming challenges and opportunities posed by the rise of AI.  

Failure to Communicate Substack: https://failuretocommunicate.substack.com/ Danielle Lee Tomson: https://failuretocommunicate.substack.com/p/the-authenticity-gap Realignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/ Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment Email the Show: [email protected] Dr. Danielle Lee Tomson, author of the Failure to Communicate Substack and the forthcoming Under the Influence: What's Real When America Feels Fake, returns to The Realignment. Marshall and Danielle revisit her concept of the "authenticity gap": the growing mismatch between our expectations and lived reality, and its defining role in America's turn to populism, why technocratic campaigning and politics crowds out meaning, culture, and first-order questions, why effective storytelling is a critical candidate and movement skillset, and why the next phase of left-liberal politics will require fusion between feuding camps, not factional warfare.