The Democrats are moving Left, and the real work is just starting. Can today’s liberals hope to match the achievements of LBJ’s presidency? Michael Kazin reviews Building the Great Society: Inside Lyndon Johnson’s White House by Joshua M. Zeitz. “Anarchist” is often hurled as a slur — but can anarchists teach us something about democracy? In an age of a resurgent radical right wing in both America and much of the rest of the world, the prevalence of the phony Left in its various guises is a serious barrier to political and social progress. “I want to talk about the DSA”: Benjamin Studebaker on why the Left is not a church. The Left shouldn’t fear nationalism — it should embrace it. Jeffrey C. Isaac on why there can be no democratic Left without an energetic Left: Some thoughts on disagreement.
Phillip Deery (Victoria): American Communism. Fighting words: No, “liberal” and “progressive” aren’t synonyms — they have completely different histories and the differences matter (and more). Maximillian Alvarez on antifascism and the Left’s fear of power: History will move with or without us. Liberals, it’s not about being nice: The hand-wringing about whether liberals should be more accommodating misses the point. Radical Democrats are pretty reasonable: Don’t make false equivalence with the Tea Party, or even with the mainstream GOP. R.I.P., liberal contrarianism: Before #Slatepitch became a punchline, Slate (and others) really did thrive on a certain kind of anti-liberalism; it’s dead now — well, almost.
From Current Affairs, Nathan Robinson on why certain arguments against socialism do not succeed (and more); and don’t use the Right’s assumptions to make the Left’s arguments. Conservatives will always call socialists hypocrites — ignore them. “If you grow up poor and advocate for socialism, it’s envy. If you grow up middle class, you’re just a corn-fed hipster trying to be contrarian. If you’re well-off, your socialism is privilege. There is no ideologically correct way of being a socialist”.
