Think Anew, and Act Anew: A New Deal for the 21st Century

A broad proposal for the Anti-MAGA Coalition

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.”

—Abraham Lincoln, Annual Message to Congress, 1862

I’ve become what you might call a cheap date in recent elections, and I expect I’ll remain one: if the Republican Party continues to define itself as the MAGA Party, I will vote for the Democrats. This surprises people who knew me in my more conservative — perhaps overly conservative — youth. I sometimes said: “If Donald Trump is the GOP nominee, I’ll vote for the corpse of Bernie Sanders if he’s the Democratic nominee.”

I am still incandescently angry about the insurrection on January 6, 2021. I cannot fathom how so many — especially those who should have known better — looked at that day and its aftermath and decided: Yes, the GOP may now be the party of attacking Congress and denying election results, but the Democrats are worse. The Republican Party was already dangerous then. It is worse now. Bill Kristol and others are right to call it a fascist movement. Many of today’s right-wing leaders seek nothing less than dismantling our republican form of government and replacing it with a line of “Red Caesars” — tyrants wielding state power to punish cultural enemies, and eventually anyone who dares dissent.

Things are bad. Darker than most people — perhaps even the well-informed readers of this Substack — fully grasp. The problem is that the vehicle for resistance, the Democratic Party, is not fit for the task. Yes, the pendulum of politics may swing back in their favor in a midterm. Perhaps a crisis will again mask the party’s weaknesses. Maybe, somewhere, a charismatic FDR-like figure is waiting in the wings to unite the country. But I doubt it.

In the past year we’ve seen a Democratic Party consumed by internal squabbles, trapped in identity politics, and intellectually adrift. Many Democrats lack the vocabulary to describe this moment in history, ceding ground to the hard left — whose influence only accelerates the flight of non-college voters. Against an authoritarian right, we face an opposition that is divided, shortsighted, and woefully unprepared.

Over the coming weeks, I’ll lay out my vision for what the anti-MAGA coalition must do. For now, the Democratic Party — that shambling mess of a party — is the horse (or donkey) we’re stuck riding. (In some deep-red states, third-party runs may be the only way forward, given how toxic the national Democratic brand has become. But in most cases, the Democrats are the only viable vehicle to resist authoritarianism. More on this later.)

Working together in our new, very different political environment will make many of us uncomfortable. Good. Politics in a democracy isn’t about purity; it’s about winning elections. Winning requires coalitions. And coalitions mean standing shoulder-to-shoulder with people we may disagree with, sometimes sharply. If that is intolerable, then politics may not be for you. Better to go into theology and hunt heretics there. We, however, are trying to govern a vast, diverse, chaotic, continent-sized republic that is fast sliding toward authoritarianism — and we don’t have the luxury of ideological comfort.

But let me be clear: I am not calling for a lowest-common-denominator centrism. If the other side wants Charles Lindbergh’s “America First,” then I want Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal.”

I want a platform that can restore the American social contract, safeguard free government, and prove to the world that self-rule is not only possible but powerful. That republics can work. That we can govern ourselves without submitting to some would-be caudillo who slaps tariffs on a whim, accepts bribes dressed up as luxury jets, and — when cornered — unleashes a mob against the legislature itself.

I want a 60-percent-plus party — a truly national party with a New England wing, a Texas wing, a Midwest wing, and a left flank. I want Abigail Spanberger types sitting down with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez types in Congress to argue, negotiate, compromise — and then cut a deal and govern, shielding the country from reactionaries and nihilists.

And against the clowns and tyrants of MAGA, I believe we can prevail. But first we must face a simple truth: most people are not political junkies. They don’t live on Twitter. They don’t follow the news cycle. They’re trying to get by. They want steady jobs, affordable prices, a safety net in hard times, and — yes — the dignity of not being sneered at if they don’t adopt the latest cultural doctrine.

There is no excuse for voting for Donald Trump in 2024. But many of those voters are not bad people. And we’re going to need them on our side. Look at the scoreboard: they won every swing state, they won the popular vote, they won Congress. That’s the reality we have to engage with.

I’m not a policy wonk, and I don’t believe in 57-point plans. Anything that lasts must go through Congress — where it will be twisted, amended, and, with luck, improved. Broad principles and a clear vision matter more than white papers. Domestically my principles are this: an expanded and reformed social safety net, combined with libertarian economic reforms to supercharge economic growth.

To that end, I propose a New Deal for the 21st Century — four pillars to rebuild our democracy and defeat authoritarianism:

ARTICLE I - Rebuilding the Social Contract. Universal health care, direct family support, and a renaissance of vocational training. Government as partner, not master.

ARTICLE II - Freedom and Growth. Clear the path for housing and energy, simplify taxes, and reopen America to trade and competition. Streamline and reform business regulations. Liberalism should mean dynamism. Business owners who want stability and growth should start to see the Republicans as the party of corruption and sclerosis, and the Democrats the party of growth.

ARTICLE III - Democracy Defended. End gerrymandering, restrain the pardon power, restore Congress as the people’s branch. Guardrails against creeping authoritarianism.

ARTICLE IV - Leadership in a Dangerous World. Strengthen NATO, build new alliances, rebuild arms and industries, and lead a coalition of free nations in trade and technology.

This is not nostalgia or utopianism. It is necessity. Roosevelt said the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. MAGA, in contrast, says fear is all we have: fear of immigrants, fear of diversity, fear of the future. That cannot sustain a great nation.

The alternative is courage. Jobs. Health care for all. Support for families. Growth through freedom. Democracy restored. America leading, not shrinking.

This is the New Deal for the 21st Century. It is not “America First,” nor “America Last.” It is America Together.

And it may yet save the republic.