
Podcast
Terms of Engagement – Election Administration Fight Forms
Archon Fung and Stephen Richer discuss President Trump’s assertions about mail-in voting and what they portend for future elections and voter participation.
Feature
A collection of must-reads curated by Ash Center’s Reimagining Democracy team.
As summer unfolds, the Reimagining Democracy team invites you to engage with a curated selection of thought-provoking books and research that reflect the values and challenges of democracy in our time.
Gary Gerstle
In this follow up to his 1990 Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order, Gerstle’s book reminded me that at any particular time, the arguments between the left and the right in American politics occupy a tiny portion of the full spectrum of what is possible and very likely what is desirable. The Neoliberal Order governed America from the mid 1970s until the 2010s. What makes this period an “order” is the agreement – especially between Republicans and Democrats – on what society should look like and policies should be. If a signal moment of the New Deal order was Eisenhower’s (a Republican) endorsement of the policy basics that Roosevelt created, a watershed in the birth of neoliberalism was Bill Clinton’s (a Democrat) acceptance of the main tenants of Reaganism: free markets, deregulation, globalization, reduced social benefits.
Donald Trump has likely brought an end to the Neoliberal Order. Gerstle’s book puts the most important question squarely in front of us: what will the next political “order” look like? Do we want to try to recreate the neoliberal order, or move on to something that is hopefully better?
-Archon Fung
Melina Geser-Stark
Since the 2024 election there has been endless discussion of the apparent rightward shift of GenZ, which had been thought to be more liberal than other age cohorts. But rather than jumping to the conclusion that this is a triumph of the far Right, Geser-Stark persuasively argues that it is more an expression of deep disaffection from the democratic system and disillusionment with the status quo and every leader who has gotten us to the present state. She demonstrates this with a variety of polling data, and most interestingly points out that this phenomenon is happening in other countries as well. The difference is that in these European multi-party systems, GenZ has been voting for the far left as often as the far right, bolstering her argument that it is a rejection of the establishment more than a shift to the Right. I find this paper even more interesting in the wake of the victory of Mamdani in the recent NYC primary, a Democratic Socialist who was swept to his win by new young voters.
Podcast
Archon Fung and Stephen Richer discuss President Trump’s assertions about mail-in voting and what they portend for future elections and voter participation.
Podcast
New York Times Opinion Columnist Michelle Goldberg joins Stephen Richer and Archon Fung to discuss “South Park” and the role political satires play in political discourse.
Podcast
Archon Fung and Stephen Richer discuss President Trump’s assertions about mail-in voting and what they portend for future elections and voter participation.
Podcast
A fight is brewing between some of America’s largest states. A line has been drawn, not in the sand, but on a Texas map.