591 | Saikat Chakrabarti: Building a New Consensus - How to Move America from "Failure Mode" to "Mission Mode"

New Consensus | Mission for America: https://www.newconsensus.com/mfaNew Consensus | Reading List: https://www.newconsensus.com/libraryRealignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignmentEmail the Show: [email protected] 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.aspxNiskanen Center Hypertext Substack: Brink Lindsey | Abundance of What - The Permanent Problem Excerpt: https://hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/abundance-of-what-abundance-for-whatRealignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignmentEmail the Show: [email protected] 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-gapRealignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignmentEmail the Show: [email protected]. 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.

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/therealignmentEmail the Show: [email protected] M. Dougherty, author of Beast in the Machine: How Robotics and AI Will Transform Warfare and the Future of Human Conflict, joins The Realignment. Marshall and George discuss how robotics and AI are triggering a military revolution as consequential as mechanization a century ago, why the real story isn't "drones" but "universal precision: a 100-1000x leap in lethality on the battlefield, the need to rethink offense, defense, and initiative, how small states and non-state actors are innovating faster than the U.S. and legacy defense ecosystems, and what today's equivalent of the outmoded WWII battleship is.

Niskanen Summer Institute: https://www.niskanencenter.org/niskanen-summer-institute-democracy-that-works/The Affordability Framework: https://economicsecurityproject.org/news/introducing-the-affordability-framework-a-tool-for-understanding-americas-affordability-crisis/Realignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignmentEmail the Show: [email protected]

Oliver Libby Forbes Profile: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nelldebevoise/2025/11/11/why-americas-next-big-idea-isnt-about-doing-more--its-about-building-smarter/Realignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignmentEmail the Show: [email protected] Libby, civic investor and author of Strong Floor, No Ceiling: Building a New Foundation for the American Dream, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Oliver discuss his post-2024 Strong Floor, No Ceiling framework: a strong floor below which Americans shouldn't fall (healthcare, education, work, housing, opportunity), and no ceiling on aspiration and growth (with rules), why Americans are giving up on the American dream, what a successful national service program would look like (and why previous versions failed to meet their promise), how wealth and power stress the social contract, and why an alternative to MAGA hasn't arrived yet.

Hardball Substack: https://thechrismatthews.substack.com/Realignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignmentEmail the Show: [email protected] Matthews, former host of MSNBC's Hardball (now on Substack) and author of Lessons from Bobby: Ten Reasons Robert F. Kennedy Still Matters, joins The Realignment. Marshall and Chris discuss Robert F. Kennedy's legacy after last month's 100-year centenary of his birth, what his life, career, and assassination meant for American liberalism, the politics of working-class and rural Americans, RFK's ability to surmount racial divisions, and why authenticity matters more than surface-level branding, as demonstrated by the careers of President Trump, Representative AOC, Senator Bernie Sanders, and Senator John Fetterman.

Realignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignmentEmail the Show: [email protected] Hamid, Washington Post Columnist and author of The Case for American Power, returns to The Realignment. Marshall and Shadi discuss his case for American power despite one's opposition to the country's past and present misuse of power, his intellectual journey from Iraq War protestor to power advocate, why polls find that Democrats and the left-liberals are increasingly unpatriotic, and why Democratic Party elites lacked the credibility to make the strongest case against Trump in 2024.

Realignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignmentEmail the Show: [email protected] Quincy Institute's William D. Hartung and Ben Freeman, authors of Trillion Dollar War Machine: How Runaway Military Spending Drives America into Foreign Wars and Bankrupts Us at Home, join The Realignment. Marshall, William, and Ben debate and discuss the origins of America's proposed record trillion-dollar Pentagon budget, why the budget spirals upwards despite every 21st-century president's promise to disengage abroad and invest at home, the role of money and corruption in U.S. foreign policy decisions, the proper use of American power abroad, and the origin of our foreign policy debacles in Afghanistan, Iraq, Gaza, and Ukraine.

The Atlantic | A Post-Literate Age: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/10/journalism-literature-media-trump/684752/Realignment Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/Realignment Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignmentEmail the Show: [email protected] Packer, Staff Writer at The Atlantic and author of The Emergency, returns to The Realignment. Marshall and George discuss his new work of Fiction: The Emergency, his transition back to fiction after works of journalism in an increasingly post-literate society, the resonance of the book's theme of living through imperial collapse, boredom, and a lack of faith, why the American liberal project feels lost today in an era of populist backlash, and why the themes of his previous books, The Unwinding and Blood of the Liberals, are critical to anyone looking to chart America's path forward.