The urgent need to build
To create a credible alternative to Trumpism, we in blue States need to build things we can see and touch.
The problem
In article after article, political scientists warn that America’s democratic backsliding could end in “competitive authoritarianism,” a system in which the political parties still compete, but on a playing field tilted heavily in favor of the incumbent party.1 Civil liberties are weakened; those who oppose the regime are harassed and punished. Hungary and Turkey are often cited as examples of competitive authoritarian nations, whereas China and Russia are classic dictatorships.2 There are countervailing theories, but they do not provide enough assurance to treat the current political trajectory as anything other than a crisis.
One theory says that Trump responds to and is constrained by the stock market and the state of the economy more generally.3 Thus, when the stock market plummeted in response to his lunatic tariffs,4 he suspended many of them for 90 days.5 When the stock market dropped in response to his comments that he would remove the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Trump said that he would not remove him.6 Supporters of the “market-constrained Trump” theory can point to these push-and-pull events and argue that he is not willing to destroy the economy, such that the economy ultimately limits what he can do.
I am skeptical that market will constrain Trump this time around. For one thing, it is not clear that the market changed his position on tariffs. The tariffs have only been partly suspended, not lifted, and he increased the tariffs on goods imported from China. The tariffs on China alone seem like enough to cause supply shocks. Anyway, he likes declaring emergencies and imposing tariffs because the fluctuating tariffs cause businesses and foreign leaders to offer him things in exchange for exceptions.
Another theory says that institutions are the greater force that will check Trump.7 This part of the story is still unfolding. Will universities, law firms, and media organizations fight back against his illegal orders, spurious lawsuits, and funding freezes? Will military leaders agree to use force against Americans? Will Congress let his abuses stand? Will courts hold his agencies and officers in contempt? Will Americans care that he is spending taxpayer dollars to imprison people in El Salvador without charging them with a crime?8 Will this affect their votes in mid-term elections?
The results so far are mixed, with some institutions caving and others fighting.9 One thing seems clear enough based on the track record so far. If institutions stay silent or cave, then we should not rule out the possibility of democratic and economic collapse, so we should instead fight against that possibility on every front. Taking an authoritarian seriously means resisting every illegal incursion and welcoming every ally.
The response
The other part of responding to the threat of authoritarianism or worse is giving people a better choice. That project should have the same urgency. The emergent project is not just opposing an existential threat to democracy, but in creating an alternative that can attract people and persuade them that a democratic republic is still better than a dictatorship. I think this project requires building things that people can see and touch, and quickly.
To take the most common example, journalists, academics, and politicians have long noticed that we have an affordable housing crisis in California.10 People are moving out of State. Building new housing would be a sign of life. People can see it, live in it, even. The same goes for new parks, bridges, and roads. They are action and momentum. They demonstrate that the social order still works. Bigger projects and new technologies can be even more inspiring. The Waymos driving themselves around San Francisco are amazing.11 California Forever is building a whole city in Solano County, if it succeeds.12 So cool, and so much more to do.
I am fixated on building, which is at the heart of the “abundance” strain of liberalism, because, one, we really need it, and two, in a fractured information environment, creating tangible signs of progress seems like the best and most positive way to reach disenchanted voters. Voters are short on attention and patience. Most of them cannot remember or care about policy details, and even if they can, new things and places and jobs to create it all are more interesting. A renovated hospital or park is something to use or see or touch. A paycheck from government-funded construction job or research project is money in the bank. Blue-State and local governments that can reclaim public faith should do so before it’s too late.
This is where I want to pick up the abundance mantra13 and advocate for more state capacity to build quickly, which necessarily will mean less procedure and review. Politicians have been asking for more housing for decades. Their well-meaning but ineffective solution at the state level has been to pile on ever more complex statutes, all designed to promote a very specific kind of development but all so complicated as to guarantee delay, disputes, and much litigation.14 Blue-staters should move well beyond byzantine statutory exceptions to bad rules and simply repeal the bad rules. This would enable developers to build housing more quickly, expanding supply, and lower costs.
Removing roadblocks is not a vision by itself, but then again, we know a lot already about where we want to go. I will write more about this next. The theme will be that we should just get building, with more details to come on how and what. For now, the article of faith is: Voters will see the effort and the results and this will help, along with everything else, to bring us back to a better, freer, and more democratic politics.
Here are some examples. Steven Levitsky and Lucan A. Way, The Path to American Authoritarianism, Foreign Affairs (Feb. 11, 2025), https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/path-american-authoritarianism-trump; Frank Langfitt, Hundreds of scholars say U.S. is swiftly heading toward authoritarianism, NPR (Apr. 22, 2025) https://www.npr.org/2025/04/22/nx-s1-5340753/trump-democracy-authoritarianism-competive-survey-political-scientist; Daniel Stid, Competitive Authoritarianism Comes for Civil Society, American Enterprise Institute (Apr. 6, 2025); https://www.aei.org/op-eds/competitive-authoritarianism-comes-for-civil-society; Jessica Marsden, After the 100 days: Where we go from here, If you can keep it (May 2, 2025),
See also Steven Levitsky and Lucan A. Way, The New Competitive Authoritarianism, Journal of Democracy (Jan. 2020), https://muse.jhu.edu/article/745953.
See, e.g., Is It Happening Here, The New Yorker (Apr. 28, 2025), https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/05/05/is-the-us-becoming-an-autocracy.
See Sam Becker, What is the ‘Trump put’? Why investors say the tariff pause was predictable after the bond market shook, Fast Company (Apr. 11, 2025), https://www.fastcompany.com/91314817/what-is-trump-put-tariff-pause-90-day-predictable-stock-bond-market-treasury-rates.
For a summary, see Noah Smith, All the arguments for Trump's tariffs are wrong and bad, Noahpinion (Apr. 9, 2025),
See also See, e.g., Marcus Wright, Trump’s China Tariffs Set to Unleash Supply Shock on US Economy, Bloomberg News (Apr. 28, 2025), https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-04-28/trump-s-china-tariffs-set-to-unleash-supply-shock-on-us-economy-ma0ywcxi; Steven Rattner, What’s Probably Going On With the Volatile Bond Market, NY Times (Apr. 9, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/09/opinion/bond-market-tariffs.html.
See Executive Order No. 14266, Modifying Reciprocal Tariff Rates to Reflect Trading Partner Retaliation and Alignment (Apr. 9, 2025), https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/modifying-reciprocal-tariff-rates-to-reflect-trading-partner-retaliation-and-alignment.
See Colby Smith, et al, Risk of Financial Panic Tempers Trump on Firing Powell, NY Times (Apr. 18, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/18/business/trump-powell-fed-markets.html.
See, e.g., Zolan Kanno-Youngs, et al., Behind Trump’s Deal to Deport Venezuelans to El Salvador’s Most Feared Prison, NY Times (Apr. 30,2025), https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/30/us/politics/trump-deportations-venezuela-el-salvador.html.
Here’s the big law tracker. Kathryn Rubino, Biglaw Is Under Attack. Here’s What The Firms Are Doing About It, Above The Law (Apr. 4, 2025), https://abovethelaw.com/2025/04/biglaw-is-under-attack-heres-what-the-firms-are-doing-about-it.
See, e.g., Ben Christopher, et al., Californians: Here’s why your housing costs are so high, Cal Matters (Jan. 16, 2025), https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-housing-costs-explainer; Public Policy Institute of California, Californians and the Housing Crisis, https://www.ppic.org/interactive/californians-and-the-housing-crisis.
Tom Friedman is so stoked that he says he now calls himself a “Waymo Democrat.” Thomas L. Friedman, How I Describe Myself Politically These Days, NY Times (Apr. 23, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/opinion/waymo-democrat-advanced-manufacturing.html.
https://californiaforever.com
Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson, Abundance (Avid Reader Press 2025).
According to one source, Governor Newsom signed over sixty housing-related bills into law in 2024 alone. Muhammad Alameldin, California Housing Laws That Go into Effect in 2025, Terner Center for Housing Innovation, UC Berkeley (Oct. 29, 2024), https://ternercenter.berkeley.edu/blog/california-housing-laws-that-go-into-effect-in-2025.