Which of these alternatives sounds more radical to you — abolishing the filibuster to save our democracy, or destroying our democracy to save the filibuster? Make no mistake. This is the choice. And whichever way it goes will be Joe Biden’s most enduring legacy. Not long after Biden assumed the Presidency, Freedom House, a democracy-watchdog group, ranked the state of democracy in the United States below that in Chile, Costa Rica, and Slovakia. Freedom House pointed to the increasing use in the ...
Dec 03, 2021•7 min
My start in American politics occurred 50 years ago this month, in December 1971, when on winter break from law school I volunteered for the incipient (and ultimately doomed) presidential campaign of George McGovern. My political views then — to grossly simplify them — were that I was against the Vietnam War and the military-industrial complex, strongly supportive of civil rights and voting rights, and against the power of big corporations. At that time, compared with today, the political spectr...
Dec 02, 2021•3 min
Friends, If your family and friends are anything like mine, there will be lots of talk over turkey dinner. Some of it will be gossip. Some of it will be about sports or jokes or jobs or plans. But a few of your guests (perhaps even you) may want to talk about the distressing state of the nation and the world. Your cousin Sue worries about climate change and how little was accomplished in Glasgow. Your son Jared, back from college, wants to talk about systemic racism. Your Trumpish uncle Bob can’...
Nov 25, 2021•6 min
Official Washington will be quiet this week, but the fallout from the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict will continue to divide America along the Trumpian fault lines of fear, violence, and racism. Closing arguments are scheduled today in the trial of three men charged with the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia. Though they chased him, they are claiming self-defense because, they say, Arbery tried to get control of a shotgun one of them was carrying. As with the Rittenhouse case, the trial raises quest...
Nov 22, 2021•5 min
One of the most important consequences of an election is its effect on conventional wisdom about how the losing political party must change in order to win. After Tuesday’s Democratic loss in the Virginia gubernatorial election and near-loss in New Jersey, I’m hearing a narrative about Democrats’ failure with white working-class voters that worries me because it’s fundamentally wrong. In today’s New York Times , David Leonhardt points out that the working-class, non-college voters who are abando...
Nov 04, 2021•8 min
If you want to know what’s really going on, don’t pay attention to political speeches or news headlines. Look instead at any underlying reallocation of power — who’s gaining power and who’s losing it — and ponder what these changes mean for the future. Consider, for example, three big upcoming stories this week: The Glasgow climate summit will generate lots of verbiage. But the real question is whether Biden can convince other nations’ political leaders they can trust the United States to do its...
Nov 01, 2021•8 min
I often tell my students that if they strive to achieve full and meaningful lives they should expect failures and disappointments. We learn to walk by falling down again and again. We learn to ride a bicycle by crashing into things. We learn to make good friends by being disappointed in friendship. Failure and disappointment are necessary prerequisites to growth. The real test of character comes after failures and disappointments. It is resilience — how easily you take failures, what you learn f...
Oct 29, 2021•5 min
Friends, At a time when the six Republican appointees on the Supreme Court — prodded by Texas, Mississippi, and several other red states — seem ready to reverse Roe v. Wade , it’s important to see the even larger context of what’s at stake. For years, rightwing Republicans have focused their ire on private morality – on the most intimate aspects of peoples’ lives — including abortion, contraception, gay marriage, and which bathrooms and sports teams trans young people choose. But the real moral ...
Oct 26, 2021•4 min
Friends, This week, Democrats either reach agreement on Biden’s social and climate agenda or the agenda may shrink into meaninglessness. The climate measures in particular need to be settled before Biden heads to Scotland for the U.N. climate summit this weekend, so other nations will see our commitment to reduce carbon emissions. Yesterday, Biden met with key Democrats to work out spending and tax provisions. Yet as far as I know, every senate Republican and at least two senate Democrats contin...
Oct 25, 2021•5 min
What’s the single most important thing that keeps me optimistic about the future? To put it simply: my students. I’ve been teaching on and off for the last forty years. Teaching is one of the most gratifying and joyful professions I can imagine. And in all my years of teaching I’ve never taught a generation of students more diverse, more intelligent, and more committed to the public good than the generation I’m now teaching. This isn’t just at Berkeley. In the years leading up to the pandemic I ...
Oct 23, 2021•3 min
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Oct 21, 2021•5 min
Let me share with you in this short podcast some of the things I’ve heard from people in the last few months, which may suggest the first stirrings of fundamental social change. Very interested in your reactions. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertreich.substack.com/subscribe
Oct 16, 2021•7 min
This morning I phoned my old friend Alan Simpson, the former Wyoming senator. Alan and I see eye-to-eye on nothing. He’s a conservative Republican, I’m a progressive Democrat. He’s a fiscal hawk, I don’t worry about the national debt. He thinks Biden has gone too far, I don’t think he’s gone far enough. We don’t see eye-to-eye literally, either. He’s 6 foot 7 and I’m 4 feet 11. But here’s the thing: I love the guy. We struck up a friendship during my years as Secretary of Labor. It began at one ...
Oct 02, 2021•3 min
This week, we’re going to witness two high-stakes games of chicken. 1. The first game will be between Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans over raising the debt ceiling and extending funding the government beyond Thursday. These two issues are really quite different: Funding is the more immediate need because if no agreement is reached by Thursday night, the government will shut down. The debt ceiling doesn’t have to be raised until the Treasury runs out of money to pay the government’s bills...
Sep 27, 2021•8 min
My first week of writing (and drawing) this letter has been everything I hoped it would be, largely because of you. Thank you for joining me in this experiment (and it is an experiment because I’ve never tried anything like it before). I hope you will find it useful — as well as interesting and occasionally even amusing. It’s no secret the past year has been long and grueling. Although I’ve been luckier than most, I’ve felt the same stresses many of you have felt (including some sleepless nights...
Sep 26, 2021•36 sec
