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Mark Schmitt @mschmitt9.bsky.social · 3h

I guess I'm going to see every possible pun on my last name today. That's OK--it was worth it.

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

When they get back in power, Democrats need to go all-in on higher education. We need a campaign of reinvestment in public universities across the country that makes the Morrill Land-Grant Act look like nothing by comparison *and* a GI Bill of Rights-style program of tuition grants.

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Mark Schmitt @mschmitt9.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The election campaigns worth investing in, as a normal donor, are the ones you hadn't thought about before yesterday. NC leg, for example. That's a general rule, but especially this year as the "leans D" line moves quickly. But all those Ds will have *enough* money.

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Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

years ago, my colleague Steve Teles and @mschmitt9.bsky.social wrote what I think is still the definitive piece on how to think about this - hewlett.org/wp-content/u...

hewlett.org

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James Goodwin @jamesgoodwin.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

One of the reasons Trump is doubling down on AI is it has become essential to his administration's campaign to weaponize the administrative state. www.csmonitor.com/Environment/...

csmonitor.com

The EPA may deploy AI to regulate toxic chemicals. It’s not telling the public.

Federal law requires U.S. government agencies to disclose how they’re using AI tools in their work. But in the case of the EPA, this doesn’t appear to be…

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G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · 17/09/2026

notice how these people who were formerly all-in on the mythical power of ideological moderation have changed their tack and entire organizational orientation after discovering the wisdom of the ancients that most voters are not ideological at all. now it’s all about “heterodoxy.”

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Mark Schmitt @mschmitt9.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Everyone's dunking on the disenfranchised Vineyard summer-er, but I'm struggling with the idea that people who hate Bill de Blasio, Eric Adams and Zohran Mamdani with equal passion would be voting in the Democratic primary in the first place. If you hate most Democrats, there's a party for you...

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Mark Schmitt @mschmitt9.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

As polls continue to show a big midterm advantage for Dems, reupping my piece about why some midterms just change the numbers, while others have had more transformational effects on the winning party and on politics generally. markschmitt.substack.com/p/making-mid...

markschmitt.substack.com

Making Midterms Matter

Most backlash elections change the numbers. A few have more lasting consequences.

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Mark Schmitt @mschmitt9.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Something about the way VandeHei talks about the AI threat here reminds me of the way people like him talked about "the deficit" or "the debt" in the Obama era--a huge abstract thing that all *serious* people must focus on, to the exclusion of any democratic debate about other priorities.

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Mitchell Epner @mitchellepner.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

In the Fall of 1992, I learned one of the fundamental laws of the universe: Not enough bad things can happen to Ted Cruz.

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Mark Schmitt @mschmitt9.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I found this guide to the political and ideological factions around AI extremely useful and accessible (from the perspective of an outsider without fixed views).

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Jonathan Bernstein @jonathanbernstein.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

From my outsider perspective I'd have some nitpicks, but the essentials are correct and important. "Like any democracy, the composition and leadership of these bodies are determined by whomever shows up." That's the deep, serious, for-real democracy we've built and is under threat now.

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Jonathan Bernstein @jonathanbernstein.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

When I and others talk about parties being *permeable* - this is exactly what we're talking about. "I started with a Google search... I was elected to Post Seat Holder by a voice vote of everyone in the room at my third business meeting."

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Mark Schmitt @mschmitt9.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

This is such a great article and reminder that "the Democratic Party" is not some distant room where Schumer and Jeffries hand down directives. It's millions of people, in and out of the formal structures of the party. But state parties vary widely, and there's a lot to be learned in the variation.

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Mark Schmitt @mschmitt9.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Especially as broadcast ads become less significant, the difference between politicians who avoid many of their constituents (Comer and other GOP, but also Fetterman, Haley Stevens in her walk-away videos) and those who will go anywhere, talk to anyone, and can take tough questions will become key.

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Mark Schmitt @mschmitt9.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Back in the blog era, I used to joke (because it was true) that conservative bloggers had one thing that progressives lacked: clients.

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Perry Bacon @perrybaconjr.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

So many of these writers, entire sections, and at times outlets are not engaged in serious writing or thinking. "The Case for Reparations" and "The 1619 Project" remain excellent works of journalism. I am not sure either would have been published today in the outlets where they appeared.

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New America @newamerica.org · 24/08/2026

The U.S. has one of the widest age gaps between legislators and the people they represent in the world. New America's Oscar Pocasangre breaks down America's gerontocracy means for democracy. 🗞️ Read the @protectdemocracy.org + New America report: go.newamerica.org/age-divide-geront…

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Mark Schmitt @mschmitt9.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I'm cranking the Substack back up this week. New post on why some midterms just shift the numbers in Congress, and others have lasting consequences, and the model for Dems to do more than just win numerical majorities. markschmitt.substack.com/p/making-mid...

markschmitt.substack.com

Making Midterms Matter

Most backlash elections change the numbers. A few have more lasting consequences.

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

It's a bad system, perhaps the only idea genuinely and unambiguously worse than traditional FPTP and party primaries. I'm an electoral reform nerd and I would vote against it. California's very likely to repeal it soon, it's been such a complete failure.

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Mark Schmitt @mschmitt9.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

An essential post by @adambonica.bsky.social, who brings academic rigor to the question we all wonder about who those ridiculous spam PAC texts work on, and why it matters. It never ceases to upset me that the largest org working on money in politics now, End Citizens United, is a notorious spam PAC

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

In my view, the DSA passed an important test in Wisconsin: can you lose really close election & immediately keep your eye on the ball by joining the Dem coalition for the general?

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Mark Schmitt @mschmitt9.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

If Mitch McConnell is actually able to show up in the Senate in three months, GOP might be able to cause a lot of harm in the lame-duck session.

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Mark Schmitt @mschmitt9.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

I strongly agree. I'm convinced that Liz Cheney had no effect on the election outcome b/c most non-political people really don't know who Liz Cheney is, and the whole Bush-Cheney admin is lost in fog. Maybe time Harris spent with Cheney could have been better used elsewhere, but that's a minor point

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Mark Schmitt @mschmitt9.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

We're hosting a terrific virtual event this evening @politicalreform.newamerica.org, on younger voters--looking at both successful organizing to ensure young people are registered and vote, and also the structural changes that would break the gerontocracy: www.newamerica.org/events/the-n...

newamerica.org

The Next Generation of Voters

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Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

I remember seeing someone (very reasonably) complaining here a few days ago that there seems to be next to no visible thinking on left and center about how to join the dots on administration and democracy. This is the beginnings of an answer to that complaint donmoynihan.substack.com/p/rebuilding...

donmoynihan.substack.com

Rebuilding Democracy Requires Rebalancing Power

What does a power-shifting agenda look like?

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Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Chris Hayes was good on this in a conversation with Ezra Klein before Mamdani was elected - www.nytimes.com/2025/06/28/o... - the whole discussion is good on the experimentation/attention dynamic.

I think it’s the most important question in some ways. One thing I would say is, I like experimentation and new ideas.

When he was asked about the public groceries — I think it’s in “The Bulwark Podcast” — he says: We’ll try it, and if it doesn’t work, c’est la vie.

I love that answer. Politicians never give that answer. The person who really most embodied that spirit is F.D.R.

If you go back and read about the first hundred days, they’re just trying a lot. We now think about F.D.R. as this colossus who remade the relationship between the citizen and the federal government. A lot of that stuff did not work — like, fully failed. A lot of the interventions failed.

They did a lot of clunky stuff. It was a totally different time. He had these enormous mandates, and it was a crisis.

I like the idea of experimentation and these ideas coming from outside of the consensus around sensible policy. The test for it is: Can you deliver?

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Nathan Newman @nathansnewman.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Reminder Brad Lander- while a past member of DSA - built his career and won his House seat with the support of the Working Families Party not DSA. Disproportionate media focus on DSA versus work of other left groups like Working Families Party across the US.

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Mark Schmitt @mschmitt9.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Maybe everyone knew this, but I didn't: That for fifty years, 1937-1987, Rockefeller to Gates, there was not a single billionaire in the US. (from Ray Madoff's new book, The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy)

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 21/07/2026

"most americans have health insurance and don't like change" explains 90 percent of health care politics

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Mark Schmitt @mschmitt9.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

When I worked in the Senate (eons ago), there was a phrase I remember hearing, often from senior staffers, if someone expressed total contempt for another senator, even if well deserved: "He got elected, too, the same way [our boss] did." It was a mark of basic respect for the democratic process.

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Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 06/07/2026

"If you like democracy, you must resist the peculiar Americanism of anti-partyism. Be pro-party—as many of them as possible." www.liberalcurrents.com/make-politic...

liberalcurrents.com

Make Political Parties Great Again

The answer to Eric Swalwell and the top-two debacle in California is multiparty electoral reform.

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Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

I'll just add that between handwringing Dem centrists and young Dem-adjacent socialists is a large group I would label "self-described liberals who are enraged/sick of this crap" and are ready to vote left/progressive. Don't underestimate them. And FFS don't scold them; they're also sick of that.

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Mark Schmitt @mschmitt9.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Before Diana DeGette, CO-1 was represented for 24 years by Pat Schroeder. In 1972, Schroeder was a 32-yr-old lawyer, an anti-war progressive insurgent who challenged the establishment Dem and then upset a GOP incumbent. Menat Kiros is a 29-yr-old lawyer and anti-war progressive insurgent. 1/2

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Murshed Zaheed @murshedz.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Just how effing shortsighted and dumb this email looks now less than 24 hours later?

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Patrick Chovanec @prchovanec.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

The Supreme Court set the stage today for the next Democratic President to fire every single Trump appointee across the federal government on Day One. I assume there won’t be any complaints.

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Mark Schmitt @mschmitt9.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

If this means that Mr. Carville will no longer be sending me a half-dozen emails and texts every day, I will consider it a welcome development. DSA candidates are already improving my quality of life.

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Mark Schmitt @mschmitt9.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

This is a great example of the journalistic rule to report what people do or say, not what they might feel. I don't know if Exxon CEO Lee Raymond "doubted climate change," and neither does Bloomberg. All we know is that he *promoted doubt" about climate change. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

bloomberg.com

Lee Raymond, Exxon CEO Who Doubted Climate Change, Dies at 87

Lee Raymond, the former head of Exxon Mobil Corp. who oversaw the biggest corporate merger in the history of the oil industry and was derided as “the Darth Vader of global warming” for his skepticism ...

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Julia Azari @juliaazari.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

agree, and would add that the Democratic aversion to such orgs is partly driven by the hollowing of party (to quote Rosenfeld and Schlozman) - robustly organized parties aren't as vulnerable to concerns about orgs they share some affinity with but can't control.

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Mark Schmitt @mschmitt9.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

"Dems and billionaires" can't "rebuild" something like ACORN. They have to be willing to support and respect organizing that emerges from community, even if it makes donors and elected Dems uncomfortable. Orgs don't exist to elect Dems & might not follow the donors' preferred issue priorities. 1/

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Mark Schmitt @mschmitt9.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

This from Klobuchar exemplifies the language problem in Democratic messaging. It's not fancy words or academic jargon. It's that they yoke so many concepts together, with logical links that are almost impossible for anyone with a normal attention span to track. Don't be clever! Just say one thing!

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Mark Schmitt @mschmitt9.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

I'm thrilled to have been asked to become the board chair of scholars.org, one of my favorite organizations, and also to appear on their podcast, No Jargon, to talk about the recent paper and conference on strengthening US political parties that we published at @polreformna.bsky.social

scholars.org

Home | Scholars Strategy Network

Your one-stop resource for timely and reliable research. Get the expertise you need from our responsive network of America's top experts.

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Brian Beutler @brianbeutler.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

New, and I think important piece. Brainstorming policy ideas to address kitchen table issues is an important undertaking. But it is NOT the same thing as a Project 2025 analog, but for the pro-democracy movement to save the country. www.offmessage.net/p/project-20...

offmessage.net

Don't Call It Project 2029 If It's Not A Fighting Document

Policy remedies to kitchen-table issues won't end the fascist threat. I thought we learned this?

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Mark Schmitt @mschmitt9.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Project 2025 was never a public-facing policy platform. It was a technical plan, often from old memos, for dismantling democratic institutions. The section on college accreditation, for example, is being implemented right now. Dems don't need more policies, we need plans to reconstruct institutions.

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Alan Elrod @aselrod.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

It’s really important that Democrats have people like Talarico (and Warnock and others) providing this kind of theologically and spiritually rigorous counter to Christian nationalism. Consigning evangelicals to the far right is a terrible mistake. Every person Talarico reaches is a badly needed win

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Oscar P @oscarp.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

With growing interest on proportional representation in the US, thought I'd re-share this @newamerica.org piece on why I think this systems would be a major upgrade: www.newamerica.org/insights/eig...

newamerica.org

Eight Reasons to Champion Proportional Representation for the U.S.

Proportional representation would be a major and much needed upgrade for American elections.

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Mark Schmitt @mschmitt9.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Just noticed in TX GOP runoff, Paxton got about 4,000 more votes than in the multi-candidate March primary, in which he came in 2d, before Trump endorsed. Cornyn got *400,000 fewer* votes than in March. Trump didn't increase Paxton's base or get voters to switch. Cornyn's electorate simply vanished.

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