Dastardly Cleverness in the Service of Good

Liberals and the woke left see many of the same problems in society, from structural oppression to alienation.

And yet the ideology of the woke left is incompatible with liberalism.

For liberals, it starts with the very idea of wokeness, as an awakening from illusions, or false consciousness. The goal is supposed to be liberation. Bu...

As you know if you’ve been following my posts and podcast episodes lately, I’m writing and releasing the chapters of my new book The Liberal Backbone in real time. When Joan Esposito of WCPT Chicago heard about it, she had an idea: a "radio book club," with me coming on her show to talk about the book as it comes together, chapter by chapter, with her and her...

Are the woke just a bunch of Marxists?

No, but that claim isn’t based on nothing. The Theory behind wokeness is complicated, but some of its key concepts are inherited from Marx, in modified form. And it becomes much easier to understand Theory if you understand something about Marx — which few people do, because Marx doesn't make it easy.

The word "woke" has at least two meanings — and they’re so different, they contradict each other.

By one of them, any liberal can be proud to be called woke, because to be woke in this sense is to recognize bigotry and oppose it. But by the other meaning, liberals can’t be woke, even if they want to. That’s because if you’re this kind of woke, you reject liberalism.

Spencer explains in this chapter of The Li...

It’s hard to stand for something if you’re not even sure what that something is. And many liberals have become unsure what liberalism is.

For a long time, few of us had to think much about it. Liberalism was just default political reality.

It was like water is for the young fish in David Foster Wallace’s famous parable: They can’t see the water, because it’s everywhere.

Let’s remember...

With American democracy facing its greatest crisis since the Civil War as a corrupt autocrat returns to the presidency, I want to do my part, however small, to help right now.

So I’m going to try an experiment: writing a shorter, more tightly focused book, and releasing chapters as I write them. They’ll appear as posts and podcast episodes, like ...

Ernest Hemingway is famous for the terse economy of his writing. And in one of the most resonant examples of that quality, he captured the essence of catastrophic failure in just a few words, in his novel The Sun Also Rises.

The alcoholic veteran Mike Campbell is asked how he went bankrupt.

“Two ways,” he says. “Gradually and then quickly.”

As it is with one person going broke, so it ...

If we believe in democracy, I believe we have a responsibility not only to vote for it but to speak up for it, including to family and friends, despite how hard that might be. That doesn’t mean berating or insulting them. It can be done quietly and respectfully. In my own view it’s a mark of respect and even love to give people the whole truth about what we b...

According to my guest this time, the United States is entering a Latino century, and that might be what saves our democracy.

Mike Madrid is a top expert on Latino voting, and in recent years he’s become a national leader in the bipartisan fight to save democracy.

He’s been the political director for the California Republican Party, a senior adviser to both Republicans and Democrats, and a co-foun...

Many liberals are deeply confused about how to respond to the campus protests over Gaza. And I think it’s an example of the confusion liberals are feeling generally over a lot of issues.

I believe much of the confusion can be traced to the assumption that all political opinions can fit on a single line, from left to right. 

For this one-dimensional, one-line model to work, there can only be one left and one right — but there are at...

As we risk obliviously repeating catastrophic mistakes others have already made, Spencer Critchley has some thoughts about memory and freedom, from people who know the precious value of both.

Excerpt: "Most of us in the U.S. have been spared the necessity of knowing history, and instead have been able to live as if the world was created at our birth. But people in Central and Eastern Europe have already been trammeled by the histor...

If you wanted to, you could consume nothing but presidential campaign coverage all day every day. But how much of it would leave you feeling better informed about casting what may be the most important vote of your life? Not better informed about the campaign as a sporting event, with all the expert play-by-play, color commentary, and stats. But better informed about questions that may not have easy, satisfying, or entertaining ans...

By some measures, well over half of charities do little or no good. When similar charities are compared, the most effective ones can be up to 100 times more effective than the least. And there’s often a big mismatch between where donors direct their support and where the need and potential benefits are greatest.

A movement called effective altrui...

There are lots of reasons to be cynical about the crisis in our politics. The trouble is, one of the biggest causes of that crisis is cynicism itself.

We should always be skeptical about politics. People aren’t angels, as James Madison reminded us.

But skepticism involves checking to find out what’s really going on, good or bad. Cynicism is just assuming that it’s all bad.

This is oft...

A three-way conversation featuring host Spencer Critchley, Kevin Lewis, and Zach Friend on leadership lessons from the ouster of Kevin McCarthy, as compared with far better examples set by Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi, and others. It turns out, to the shock of cynics everywhere, that character matters!

Kevin was the post-presidency spokesman for former President Barack Obama. During the Obama administration he served at the White ...

If you want to know more about the risks and rewards of artificial intelligence, you could hardly do better than to consult with someone who’s been a senior communications advisor for Facebook, lately known as Meta, the US Department of Justice, and a President of the United States. And that’s what Spencer did for this episode.

Kevin Lewis was the post-presidency spokesman for former President Barack Obama. During the Obama adminis...