Waleed Shahid

SNCC’s Ghosts, the Fourth Republic, and the Crisis of Liberalism Liberalism versus nationalism, social democracy versus identity politics: the Fourth Republic’s buried quarrels and the search for a new American order.

New: We should treat civil rights leaders as the Founding Fathers and Mothers of a new republic. Today’s liberalism debates (over identity, the state, and capitalism) are their unfinished quarrels.

www.waleed-shahid.com/p/snccs-ghos...

Fascinating chart from @gelliottmorris.com: the pivot to “affordability” in Democratic messaging follows Zohran Mamdani’s NYC primary victory in June. I dig into what that means for party realignment here.

www.waleed-shahid.com/p/how-one-pr...

Fascinating chart from @gelliottmorris: the pivot to “affordability” in Democratic messaging follows Zohran Mamdani’s NYC primary victory in June. I dig into what that means for party realignment here.

www.waleed-shahid.com/p/how-one-pr...

The Henhouse Liberalism Built A response to Matthew Yglesias. What he calls “postliberalism” is often liberalism’s own elite, anemic offspring.

This is a really excellent explanation of liberalism’s shortcomings, why it also remains essential, how the quest for justice lost its way, and how we can get back to a synthesis of justice and liberalism, from @waleedshahid.bsky.social www.waleed-shahid.com/p/the-henhou...

The Henhouse Liberalism Built A response to Matthew Yglesias. What he calls “postliberalism” is often liberalism’s own elite, anemic offspring.

In response to Matt Yglesias piece: If you zoom out, today’s so-called “postliberal” politics looks less like a break with liberalism than the predictable product of it.

www.waleed-shahid.com/p/the-henhou...

The 2028 “Ideas Primary” Probably Won’t Be About Ideas It will be about theories of power...and vibes.

Most Americans think the system is broken and that Democrats overpromise and underdeliver. So 2028 won’t be a rerun of the 2020 ideas primary. It’ll be about your theory of power: the Senate, gerrymandering, and the media ecosystem we have to govern in.

www.waleed-shahid.com/p/the-2028-i...

Pluribus and the Sycophantic AI Hive Vince Gilligan's show turns an alien hive mind into the ultimate yes-bot: endlessly supportive, catastrophically accommodating.

Wrote about Pluribus, Vince Gilligan’s new series, and why its alien hive mind feels disturbingly close to our AI yes-bots: always affirming, incapable of refusal, drowning us in “help.”

waleedshahid.substack.com/p/pluribus-a...

You Can Hold Her Now What happens when our friends meet our baby (and themselves) for the first time.

Wrote a little essay about the strange, tender moment when friends visit your newborn and someone asks, “Do you want to hold her?” It turns out that question is a bit of a Rorschach test in coupledom.

www.waleed-shahid.com/p/you-can-ho...

The Heterodoxy Mirage A yearning for a bygone era that substitutes nostalgia for power.

The Heterodoxy Mirage

open.substack.com/pub/waleedsh...

The Great Compromise of the Constitutional Convention

The Senate exists for the same reason that the ACA doesn't have a public option: it was negotiated to placate the necessary votes. Slave states were nervous about being beholden to public will so we massively over-elevated state representation. www.law.cornell.edu/constitution...

I don't know what the Senate is going to do. But if they do in fact fold in exchange for nothing, they will be living up to past performance. To expect the Senate to carry out the will of the American people is to misunderstand why it was created in the first place.

On MSNBC talking about what Tuesday’s election results reveal about Trump, the Democratic Party, and Zohran Mamdani’s coalition.

The Long Arc of Immigrant Power in New York What Zohran Mamdani’s victory speech shares with the Irish ward bosses and Jewish socialists who built the city’s first immigrant-powered coalitions.

Every generation of New York politics has had its immigrant realignment. The Irish built Tammany, Jewish socialists built labor, Italians powered La Guardia--and now Mamdani is building something new out of bodegas, cabstands, and delivery apps.

www.waleed-shahid.com/p/the-long-a...

Our victory on Tuesday was historic, but the campaign for an affordable NYC is just beginning. Our Time will organize to win and defend the affordability agenda that resonated with voters and brought out more than 100,000 volunteers. Sign up today and we’ll share much more soon! (link in bio)

Zohran, NYC's Old New Majority, and 2026 Plus four lessons on Democratic populism.

A century ago, Fiorello La Guardia built a new majority from immigrants and renters. Today, Zohran Mamdani is trying to do the same in a city where Gaza and groceries belong to the same story.

www.waleed-shahid.com/p/zohran-nyc...

.@zohrankmamdani.bsky.social brings together Obama’s sense of ‘us’ and Bernie’s honesty about a ‘them’ who profit when we’re divided. In a city where the whole world lives side by side, the closeness of so much difference reminds us how much we share and how empty the politics of fear really are.

Revealed: Pentagon orders states’ national guards to form ‘quick reaction forces’ for ‘crowd control’ Pentagon memo details plan to train over 20,000 national guard members across the US to carry out Trump’s order on subduing civil unrest

"Leaked Pentagon memo details plan to train over 20,000 national guard members across the US to carry out Trump’s order on subduing civil unrest."
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

ALEX THOMPSON, Axios: "Do you consider yourself a Zionist?"

BERNIE SANDERS: "No, not within the terms of what Zionism means, no."

Zohran Mamdani’s 5 Lessons for the Democrats Zohran Mamdani does not operate by the same logic as the Democratic Party establishment. Waleed Shahid explains five key aspects of how Mamdani has broken through.

Zohran Mamdani does not operate by the same logic as the Democratic Party establishment.

Waleed Shahid explains five key aspects of how Mamdani has broken through.

2016: too class-first, Bernie Bros not woke enough
2020: too disruptive, voters want normalcy
2025: too woke, not practical to get the bros

The establishment's arguments change, but the function doesn’t: keep the party’s insurgent, left-populist energy from defining its future.

Plato’s Warning About AI Plato feared that writing would dull the mind. AI risks finishing the job.

Socrates tells Plato a story: a god brings the gift of writing to Egypt, promising it will make people wise. The king shakes his head. It will only give them the appearance of wisdom as memory without understanding is knowledge without thought.

www.waleed-shahid.com/p/platos-war...

The Mamdani Method Five lessons to anchor a Democratic Party adrift at sea

I wrote about the Mamdani Method: five lessons to anchor a Democratic Party liberalism adrift at sea. Just as abolition, labor, and civil rights once gave parties their compass, Mamdani and the left-populist wing may help Democrats find theirs again.

www.waleed-shahid.com/p/the-mamdan...

#NoKings --> waleedshahid.substack.com/p/before-zoh...

Donate to Justice Democrats Show your support with a contribution.

If you're ready to put an end to the same status quo leadership that has governed us for decades & brought us our current crises, then join our movement to elect Justin J. Pearson to Congress: secure.actblue.com/donate/jp100...

We're so proud to announce our latest candidate this cycle: @justinjpearson.bsky.social in #TN09!

As Memphis is terrorized by Trump's masked agents & poisoned by Elon Musk's xAI plant, they need leaders that will actually fight back, protect them & deliver the prosperity they were promised.

Californian detained on Gaza-bound flotilla deported to Jordan from Israel prison Israeli naval forces intercepted aid vessels headed to Gaza, taking into custody Southern California native David Adler, among other passengers and crew.

www.latimes.com/california/s...

NEW: David Adler, 33-year-old U.S. citizen with the Gaza Sumud Flotilla, says Israeli minister Ben Gvir personally separated two Jewish members from the rest of the flotilla for a photo-op and with the Israeli flag while his aides taunted them.

One thing missing in this whole debate is that frontline Democrats ran largely as moderates in 2024--ads filled with cops and sheriffs, border crackdowns, oil drilling, and bipartisan stamps of approval. If it were a cure-all, the map would look different by now.

Our Crisis Isn’t a Failure of Manners On Ezra Klein, Charlie Kirk, and the civility trap.

Civilitycraft is our modern witchcraft: we conjure bad manners to explain democratic breakdown, the way failed crops were once blamed on witches. But politics isn’t haunted by rudeness: it’s broken by rules and power.

www.waleed-shahid.com/p/our-crisis...

Kamala Harris explaining in her book why not a single Palestinian or Arab American was allowed to speak at the DNC.