Kate McNamara

I went to this extraordinary @theologypolicy.bsky.social conference at Yale Divinity School on Monday on how faith communities can and should respond to authoritarianism in the US. Phenomenal, inspiring, a call to action. www.faspe-ethics.org/symposium/

A tremendous pleasure, and honor, to talk with @catherinedevries.bsky.social about the process of writing. She is a genius at writing herself, as evident in how she drew the threads of our convo together in this wonderful piece. Subscribe to her amazing substack blog to learn more. 🧵👇

Opinion | Democrats Are Teaching Trump the Wrong Lesson

As usual, the brilliant @jamellebouie.net has a diagnosis for our political ills & a path forward out of “the president’s effort to create and consolidate a personalist dictatorship”—but only if the Democrats listen to a deeply unhappy public & act to rebuild what is being brutally destroyed.

I’ve voted 7 times to reopen the government in a way that holds Trump accountable for his lawlessness and prevents a health care crisis.

I’m prepared to work toward a compromise, but this “deal” before us does not come close to meeting those terms. Voting NO.

Full statement:

Maybe Don’t Talk to the New York Times About Zohran Mamdani It’s remarkable, the people you’ll hear from. Teach for even a little while at an expensive institution—the term they tend to prefer is “elite”—and odds are that eventually someone who was a studen…

What an amazing essay from the former chair of Africana Studies at Bowdoin. I'll share a few sections in the reply but seriously, read the whole thing. It's all insightful and beautifully written.

lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...

Trying to make sense of Trump’s foreign policy? Check out @abenewman.bsky.social & Stacie Goddard’s “Neo-royalism” for how Trump & elites are using the powers of the Presidency to extract money & status for themselves, with zero interest in national security or prosperity. 👇🧵

A screenshot of a block of text with a black background and white serif font. The text reads: “I don’t particularly care about the symbols people use to signal their membership in a group. Maybe you do need a terrifying tattoo to be a real Marine. And maybe sometimes that terrifying tattoo might resemble Nazi iconography. If you are willing to accept that from a distance, as many Democrats say they are, a person may not be able to tell the real symbol of hate from its doppelgänger, that is for you to live with. But, I do care about the political trade-offs we will ask people to make in the name of pragmatism. If the Democratic future requires us to exchange our discomfort with casual Nazism to advance a political agenda, I am not interested. Maybe other voters are — some polling suggests that young voters still support Platner. And maybe Platner will find a way to redeem himself. No one owes him that chance, but there is still a way forward. It’s called doing the work. But don’t tell me that excusing that tattoo is good politics. It is the exact same politics that the right is selling, in a different outfit.”

A Nazi Tattoo Exposes Democrats’ Greatest Weakness www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/o...

@tressiemcphd.bsky.social is unmatched. Read her latest piece—and everything else she writes.

That would be Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the nation's top diplomat, in the Oval Office for a meeting btwn the U.S. president and the NATO Secretary-General in the middle of a brutal war in Europe, staring at plans for a ballroom that will replace the now-demolished East Wing of the White House.

Zohran Mamdani: A Politics Beyond Representation — Jamhoor Mamdani’s victory as the Democratic nominee for NYC mayor charts a new path forward for the South Asian diaspora.

A Bangladeshi friend sent this, fascinating stuff. Mamdani's campaign has more socio-political layers than a mille-feuille! www.jamhoor.org/blog/zohran-...

Karoline Leavitt on what she expected for today’s demonstrations: “Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, violent criminals.”

Scott Bessent: “Most unhinged in the Democratic Party”

Mike Johnson: “The pro-Hamas wing, the antifa people.”

NYPD: More than 100,000 protesters; zero arrests.

DC crowd was more diverse in every way too

Some of the violent protesters in DC #nokings

Oh beautiful, for spacious skies…

China Green Leap Outward — Net Zero Industrial Policy Lab A new China Low Carbon Technology FDI Database

1/ New report from @bentleyallan.bsky.social's Net Zero Policy Lab: As the US withdraws from green tech industries and pressures allies to follow suit, China is stepping in to power the developing world's energy transition. The scale is staggering.

www.netzeropolicylab.com/china-green-...

Political science has obsessed over polarization while largely neglecting extremism, and with few exceptions has been inattentive to the roots of it all—power, structures, and identities. Too many elites are just as unprepared. Thus, their takes are empty, trite, and naive.

A bar chart showing that People in many countries say their political system needs major changes or complete reform Majorities in most of the 25 countries surveyed say their political system needs major changes or complete reform. About eight-in-ten adults or more in Argentina, Brazil, Greece, Kenya, Nigeria, South Korea and the U.S. say their system needs this type of change. In contrast, around three-in-ten share this view in the Netherlands and Sweden.

NEW: 77% of Americans say the US political system needs major changes or complete reform.

Those who say the same about their country
Nigeria 91%
Brazil 87%
S Korea 86%
Greece 83%
Kenya 80%
France 74%
UK 58%
Germany 48%
Canada 47%
Sweden 29%
www.pewresearch.org/global/2025/...

Of course you did! When asked about political scientist Kathleen McNamara’s work, ChatGPT lists 3 completely made up articles in my 5 most “highly cited articles & chapters.” I use this in teaching, to caution students on how dumb AI is. And agree that it should be a CPS policy of automatic reject.

And funny how I am still surprised after 30 years of this.

YAAASSS!

Publishing requires giving up (some) of those high hopes while keeping enough of your original glorious vision so you are (somewhat) satisfied when you hit submit. Paul Valéry said "I never finish a poem, I just abandon it." Or perhaps better to see we are sending it on its way, into the world? FIN/

There is that point in a project where you realize you HAVE to throw some things overboard to keep the rowboat afloat, otherwise the whole thing will sink. Make the choices and keeping rowing to move forward (the imagery I inevitably share with my PhD students struggling to finish). 3/

I feel like we should have some sort of Kübler-Ross staging to capture the way we begin a research & writing project with such high hopes and ambitions in our heads, and then get knocked down, only to find a way through (God willing) by the end. 2/

Submitted a paper this afternoon (hooray!) but oh the painful & inevitable stages involved in writing--from the euphoria (this will be the Best Paper Ever!) to the depths of despair (wow, this thing is terrible) to the resignation phase (well, I guess I'll just cut out that idea and move on). 1/

Chicago and NYC building their arsenals in case Trump gets any ideas

Well then.

Horse race coverage, but the horses are democracy and authoritarianism

Opinion | Students Hate Them. Universities Need Them. The Only Real Solution to the A.I. Cheating Crisis.

Well, this piece really stirred the pot, but I find it is more right than wrong about how to teach in the age of AI. Oral exams, in-class active learning & lots of structured interactions with students as they develop their papers seems to help, but I have the luxury of only teaching seminars...

Welcome to the YIMBYest neighbourhood in America Lessons for the country, from a few blocks north of the Capitol

From Swampdoodle to NoMa. YIMBY success story: building blocks of new apartments in DC has helped keep housing prices from rising as in comparative cities. (But designing around the politics of NIMBYism there was easier than most places).
economist.com/united-state...

YouTube video by EU Debates | eudebates.tv Mario Draghi’s Full Speech: Europe’s Harsh Reality — Powerless on the Global Stage! -ITALIAN-

Just got round to watching Mario Draghi's speech in Rimini in the original Italian. It is easily the most important speech on Europe so far this year and I hope someone (@grandcontinent.bsky.social?‬) publishes it in English and other EU languages soon.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMME...