Jerusalem Demsas

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This essay is published anonymously.

I am in principle opposed to anonymous essays, here's why we made an exception:

So, she spent thousands out of pocket to flee to Virginia for an abortion, realizing that somehow, shockingly, despite her relative wealth and privilege, she had become one of those people without adequate health care.

Our author was already a mother. She mourns for a world where she could have seriously considered staying pregnant.

Over 40, with an IUD still in place, she scrambled to get an ultrasound as the clock ticked away on her freedoms.

An abortion ban pushed me toward abortion Is this what the pro-life movement intended?

Today at The Argument we're publishing something very different.

A mother in Georgia wrote to us after her IUD failed. Her email said:

"…if our policies weren’t so illiberal, I very well might have decided to stay pregnant." www.theargumentmag.com/p/an-abortio...

This was a very persuasive piece that changed my mind!

Chicago's response to migrant influx stirs longstanding frustrations among Black residents Chicago is one of several big American cities grappling with a surge of migrants. With help from state and federal funds, the city has spent more than $300 million to provide housing, health care and ...

The point is not to make immigration an 80-20 issue, it's to neutralize it as a tool of radicalization. Black Chicagoans who witnessed their city crumble under a few thousand immigrants were infuriated that social supports went to migrants instead of them. apnews.com/article/chic...

Yes, die-hard xenophobes are not moveable. But anyone doing immigration work (including many advocates, left thinktankers, and immigrants themselves) witnessed widespread negative polarization against immigration because of very material concerns.

I feel like everyone has just memory holed the liberal backlash to immigration under Biden.

almost as good as the freedom of speech guy speaking up in opposition to taxes to pay for a new school because the old one burned down

I liked this take on the Abundance conference

www.theargumentmag.com/p/a-tale-of-...

A tale of two ballrooms Last week’s National Conservatism and Abundance gatherings in Washington laid out two clashing visions of America’s future.

"The hard right’s only cohesive goal is to shred liberal values, and the movements that flow from them. To ally with these groups is to court self-destruction." @jerusalem.bsky.social www.theargumentmag.com/p/a-tale-of-...

Truth Nuke

There's something so telling about the Trumpist right's insistence that using a slur for people with a disability is a sign of bravery

A tale of two ballrooms Last week’s National Conservatism and Abundance gatherings in Washington laid out two clashing visions of America’s future.

In which I spent $425 to hear a couple guys say "retarded" www.theargumentmag.com/p/a-tale-of-...

Liberals don’t have to lose on immigration “Moderating” on immigration doesn't mean abandoning it

The biggest problem American liberalism faces is how to maintain high levels of immigration while respecting the democratic will of the public. I have an idea.

www.theargumentmag.com/p/liberals-d...

> and was America not YIMBY from 1950 to 2002, then YIMBY from 2002 until 2022, and now no longer is? etc...

And yes, housing costs were much lower from 1950 to 2002 and then from 2002 until 2020/2021-ish

? I did not say that YIMBY was a driver of these sentiments. My point is that lowering housing costs (or any major costs tbh) could make raising taxes easier because people think about their costs as a total portfolio.

I wouldn't be surprised if that played a role (since uh, Republicans do very much focus on lowering taxes as a major part of their platform), but I still think "why were people so mad about taxes during Covid" seems much more likely to be about inflation than anything else

eh looking at the actual underlying data that doesn't seem that clean

doesn't seem implausible to me? Poll isn't granular enough to be certain but do you have an alternate hypothesis?

I do think that this is largely a proxy for costs in general. There was not some major tax increase in 2020, people are just reacting to inflation!

There's a lesson here... lowering people's costs is a necessary prerequisite to raising taxes!

Can I interest you in a little YIMBY-ism?

Meme in replies this time. Happy @stephenjacobsmith.com?

How I learned to start worrying and hate the deficit It's time for liberals to wake up about the national debt

Ok we've made fun of deficit hawks forever but @jhweissmann.bsky.social has a convincing case that if you care about social welfare programs you actually do need to start worrying about the debt! www.theargumentmag.com/p/how-i-lear...

“The intellectual victory of the YIMBYs can sometimes obscure how precarious our position really is: A whole edifice of opposition to land-use reforms is still in place — people in power with formative political experiences and assumptions from a prior era.”

Recommended reading!

honestly struggling to decide whether it's more important people see this meme or subscribe sorry @profschleich.bsky.social

YIMBYs beat the politicians. Now they have to beat the judges. As legislatures have said yes to new housing, obstacles still remain.

Read more & subscribe! www.theargumentmag.com/p/yimbys-bea...

The problem, of course, is local "democracy".

This has been one of the most frustrating dynamics of YIMBY politics -- a long, hard fought legislative battle gets thwarted by a NIMBY district court judge.

Yes, the judge is often overruled later but as we know well, housing delayed is housing denied.