Lily Geismer

My latest piece for Jacobjn on the NYC mayors race and campaign finance reform

Big Money Is Still Warping US Politics Though the issue has been put on the back burner in recent years, the influence of big money is still wreaking havoc on US politics. Zohran Mamdani’s grassroots-powered, publicly funded campaign for New York City mayor suggests a way out of this morass.

Though the issue has been put on the back burner in recent years, the influence of big money is still wreaking havoc on US politics.

Zohran Mamdani’s grassroots-powered, publicly funded campaign for New York City mayor suggests a way out of this morass.

Scratch & Win is so good!!

A great review of Mastery and Drift from @henrymjtonks.bsky.social!

The Dead End of Checks and Balances - Boston Review Far from the cure to Trumpian authoritarianism, the U.S. constitutional system is driving our democratic decline.

Far from the cure to authoritarianism, the U.S. constitutional system is driving our democratic decline.

The forum in our new issue—led by Lisa L. Miller, with @ericblanc.bsky.social @samuelmoyn.bsky.social @mskellymhayes.bsky.social @mayaschenwar.bsky.social @lilygeismer.bsky.social + others:

I was so honored to be interviewed by @iancoss.bsky.social. The entire Scratch &Win series is incredible and I’ve learned so much h from it

MASTERY AND DRIFT PROFESSIONAL-CLASS LIBERALS SINCE THE 1960S EDITED BY BRENT CEBUL AND LILY GEISMER

Back cover

Thrilled to have a copy of this brilliant new collection edited by @brentcebul.bsky.social and @lilygeismer.bsky.social with a fantastic lineup of young historians.

Got the hot new cabin (beach? idk it's 20 out and I shoveled off a lake ice rink today) read for the season.

Congrats to @brentcebul.bsky.social, @lilygeismer.bsky.social, and all the authors on what I'm already finding to be a really enjoyable and challenging volume.

Thank you so much for coming and for this wonderful recap!

TODAY at 7pm ET via Zoom!

@lilygeismer.bsky.social @brentcebul.bsky.social @pastpunditry.bsky.social @danielle-wiggins.bsky.social & Dylan Gottlieb discuss the Democrats in disarray and the limits of professional-class liberalism, moderated by Simon Torracinta.

Register here: tinyurl.com/4cxpm8fa

Please join us tomorrow for a Mastery and Drift virtual book event!

“Modern liberalism has the uncanny habit of appearing at once politically wan and culturally omnipresent.” - @brentcebul.bsky.social & @lilygeismer.bsky.social

Updating the BR event with the correct link! secure.givelively.org/event/boston...

Also: on Th, 2/20 @7PM ET @bostonreview.bsky.social is hosting a free, virtual convo on the book with us + Dylan Gottlieb @pastpunditry.bsky.social and @danielle-wiggins.bsky.social Join us! ushttps://secure.givelively.org/event/boston-critic-inc/the-limits-of-professional-class-liberalism (11/10)

We hope you find the essays as stimulating and clarifying as we do, especially as we all undertake the hard work of remaking American politics. You can find the book in the usual places, but if you purchase directly from the press at the link above, you can receive 30% (use the code UCPNEW). (10/10

Across these chapters, we see the origins of a liberalism that has become overwhelmingly concerned with procedural questions, mistrustful of mass democracy, and inclined toward the containment rather than the pursuit of political struggle. (9/10)

LGBTQ rights activists, the media, political consultants, Democratic Party elites, and through contestations over disability, welfare, and refugee rights -- as well as in the historical profession itself. (8/10)

Adam Goodman, @pastpunditry.bsky.social and @gabrielwinant.bsky.social. Their brilliant essays trace these historical developments across a range of topics and themes: philanthropies, government contractors, public interest lawyers, housing activists, Black liberals and neoliberals, (7/10)

Lily and I learned so much from our wonderful authors: @lilacb.bsky.social @smacekura.bsky.social @allofmilov.bsky.social Reuel Schiller, Marisa Chappell, @danielle-wiggins.bsky.social Alex Beasley, Dylan Gottlieb, Tim Shenk, Julilly Kohler-Hausmann, @kmtani.bsky.social @maidino.bsky.social (6/10)

In other words, today’s liberals are supremely competent when it comes to the fiscal, legal, and regulatory challenges of modern governance. But they lack a compelling vision of society worth fighting for. (5/10)

and economists who staff public interest law firms, NGOs, and government agencies.

Liberalism today is technically masterful but its social and political vision has steadily narrowed — and is now decidedly adrift. (4/10)

Where unions or diverse local party organizations were once significant contributors to the liberal coalition, its institutional expression has become dominated by philanthropic elites, the corporate media, think tanks and consultancies, universities, and by the lawyers, policy wonks, (3/10)

Mastery and Drift A revelatory look at modern liberalism’s historical evolution and enduring impact on contemporary politics and society.    Since the 1960s, American liberalism and the Democratic Party have been rema...

@lilygeismer.bsky.social and I are thrilled that our new project, Mastery and Drift: Professional Class Liberals since the 1960s, is published today. When we began this work a few years ago, we had no idea how sadly relevant exploring the evolution . . . (1/10)
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

Join @lilygeismer.bsky.social @brentcebul.bsky.social @pastpunditry.bsky.social @danielle-wiggins.bsky.social & Dylan Gottlieb on Feb 20 at 7pm for a virtual event on The Limits of Professional-Class Liberalism, moderated by contributing editor Simon Torracinta.

Register here: tinyurl.com/4cxpm8fa

Why Bidenism Failed Despite lofty ambitions, four years of professional-managerial approaches to governing moved the Democrats even further away from their New Deal roots.

Brent Cebul and i wrote aboit the professional-class problems of Biden jacobin.com/2024/12/why-...

The Democrats’ “Opportunity” Pitch Is a Dead End Following a proud centrist tradition, Kamala Harris’s campaign promised to build an “opportunity economy” that would grant success to the deserving. The meritocratic pitch was emblematic of Democrats’...

My rant on the problems of the “opportunity economy” jacobin.com/2024/12/demo...

A New Suburban Politics - Dissent Magazine A more capacious suburban politics—beyond the myth of the white, affluent enclave—is fundamental to addressing the problems of racial segregation and economic inequality that shape American life.

I wrote a recent piece about all the great new work out about the history and present of the suburbs www.dissentmagazine.org/article/a-ne...

Bidenomics: Farewell to an Idea?  | Brent Cebul As the Democratic Party reckons with another loss to Donald Trump, no issue looms larger than its continued hemorrhaging of working-class voters. It’s not

www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...

In the @nybooks.com I offer historical perspectives on the political failure of Bidenomics: a massive program built thru business and nonprofit welfarism. Market-making, as I call it, has its place, but it must be embedded within more direct social benefits.