Idiocy
In an era of increasing intolerance, authoritarianism, and even political violence, one of the few things on which most people seem to agree is that democracies are in crisis around the world. However, no one seems to agree on why democracy is in so much trouble around the world, nor what should be done to move forward. In this book we explore a common source of all these troubles and more: idiocy.
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Idiocy is not a lack of intelligence, education, or sophistication. Instead, we return to the original Greek root of the word and define idiocy as isolation and the destruction of the public sphere. In idiotic societies political leaders engage and mobilize people as individuals, rather than as members of communities, and there is little sustained coordination among ordinary citizens. As a result democracy becomes hollow and powerless, and the agenda is created and controlled only by a small professional political class.
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​In this book, we first trace the rise of idiotic politics, finding that global socioeconomic changes created the context where idiocy could thrive, but ultimately its spread was the result of choices made by political elites who benefit from a citizenry incapable of holding them to account.
By understanding the origins of idiocy, we discover the key to renewing democracy rests in one basic truth: while social and economic circumstances have changed, the fundamental nature of neither politics nor democracy have. Those who wish to restore democracy and bring the age of idiotic politics to a close must face the fact that politics will always require conflict, will always involve trade-offs and compromise, and that democratic politics require collective action in order to make politics a force for good in the world.
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With Rafael Piñeiro and Fernando Rosenblatt.
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The Leopards Ate My Face!
The mainstreaming of ideas and policies previously considered extremist (mass deportations, overturning Roe v. Wade, Brexit, eliminating anti-discrimination rules, etc.) have laid bare the difference between these policies' appeal as slogans and their real-world consequences.
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Why are people so often surprised when extremist, highly punitive policies produce extreme and often brutal consequences? In this project we show that because extremism is often based in a desire to punish, many people assume that "the good ones" (i.e. members of social groups or people wishing to engage in specific behaviors who are, unlike most members of that group or participants in that behavior, are morally upright and deserving of sympathy) will be exempt from extremist policies.
Extremism always disappoints. With such policies, the cruelty is a feature, not a bug. And extremists in power have shown little capacity to engage in nuance or any appetite to spare the "not so guilty." In this project, we analyze how this powerful form of cognitive dissonance helps build support for extremism, and how it might best be countered.
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With Rachel Navarre.
Liberalism Against Democracy: How Courts Help the Far Right
In recent decades, strong courts with the power to overrule legislatures have been seen as increasingly important for protecting and advancing individual rights.
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In this book, we argue that judicial empowerment as a strategy for liberals seeking to enhance rights is far riskier than is often assumed. Courts are countermajoritarian and thus intrinsically conservative. They are far better suited for blocking, checking, and unraveling than for building and developing.
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Tracing the evolution of judicial power in the United States, this project shows that liberals badly erred in relying so much on the courts. By doing so, they created a court with far too much discretion and power. As a result, they shaped a tool that could be far more effectively wielded by the far right. Now the courts are not merely an ineffective counter to rising authoritarianism; they are an active participant in the destruction of democracy.
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With William Blake and Fernando Rosenblatt ​