Two Progressive Journalists’ Bold Plan to Defend Democracy Through Expansion

Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson argue that liberals must abandon the politics of blocking and embrace a new abundance agenda focused on building housing, energy, and technology solutions to win back disillusioned voters.

Key Takeaways

• Liberalism has shifted from a movement of building (1930s-1960s) to one of blocking and process obsession over the past 50 years
• The abundance agenda focuses on creating more housing, clean energy, and technological innovation rather than just redistributing existing resources
• Liberal-run cities consistently fail to deliver basic services despite high taxes, driving away working families and creating affordability crises
• Government dysfunction stems from excessive regulations that hobble liberal institutions more than conservative opposition
• A new political realignment around abundance versus scarcity could reshape both parties beyond traditional left-right divisions
• Housing scarcity is the root cause of many urban problems, from homelessness to declining birth rates in expensive cities
• Technology optimism represents a return to earlier liberal traditions that embraced progress and innovation
• Natalism and family formation require both cultural shifts and practical affordability solutions
• Political courage means disappointing vocal constituencies to serve broader public interests in building and growth

The Abundance Manifesto: Beyond Left and Right

Klein and Thompson present abundance as a fundamentally different political framework that transcends traditional ideological boundaries. Their core argument centers on America's capacity to solve problems through building and innovation rather than redistribution alone. The abundance agenda encompasses housing construction, clean energy deployment, scientific research acceleration, and government capacity building.

• The vision extends far beyond policy prescriptions into a reimagined relationship between technology and progress. Where many liberals have become skeptical of technological solutions, Klein and Thompson advocate returning to earlier progressive traditions that embraced innovation as a force for social good.
• Their 2050 scenario includes Star Pills developed in low-orbit manufacturing, two-hour flights from New York to London, lab-grown meat eliminating factory farming, and AI that enhances rather than replaces human work. These aren't utopian fantasies but achievable goals requiring policy changes that remove regulatory barriers.
• The abundance framework directly challenges both progressive and conservative orthodoxies. Unlike libertarian approaches that rely solely on market mechanisms, they argue government must play an active role in coordinating and funding large-scale projects that markets alone cannot deliver.
• Supply-side solutions address root causes rather than symptoms of social problems. Housing abundance reduces homelessness more effectively than social services alone. Energy abundance enables modern living without environmental destruction. Scientific abundance creates breakthrough treatments that make healthcare debates less zero-sum.
• Geographic mobility and opportunity require places where working families can afford to live and thrive. The current system forces talent and families out of economic centers, reducing productivity and social cohesion while concentrating problems in expensive coastal cities.
• Technology integration must be intentional and values-driven rather than laissez-faire. They advocate for "five technologies liberals would like to pull forward" alongside traditional social insurance expansions, recognizing that program effectiveness depends on available technological capabilities.

Liberal Governance Crisis: Why Blue States Are Failing

The book's most provocative argument targets liberal governance itself, arguing that progressive jurisdictions consistently fail to deliver basic services despite abundant resources and political power. This failure has created a crisis of legitimacy that drives voters toward conservative alternatives offering order and efficiency.

• California's high-speed rail project epitomizes governmental dysfunction, with environmental clearances beginning in 2012 and still incomplete by 2024. The project originally designed to connect San Francisco and Los Angeles has been scaled back repeatedly while costs ballooned beyond $100 billion for a system that may never be completed.
• Municipal spending patterns reveal a disconnect between progressive rhetoric and results. Chicago's mayor bragged about spending $11 billion on 10,000 affordable housing units, representing $1.1 million per unit in a city where median home prices remain much lower. Such inefficiency undermines public faith in government capacity.
• Liberal jurisdictions have developed what Thompson calls "a liberalism of blocking" where environmental reviews, community input processes, and legal challenges create endless opportunities to prevent construction. Each individual rule may seem reasonable, but collectively they make building nearly impossible.
• The regulatory apparatus hurts liberal goals more than conservative ones. Public housing projects face more stringent requirements than private developments, making government-built housing slower and more expensive. Clean energy projects encounter more permitting obstacles than fossil fuel alternatives in many jurisdictions.
• Police response times, school performance, and basic infrastructure maintenance suffer despite higher per-capita spending than conservative jurisdictions. The contrast between high taxes and poor service delivery drives middle-class flight from cities that progressives claim to champion.
• Crime and disorder compound the governance crisis by making progressive areas literally uninhabitable for many families. Klein acknowledges that "disorder has become a fundamental problem that liberal jurisdictions at least until recently just sort of began to tolerate or tell themselves it was part of progressivism to tolerate."

The Housing Scarcity Engine of Urban Dysfunction

Housing emerges as the fundamental constraint shaping American economic and social life, with artificial scarcity driving inequality, family breakdown, and political polarization. Klein and Thompson argue that solving housing abundance would address numerous downstream problems more effectively than targeted interventions.

• Geographic inequality has reached extreme levels where talented individuals cannot afford to live in the most productive economic centers. San Francisco has become "too expensive to be there on any kind of working-class salary and raise children," creating a demographic death spiral as families flee the city.
• NIMBY politics reveals the hypocrisy of progressive rhetoric about equity and inclusion. Neighborhoods with "kindness is everything" and "no human being is illegal" lawn signs consistently oppose apartment construction that would house the very populations they claim to support through symbolic gestures.
• Zoning laws function as exclusionary barriers that prevent working families from accessing opportunity-rich areas. Single-family zoning in expensive regions effectively segregates by class and race while maintaining the appearance of progressive values through symbolic politics rather than operational change.
• Homeowner wealth concentration creates perverse incentives where existing residents benefit from housing scarcity through property appreciation. This dynamic makes rational actors out of supposedly progressive homeowners who oppose new construction that might moderate home values.
• Construction labor shortages compound affordability problems, with 25% of construction workers being foreign-born nationally and 40% in California. Immigration restrictions directly conflict with housing abundance goals by reducing the workforce capable of building new homes.
• International comparisons reveal the policy-driven nature of American housing dysfunction. Tokyo's flexible zoning allows affordable housing in central locations through market mechanisms, while Houston's lack of zoning codes enables rapid housing production despite less favorable demographics than coastal cities.

Technology Optimism and the Physical World Deficit

The authors argue that liberal skepticism toward technology represents a dangerous departure from historical progressive traditions that embraced innovation as a tool for social progress. They advocate for renewed technological optimism focused on solving physical world problems through scientific advancement.

• Innovation has been artificially channeled into digital applications because physical world construction faces regulatory barriers that software development avoids. This explains why Americans have sophisticated artificial intelligence but cannot build trains as quickly as previous generations managed with inferior technology.
• Clean energy deployment exemplifies the potential for technology-driven solutions to environmental challenges. Solar panels and wind turbines represent mature technologies held back by permitting processes rather than technical limitations. Geothermal energy remains underutilized despite proven feasibility.
• Scientific research acceleration could dramatically improve quality of life through breakthrough medical treatments, materials science advances, and agricultural innovations. The authors envision "Star Pills" developed in low-gravity manufacturing that extend healthy lifespan and treat previously incurable conditions.
• Artificial intelligence represents both promise and peril depending on how society chooses to deploy it. Rather than fearing technological displacement, progressives should focus on ensuring AI augments human capabilities and broadly distributes economic benefits rather than concentrating them among capital owners.
• Manufacturing in space could enable resource abundance without environmental destruction on Earth. Low-orbit facilities could produce pharmaceuticals, advanced materials, and other high-value products while reducing terrestrial industrial impacts.
• The authors distinguish their technological optimism from libertarian variants by emphasizing democratic control and equitable distribution of benefits. Technology alone cannot solve social problems without accompanying institutional reforms and values-based governance decisions.

Political Realignment: Abundance Versus Scarcity

Klein and Thompson predict an emerging political realignment around abundance versus scarcity that could reshape party coalitions beyond traditional liberal-conservative divisions. This framework offers Democrats a path back to electoral relevance by addressing material concerns driving voter defections.

• Trump's policies embody scarcity thinking by responding to each shortage with additional restrictions rather than increased production. Tariffs on Canadian lumber and Mexican drywall directly increase housing costs while immigration restrictions reduce construction labor availability.
• Negative polarization creates opportunities for Democrats to embrace positions previously associated with Republicans, such as regulatory reform and market-friendly policies. David Shore's polling shows self-identified liberals now express more positive views of free trade than conservatives, demonstrating this dynamic in action.
• Geographic sorting has created a situation where Democratic strongholds showcase liberal governance failures most dramatically. California and New York's dysfunction undermines progressive credibility more than Republican opposition ever could, forcing honest self-examination.
• Gary Gerstle's political order theory suggests that successful coalitions require broad enough appeal to win acquiescence from opposing parties. The New Deal order succeeded because Eisenhower governed like "the sixth term of FDR," while neoliberalism worked because Clinton and Carter accepted market-oriented reforms.
• An abundance-focused political order could attract support from both technology optimists on the right and equity-focused progressives on the left, united around expanding prosperity rather than redistributing existing resources. Both sides benefit from more housing, clean energy, and scientific advancement.
• The authors acknowledge uncertainty about whether abundance or scarcity politics will ultimately prevail, noting that "both could frankly like use a little bit of the others um personality in them." Democratic politicians need more willingness to challenge interest groups, while Republicans need less authoritarian tendencies.

Natalism and the Future of Family Formation

The conversation's final section addresses declining birth rates as both consequence and cause of abundance failures, particularly in expensive urban areas where young families cannot afford to establish themselves. Cultural and economic factors interact to create what demographers call low-fertility traps.

• Urban areas are becoming "anti-natal spirals" where housing costs force out families with children, creating feedback loops where child-free environments become increasingly unwelcoming to parents. San Francisco reportedly has more dogs than children, symbolizing this demographic transformation.
• International comparisons reveal the limitations of policy interventions alone in boosting fertility rates. Sweden's generous welfare state coincides with fertility rates below American levels, while Hungary's targeted pro-natalist policies have failed to substantially increase births.
• The shift from family as "cornerstone" to "capstone" reflects broader cultural changes where marriage and children become final achievements rather than foundational life experiences. This delay often results in fewer children than desired as biological and economic constraints intensify with age.
• Thompson's personal reflection on parenthood captures the meaning-versus-happiness distinction: "being awake at 3:00 a.m. 3 days in a row when your child is kaky and 3 weeks old there's nothing happy about that" yet represents "the most amazing month of your life in some ways."
• Religious decline removes cultural frameworks that traditionally encouraged family formation and provided meaning beyond individual fulfillment. The authors note growing "hunger for spiritualism" and "hunger for meaning" in an increasingly materialistic society.
• Housing abundance could enable more complex living arrangements that support child-rearing through extended family networks and intentional communities. Current zoning restrictions prevent the multi-generational and co-housing arrangements that might make parenthood more feasible and appealing.

The Path Forward: Political Courage and Coalition Building

Klein and Thompson conclude that implementing abundance requires political leaders willing to disappoint vocal constituencies in service of broader public interests. This demand for courage extends beyond policy specifics to fundamental questions about democratic governance and interest group politics.

Neither author plans to seek elected office themselves, but they identify emerging politicians who might champion abundance principles. The challenge lies in translating rhetoric into concrete policy changes that inevitably create winners and losers among existing Democratic coalition members.