Stephen Pimpare
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stephenpimpare.bsky.social
Stephen Pimpare
@stephenpimpare.bsky.social
1.6K followers 4.2K following 260 posts

Poverty and US social welfare policy, hovering awkwardly between the fields of political science and social work.

Host, New Books in Public Policy: https://newbooksnetwork.com/hosts/profile/aba1b96c-5ec5-4ab6-940e-08f426f74a37 .. more

Videos
Political science 45%
Economics 18%
Posts Replies Media Videos

stephenpimpare.bsky.social
Stephen Pimpare @stephenpimpare.bsky.social · 2d
"I think of this as a rock-bottom moment. If there was ever a real license for change, this is it. . . The destruction of this moment also creates opportunity. . . .What is our vision of democracy? What is it we’re really fighting for?" wagingnonviolence.org/2025/12/mars...
Veteran organizer Marshall Ganz sees a path to power under Trump
The lifelong organizer diagnoses how we hit rock-bottom and identifies where we must go next, citing the Mamdani campaign as a model.
wagingnonviolence.org

Reposted by Rebecca Tushnet, Adrian Vickers, Kathleen Kennedy , and 4 more

zunguzungu.bsky.social
Aaron Bady @zunguzungu.bsky.social · 6d
I feel like "academic hiring" discourse is always kind of downstream of the fact that in the 50s we started building a giant public system to make a college education almost universally available and in the 80s and 90s we started taking it apart to go back to the only-the-rich model

Reposted by Rosemary A. Joyce, Stephen Pimpare, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò

ryanlcooper.com
ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 7d
I think the direction of travel matters. from 2020-22 we had a) the most generous welfare state in US history b) the tightest labor market in 60 years, and now both are gone and we are right back to ~2014 ish job market except interest rates are high

Reposted by Tim Bale, Charles West, Dana R. Fisher , and 2 more

alexselbyb.bsky.social
Alex Selby-Boothroyd @alexselbyb.bsky.social · 12d
Happy birthday to Jane Austen, and to this very on-brand Economist chart
www.economist.com/christmas-sp...
Chart from The Economist showing the annual income in 1798 of various professions and of Jane Austen characters

stephenpimpare.bsky.social
Stephen Pimpare @stephenpimpare.bsky.social · Nov 25
Was a treat to get to speak with Mimi Abramovitz about the 4th (!) edition of her landmark book, "Regulating the Lives of Women." Listen on @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social here: newbooksnetwork.com/regulating-t...
Mimi Abramovitz, "Regulating the Lives of Women: Social Welfare Policy from Colonial Times to the Present" (Routledge, 2025) - New Books Network
newbooksnetwork.com

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Kim L. Scheppele, Linda J. Skitka , and 9 more

kevintmorris.bsky.social
Kevin Morris @kevintmorris.bsky.social · Nov 24
As we all wait for Callais to come down, our piece showing that Shelby County increased the racial turnout gap in most of the covered parts of the country has cleared the replication check and is incoming at JOP.

Gutting the VRA was bad, actually.

stephenpimpare.bsky.social
Stephen Pimpare @stephenpimpare.bsky.social · Nov 19
"When either laws or customs degrade, when the body politic begins to drift toward corruption, the only recourse — if the people hope to preserve a republic — is to build new institutions and with them new ways of political life." www.nytimes.com/2025/11/19/o...
Opinion | The White House Gold Rush Is On
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Stephen Pimpare

chadstanton.blacksky.app
Doghouse Reilly @chadstanton.blacksky.app · Nov 18
Much in the same way people don’t even think about suggesting we fund universities at the levels we did when they were massive engines for mobility, people want to make it so any effort to redress systemic racism is unthinkable moving forward.

Reposted by Stephen Pimpare

robglover.bsky.social
Rob Glover @robglover.bsky.social · Nov 9
After nigh on a decade of collaboration across five states, ENACTing Change is finally out in the world.

A practical, no-nonsense guide to helping young people (and the rest of us) actually shape state policy instead of just yelling at it.
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
ENACTing Change
Explains the ENACT model of student civic engagement, empowers instructors to implement it, and shows them how to assess its impact.   ENACT: The Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation ai...
press.uchicago.edu

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Silvia Secchi, Nazita Lajevardi , and 2 more

davidho.bsky.social
David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · Nov 9
This piece is as good as people say it is. Read it to appreciate that writing isn't just about content, but style. AI can't do this.
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…
lithub.com

Reposted by Linda J. Skitka, Stephen Pimpare

stevevladeck.bsky.social
Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · Nov 8
If you’re trying to catch up on what went down with #SNAP late last night at #SCOTUS, here’s my attempt to read the breadcrumbs on the “administrative stay” issued by Justice Jackson—and why a justice so critical of the Court’s grants of emergency relief to Trump still granted temporary relief here:
190. SNAP WTF?
A very quick explainer on why Justice Jackson issued an "administrative stay" in the SNAP case late on Friday night, and on what's likely to happen next
www.stevevladeck.com

Reposted by Stephen Pimpare

rutgersupress.bsky.social
Rutgers University Press @rutgersupress.bsky.social · Nov 6
Amy Shea discusses her new book TOO POOR TO DIE: THE HIDDEN REALITIES OF DYING IN THE MARGINS with Stephen Pimpare (@stephenpimpare.bsky.social) on the New Books Network (@newbooksnetwork.bsky.social):

newbooksnetwork.com/too-poor-to-...

Reposted by Stephen Pimpare

prisonculture.bsky.social
Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · Nov 4
They aren't afraid of Mamdani, they are worried about what he would unleash among VOTERS. That those voters would say: "actually, we're not buying this centrist bullshit you've been shoveling for decades, we want something else." That's what's being litigated in these Dem elites are worried essays.

Reposted by Stephen Pimpare, Stella M. Rouse

leedrutman.bsky.social
Lee Drutman @leedrutman.bsky.social · Oct 30
This is the sound of candidates losing the struggle against the crushing weight of partisan gravity.

This is nationalization and polarization and presidentialization swallowing everything else.

This is the dangerous collapse of dimensionality, in one chart
leedrutman.substack.com/p/the-modera...

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Steven Heydemann, Jesse M. Shapiro , and 15 more

dieworkwear.bsky.social
derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · Oct 30
JD Vance claims that diversity weakens unions, as people end up distrusting each other and not organizing.

Let me tell you two menswear stories related to this claim. 🧵

Reposted by Stephen Pimpare

stevevladeck.bsky.social
Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · Oct 28
I haven't posted an updated version of this chart in a little while, so here's where things stand with the 30 emergency applications filed by the Department of Justice during the second Trump administration:
A screenshot of an Excel spreadsheet with details about each of the Trump administration's 30 emergency applications in the Supreme Court, and how (and when) the Court ruled on them.

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Brendan Nyhan, Lesley A. Hall , and 19 more

abraham.bsky.social
Daniel Abraham @abraham.bsky.social · Oct 26
If I were running the DNC, there would be Democratic Party sponsored food relief banks across the country right now that specifically welcomed anyone regardless of party affiliation.

Along with the food, there could be voter registration and links to runforsomething.net

Reposted by Stephen Pimpare

emptywheel.bsky.social
emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · Oct 25
This interview between @pkrugman.bsky.social and @chenoweth.bsky.social is absolutely fantastic. A great introduction to Chenowith's work.

paulkrugman.substack.com/p/talking-wi...
Chenoweth: Well, this is where it’s really important to learn from the history of these movements, which is that it’s usually not about a single day of protest. It’s about building power for the long haul. The average campaign that succeeds takes a few years to do so. I shouldn’t say that this is prescriptive or predictive either, by the way. But, if we just look at the historical record, we know that it takes time for campaigns to build the power that begin to tap into those pillars of support and create loyalty shifts, etc. And that one of the reasons movements win when they win is because they are resilient to the repression that they experience in the meantime.

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Juan Cole, Trevon D. Logan , and 4 more

brian-goldstone.bsky.social
Brian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · Oct 24
With millions at risk of losing SNAP in the coming days, a reminder: hunger doesn't happen in isolation. When food assistance disappears, families use rent money to eat. Then come evictions and homelessness.

Housing, food, healthcare—it's all connected. Cut one thread and the whole thing unravels.

stephenpimpare.bsky.social
Stephen Pimpare @stephenpimpare.bsky.social · Oct 22
"The best aesthetic descriptor of Trump’s look, I’d argue, is dictator style" www.politico.com/magazine/sto...
Donald Trump Has a “Dictator Chic” Design Taste
I wrote a book about autocrats’ design tastes. The U.S. president would fit right in.
www.politico.com

Reposted by Michael D. McDonald, Stephen Pimpare

fisherdanar.bsky.social
Dana R. Fisher (aka the Apocalyptic Optimist) @fisherdanar.bsky.social · Oct 20
As I noted after other recent protests, Resistance 2.0 has been predominantly female, White and educated and turnout in DC on Saturday continued this trend. : 57% were female, 88% reported holding a BA or more and here's the race/ethnicity of the crowd.

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Rebecca Solnit, Jamie Morgan , and 7 more

drlisacorrigan.bsky.social
Dr. Lisa Corrigan @drlisacorrigan.bsky.social · Oct 19
In social movement studies, we talk about how marches and protests expand the threshold of acceptable risk so that people take more and bigger social risks IN PUBLIC, EN MASSE. This is extremely important for the bourgeois white folks holding signs and building social rapport.
katz.theracket.news Jonathan M. Katz @katz.theracket.news · Oct 19
Not a shitpost: #NoKings is feel-good performative activism for comfortable mostly upper and upper middle class white folks and that’s good, actually. Millions of people in the streets protesting a fascist regime is good. It is good for the normie baseline to be massive displays of public dissent.

Reposted by Stephen Pimpare

Reposted by Stephen Pimpare, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò

davidkaib.bsky.social
David Kaib @davidkaib.bsky.social · Oct 18
Trump and his agenda *are* deeply unpopular. This doesn’t do anything on it’s own. It is a resource with which we can do things.

Reposted by Rosemary A. Joyce, Stephen Pimpare

prisonculture.bsky.social
Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · Oct 18
I feel that some of you need regular reminders of how unpopular this man is. And frankly I see him getting even more so as the economy worsens. Again, this doesn't mean that he will give up any power but it does mean that WE HAVE POWER TOO.

Reposted by Stephen Pimpare

chenoweth.bsky.social
Erica Chenoweth @chenoweth.bsky.social · Oct 16
5. The movement is not just continuing to spread into previously unrepresented parts of the country, but also maintaining its geographic reach: Protests occurred in at least 20 percent of US counties for four consecutive months in 2025 — something we never observed during Trump’s first term.

stephenpimpare.bsky.social
Stephen Pimpare @stephenpimpare.bsky.social · Oct 14
"“A false but clear and precise idea always has more power in the world than one which is true but complex.”

-- Alexis DeTocqueville, 1835

stephenpimpare.bsky.social
Stephen Pimpare @stephenpimpare.bsky.social · Oct 14
"“The accumulation of all powers legislative, executive and judiciary in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”

-- James Madison, Federalist 47, 1788

stephenpimpare.bsky.social
Stephen Pimpare @stephenpimpare.bsky.social · Oct 14
"These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier & the sunshine patriot will in this crisis shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered. . .”

Paine, American Crisis, 1776

stephenpimpare.bsky.social
Stephen Pimpare @stephenpimpare.bsky.social · Oct 14
"“The more men have to lose, the less willing are they to venture. The rich are in general slaves to fear, and submit to courtly power with the trembling duplicity of a spaniel.”

-- Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776