Paul Starr
@starrprospect.bsky.social
Sociologist, Princeton University; co-founder, The American Prospect; author of books on history of American medicine; media; liberalism. Forthcoming: American Contradiction: Revolution and Revenge from the 1950s to Now.
In “The Premature Guide to Post-Trump Reform,” tinyurl.com/yunb54ab
I set out three levels of reform: change in the law, the Supreme Court, and the Constitution.
The first, modeled on post-Watergate reforms, calls for efforts to curb presidential aggrandizement through new legislation …
I set out three levels of reform: change in the law, the Supreme Court, and the Constitution.
The first, modeled on post-Watergate reforms, calls for efforts to curb presidential aggrandizement through new legislation …
The Premature Guide to Post-Trump Reform
American history offers three general strategies of repair and renewal.
tinyurl.com
July 31, 2025 at 3:52 PM
In “The Premature Guide to Post-Trump Reform,” tinyurl.com/yunb54ab
I set out three levels of reform: change in the law, the Supreme Court, and the Constitution.
The first, modeled on post-Watergate reforms, calls for efforts to curb presidential aggrandizement through new legislation …
I set out three levels of reform: change in the law, the Supreme Court, and the Constitution.
The first, modeled on post-Watergate reforms, calls for efforts to curb presidential aggrandizement through new legislation …
Out today @prospect.org “Trump has shown how vulnerable [we are] … authoritarian rule when the president is contemptuous of [constitutional] norms, Congress is under his thumb, and the Court is an accomplice.” What to do? Here you go: “The Premature Guide to Post-Trump Reform” tinyurl.com/yunb54ab
The Premature Guide to Post-Trump Reform
American history offers three general strategies of repair and renewal.
tinyurl.com
July 31, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Out today @prospect.org “Trump has shown how vulnerable [we are] … authoritarian rule when the president is contemptuous of [constitutional] norms, Congress is under his thumb, and the Court is an accomplice.” What to do? Here you go: “The Premature Guide to Post-Trump Reform” tinyurl.com/yunb54ab
Read this brilliant article by the historian Tara Zahra explaining how today’s right-wing reaction against trade and immigration recapitulates the first crisis of globalization in the early 20th century. Proud that Tara began her career at @theprospect.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/05/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/05/o...
Opinion | Globalization Is Collapsing. Brace Yourselves.
The world was just as intertwined 100 years ago, and its unraveling was a disaster. Can we avoid the same outcome?
www.nytimes.com
April 5, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Read this brilliant article by the historian Tara Zahra explaining how today’s right-wing reaction against trade and immigration recapitulates the first crisis of globalization in the early 20th century. Proud that Tara began her career at @theprospect.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/05/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/05/o...
Important article by Aziz Huq on the U.S. following the path of Nazi Germany toward a “dual state”—partly rule of law, partly rule by prerogative (dictatorship).
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
America Is Watching the Rise of a Dual State
For most people, the courts will continue to operate as usual—until they don’t.
www.theatlantic.com
March 23, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Important article by Aziz Huq on the U.S. following the path of Nazi Germany toward a “dual state”—partly rule of law, partly rule by prerogative (dictatorship).
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
We need a new #proCanada movement to support Canada, to buy Canadian, to vacation in Canada, to express Americans’ long admiration of Canada, friendship with Canada, appreciation of Canadian decency and neighborliness, in contrast to the imperial lunacy driving the US today.
March 11, 2025 at 4:16 PM
We need a new #proCanada movement to support Canada, to buy Canadian, to vacation in Canada, to express Americans’ long admiration of Canada, friendship with Canada, appreciation of Canadian decency and neighborliness, in contrast to the imperial lunacy driving the US today.
Thank you for reminding me about that old piece. It’s still true now. And, yes, it would be great to get new data on public perceptions of Social Security’s overhead costs and the realities.
Fuckin crazy man. Holds up amazingly well, absolutely still a banger. But we are going to get an update on that polling for you. 1981, sheeesh!
bsky.app/profile/dana...
bsky.app/profile/dana...
Due to the @theprospect.bsky.social's excellent archives, the 2005 @starrprospect.bsky.social article that radicalized me is very much available. And it's still fully a banger! I'd had a STRONG sense that Republicans were full of shit on the economy but this argument kind of blew it open for me:
March 10, 2025 at 2:40 AM
Thank you for reminding me about that old piece. It’s still true now. And, yes, it would be great to get new data on public perceptions of Social Security’s overhead costs and the realities.
Are Denmark’s Social Democrats winning because they made one strategic decision—to keep immigration at lower levels than other European countries and the US? Check out this piece by David Leonhardt of the NY Times.
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/24/m...
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/24/m...
How Denmark’s Social Democrats Are Succeeding With Stricter Immigration Policies
Around the world, progressive parties have come to see tight immigration restrictions as unnecessary, even cruel. What if they’re actually the only way for progressivism to flourish?
www.nytimes.com
February 25, 2025 at 12:15 AM
Are Denmark’s Social Democrats winning because they made one strategic decision—to keep immigration at lower levels than other European countries and the US? Check out this piece by David Leonhardt of the NY Times.
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/24/m...
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/24/m...
Will Trump politicize or privatize the Postal Service? I’ll bet on politicize. Privatization would result in heavy cutbacks and higher rates in rural areas and small towns that vote Republican. They’re just not profitable to serve. But politicizing the post office—that’s the oldest graft in the US.
February 21, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Will Trump politicize or privatize the Postal Service? I’ll bet on politicize. Privatization would result in heavy cutbacks and higher rates in rural areas and small towns that vote Republican. They’re just not profitable to serve. But politicizing the post office—that’s the oldest graft in the US.
Cancel culture with real power.
Asking questions about DOGE is a thoughtcrime on Musk's X.
Over on X, simple tweets by my colleague Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal Constitution have been blocked. They were nothing but video of a town hall held by Rep. Rich McCormick R-GA where he was asked questions about DOGE
February 21, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Cancel culture with real power.
Such an adorable poodle. Putin has him well trained for the coming surrender.
February 20, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Such an adorable poodle. Putin has him well trained for the coming surrender.
Trump’s polling numbers are slipping as he pursues unpopular policies. It’s what happened the first time around, but this will be worse. Prediction: He will end up the most hated president in American history, a stain on America’s good name.
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
Analysis | Trump’s honeymoon is over
New polling shows Trump’s approval declining — and a number of major warning signs appearing.
www.washingtonpost.com
February 20, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Trump’s polling numbers are slipping as he pursues unpopular policies. It’s what happened the first time around, but this will be worse. Prediction: He will end up the most hated president in American history, a stain on America’s good name.
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
On the loss of a model of intellectual integrity and courage—Christopher Jencks. He showed us how to wade into troubled waters and come out the stronger for it.
@theprospect.bsky.social prospect.org/health/2025-...
@theprospect.bsky.social prospect.org/health/2025-...
The Exemplary Radical Skeptic
Christopher Jencks, one of the Prospect’s founding group, has died.
prospect.org
February 12, 2025 at 6:18 PM
On the loss of a model of intellectual integrity and courage—Christopher Jencks. He showed us how to wade into troubled waters and come out the stronger for it.
@theprospect.bsky.social prospect.org/health/2025-...
@theprospect.bsky.social prospect.org/health/2025-...
Imagine if we had done this to the Hungarians who fled their country in 1956 or the Cubans who later fled Castro. Trump’s decision to end TPS for Venezuelans is a betrayal of the Republican Party’s own traditions. And of the trust Venezuelans placed in him.
www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
Venezuelans backed Trump. Now some worry he’ll deport them.
Venezuelans in the Miami suburb of Doral have been some of Trump’s biggest proponents. Many feel betrayed after he revoked temporary protected status for thousands.
www.washingtonpost.com
February 10, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Imagine if we had done this to the Hungarians who fled their country in 1956 or the Cubans who later fled Castro. Trump’s decision to end TPS for Venezuelans is a betrayal of the Republican Party’s own traditions. And of the trust Venezuelans placed in him.
www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
@jimrutenberg.bsky.social: Trump’s attacks on media resemble Nixon’s. But the context then was different: a Democratic Congress whose hearings validated reporting on Watergate, and a Supreme Court that reliably defended press freedom. Outcome now much less certain.
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/b...
Trump’s Blueprint for Bending the Media Has Nixon Written All Over It
The president’s heavy-handed approach to traditional journalists has the hallmarks of an attempted crackdown 50 years ago.
www.nytimes.com
February 9, 2025 at 2:12 PM
@jimrutenberg.bsky.social: Trump’s attacks on media resemble Nixon’s. But the context then was different: a Democratic Congress whose hearings validated reporting on Watergate, and a Supreme Court that reliably defended press freedom. Outcome now much less certain.
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/b...
The Republican adherence to federalism is like the Republican adherence to balanced budgets. Federalism and balanced budgets just apply to the Democrats, not to themselves. Limits for thee, not for us.
Now we can see clearly what should have been clear before: Republican support for federalism and denunciations of federal power have been a matter of expediency rather than principle. With Trump, they gave up federalism without a peep: www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/u...
Trump’s Power Grab Defies G.O.P. Orthodoxy on Local Control
New York City traffic. California water rules. Middle school sports. Few local policies are outside the reach of Donald J. Trump’s federal government.
www.nytimes.com
February 7, 2025 at 6:54 PM
The Republican adherence to federalism is like the Republican adherence to balanced budgets. Federalism and balanced budgets just apply to the Democrats, not to themselves. Limits for thee, not for us.
Reposted by Paul Starr
My first post here at Blue Sky ... Trump is doing terrible things every day, but the wholesale destruction of USAID is by far the worst and potentially catastrophic ... truthandcons.substack.com/p/the-destru...
February 7, 2025 at 6:13 PM
My first post here at Blue Sky ... Trump is doing terrible things every day, but the wholesale destruction of USAID is by far the worst and potentially catastrophic ... truthandcons.substack.com/p/the-destru...
Now we can see clearly what should have been clear before: Republican support for federalism and denunciations of federal power have been a matter of expediency rather than principle. With Trump, they gave up federalism without a peep: www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/u...
Trump’s Power Grab Defies G.O.P. Orthodoxy on Local Control
New York City traffic. California water rules. Middle school sports. Few local policies are outside the reach of Donald J. Trump’s federal government.
www.nytimes.com
February 7, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Now we can see clearly what should have been clear before: Republican support for federalism and denunciations of federal power have been a matter of expediency rather than principle. With Trump, they gave up federalism without a peep: www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/u...
Day by day, Trump is clarifying things for the many voters in 2024 who refused to take seriously his announced intentions. The opposition will grow.
prospect.org/politics/202...
prospect.org/politics/202...
2024’s Foreseeable Unforeseens
What many refused to see in the last election becomes clearer day by day.
prospect.org
February 7, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Day by day, Trump is clarifying things for the many voters in 2024 who refused to take seriously his announced intentions. The opposition will grow.
prospect.org/politics/202...
prospect.org/politics/202...
Another day, another insanity: Think of all the time and energy lost to all of us now that, once again, we have to attend to this man’s stupid and vicious ideas.
www.cnn.com/2025/02/04/p...
www.cnn.com/2025/02/04/p...
Trump says US will ‘take over’ Gaza Strip and doesn’t rule out using American troops | CNN Politics
President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the United States “will take over” the Gaza Strip — possibly with the help of American troops — while the Palestinians who live there should leave, a stunning pr...
www.cnn.com
February 5, 2025 at 2:30 AM
Another day, another insanity: Think of all the time and energy lost to all of us now that, once again, we have to attend to this man’s stupid and vicious ideas.
www.cnn.com/2025/02/04/p...
www.cnn.com/2025/02/04/p...
I see headlines like this—“Tariffs will shut down North American auto production within a week, industry warns”—and wonder, just how does the political payoff from Trump’s tariffs work?
February 2, 2025 at 10:50 PM
I see headlines like this—“Tariffs will shut down North American auto production within a week, industry warns”—and wonder, just how does the political payoff from Trump’s tariffs work?
Amid all the bleak assessments, read Ezra Klein’s counterintuitive analysis: “Trump is acting like a king because he is too weak to govern like a president. … He is trying to overwhelm you … to persuade you of something that isn’t true. Don’t believe him.” www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/o...
Opinion | Don’t Believe Him
Look closely at the first two weeks of Donald Trump’s second term and you’ll see something very different than what he wants you to see.
www.nytimes.com
February 2, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Amid all the bleak assessments, read Ezra Klein’s counterintuitive analysis: “Trump is acting like a king because he is too weak to govern like a president. … He is trying to overwhelm you … to persuade you of something that isn’t true. Don’t believe him.” www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/o...
Trump sending Venezuelans given temporary protected status back to Maduro’s Venezuela. Next? Cubans with TPS back to Cuba?
Why didn’t Eisenhower and Kennedy think of that when Cubans were first fleeing to the US?
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
Why didn’t Eisenhower and Kennedy think of that when Cubans were first fleeing to the US?
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
Trump to send Venezuelans back to Maduro’s repressive state
An agreement with the government of Nicolás Maduro will allow the deportation of hundreds of thousands back to the authoritarian socialist regime many have fled.
www.washingtonpost.com
February 1, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Trump sending Venezuelans given temporary protected status back to Maduro’s Venezuela. Next? Cubans with TPS back to Cuba?
Why didn’t Eisenhower and Kennedy think of that when Cubans were first fleeing to the US?
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
Why didn’t Eisenhower and Kennedy think of that when Cubans were first fleeing to the US?
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
While Trump’s assaults on the Constitution are the bigger problem, let’s not ignore his assaults on our intelligence. See David Brooks in the NY Times on the “six principles of stupidity.” And look who’s talking about the “dumbest trade war” ever.
www.wsj.com/opinion/dona...
www.wsj.com/opinion/dona...
Opinion | The Dumbest Trade War in History
Trump will impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico for no good reason.
www.wsj.com
February 1, 2025 at 5:02 PM
While Trump’s assaults on the Constitution are the bigger problem, let’s not ignore his assaults on our intelligence. See David Brooks in the NY Times on the “six principles of stupidity.” And look who’s talking about the “dumbest trade war” ever.
www.wsj.com/opinion/dona...
www.wsj.com/opinion/dona...
I have a slightly different take. Trump 1 wasn’t foiled by the deep state; he lacked clear ideas about policy and appointed people to top posts who found him to be unfit. Now he is using the fiction of the deep state to entrench a real right-wing deep state that Democrats will find hard to undo.
Via @citizencohn.bsky.social, a big-picture look at how Trump has advanced his domestic policy goals without bothering with Congress www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...
Trump Seems To Be Saying 'F*ck It' A Lot In His Second Term — And It's Strategic
The focus on executive action in a president's second term isn't unusual, but how Trump is going about it is.
www.huffpost.com
February 1, 2025 at 3:07 PM
I have a slightly different take. Trump 1 wasn’t foiled by the deep state; he lacked clear ideas about policy and appointed people to top posts who found him to be unfit. Now he is using the fiction of the deep state to entrench a real right-wing deep state that Democrats will find hard to undo.
I don’t know why people think DEI began with “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” The original was “domination, exclusion, and inequality." That’s a much deeper tradition.
February 1, 2025 at 1:36 PM
I don’t know why people think DEI began with “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” The original was “domination, exclusion, and inequality." That’s a much deeper tradition.