\n Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today\u2019s biggest challenges.\n <\/p>\n
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Helping liberals get out of their own way.<\/p>\n
Klein, a New York Times <\/i>columnist, and Thompson, an Atlantic <\/i>staffer, lean to the left, but they aren\u2019t interrogating the usual suspects. Aware that many conservatives have no interest in their opinions, the authors target their own side\u2019s \u201cpathologies.\u201d Why do red states greenlight the kind of renewable energy projects that often languish in blue states? Why does liberal California have the nation\u2019s most severe homelessness and housing affordability crises? One big reason: Liberal leadership has ensnared itself in a web of well-intentioned yet often onerous \u201cgoals, standards, and rules.\u201d This \u201cprocedural kludge,\u201d partially shaped by lawyers who pioneered a \u201cdemocracy by lawsuit\u201d strategy in the 1960s, threatens to stymie key breakthroughs. Consider the anti-pollution laws passed after World War II. In the decades since, homeowners\u2019 groups in liberal locales have cited such statutes in lawsuits meant to stop new affordable housing. Today, these laws \u201cblock the clean energy projects\u201d required to tackle climate change. Nuclear energy is \u201cinarguably safer\u201d than the fossil fuel variety, but because Washington doesn\u2019t always \u201cproperly weigh risk,\u201d it almost never builds new reactors. Meanwhile, technologies that may cure disease or slash the carbon footprint of cement production benefit from government support, but too often the grant process \u201crewards caution and punishes outsider thinking.\u201d The authors call this style of governing \u201ceverything-bagel liberalism,\u201d so named because of its many government mandates. Instead, they envision \u201ca politics of abundance\u201d that would remake travel, work, and health. This won\u2019t happen without \u201cchanging the processes that make building and inventing so hard.\u201d It\u2019s time, then, to scrutinize everything from municipal zoning regulations to the paperwork requirements for scientists getting federal funding. The authors\u2019 debut as a duo is very smart and eminently useful.<\/p>\n
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today\u2019s biggest challenges.<\/p><\/div>\n
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Pub Date:<\/b> March 18, 2025<\/p>\n
ISBN:<\/b> 9781668023488<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
Page Count:<\/b> 320<\/p>\n
Publisher:<\/b> Avid Reader Press<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
Review Posted Online:<\/b> Jan. 16, 2025<\/p>\n
Kirkus Reviews Issue:<\/b> Feb. 15, 2025<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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