I'm unsubscribing. I really thought your think tank was onto something. I'm an independent Mainer (a mindset this country needs much more of) and relished reading anything that promised to be open arms to the merits of the arguments. At first you treaded lightly on the politics and stayed on point about the economic merits of arguments - something anyone could get behind.
I came for the well-thought out discussions. I had high hopes that this would morph into a new type of think tank that steered clear of all of the distractions. It doesn't seem that is the case anymore. It's a shame, because you're speaking to both the center-left and center-right in your arguments and it's widely agreed that we need much more of this and much less hyper-partisanship.
So it's baffling why your institution would subscribe more and more to a partisan approach. At the beginning it seemed that you were going to be a institution, while nominally conservative, that could speak sanity to both parties. I tune out when the partisanship starts infringing on the merits of the arguments, and lately there's just too much going out of the way to throw some conservative red meat into posts, and you just lose me when you go down this path.
And if you really want to see progress on any of the ideas that you advocate for, you would actually focus on converting intelligent members of both parties instead of just the center-right.
Hi Oren - I endorse the first two commenters: What David August said about partisanship, 100%. What Karl said about Trump's absurd continuation of national debt accumulation - 1000%. Two things greatly worried the first president in his final days: (#1) Partisanship, which Washington deplored for all that Jefferson and his ilk did to exacerbate it (#2) A peaceful unwinding of the nation's self-destructive reliance on slavery (which Jefferson, the arch hypocrite, helped to expand) which would otherwise just provoke more civil war. Today? #1 continues to worsen. #2 reverberates to this day. The fact that many ordinary people are talking about feeling an impending civil war shows that hyper-partisanship is the most pressing issue for America. Like David August, I was hoping for less partisanship. Like Karl, I don't understand why Team Trump thinks smashing against everything all at once is a plan. Oren, you concede that Team Trump seems to have no coherent plan. None of the rest of us non-partisans can see one. Here's what we see: Domestically - more crippling debt. Internationally - no good allies.
What good allies. The Euros are worthless at best and hostile at worse. JD was right about the lack of common values. Canada, Australia and NZ are just as bad. There are other possibilities like Japan, India and KSA that could be cultivated.
Perhaps he could explain why obliterating the world order that produced the most prosperous period in human history is a good idea? A period also marked by a uniquely successful security structure devoid of major power conflict, also counter to most of human history? Or, what economy in the world he would choose over the one he inherited? Or, whether he intends to break the record of debt accumulation set in his first term? Or, why he continues to lie about the 2020 election and his attempted coup, undermining election integrity, the foundation of a free society? Or, why he appointed unqualified loyalists to the power ministries? There is a reason the high command he appointed in his first term explicitly warned us of his authoritarian impulses. Remember, JD was right when he first told us about Don, similar to the comments of Rubio and so many others who first spoke the obvious truth, then self-gelded publicly. Read our foremost authorities on authoritarian regimes and y’all might worry less about elites arguing over arcane economic policy, and more about the future of our republic and the world order Don now needs to recreate. Only a decadent nation would take our incredible bounty for granted. I’m tired of whining by “think” tanks trolling for dollars. Good luck America.
Trump didn't destroy a "world order." The "world order" you speak of was coming to and end regardless. The Unipolar moment was a temporary anomaly that only existed when Russia was dealing with the collapse of the USSR and China was on it's rise. U.S. is no longer capable of upholding a world order like we saw the last 30 years. It doesn't help that the U.S.' European allies seem to take this so called "world order" even less seriously than Donald Trump does, considering they've spent the last couple of decades deindustrializing and letting their militaries turn into what can barely be described as a fighting force. Even after Russia's invasion in 2022, what major changes have the Europeans made to their defense policy? Nothing, that's what. They still can't even come close to out producing the Russians. Their army size hasn't increased by any significant margin whatsoever. The idea that the U.S. could keep arming the Ukrainians indefinitely, while also preparing to effectively defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion if it were to come is a fantasy. Trump's self interested pragmatic approach, while bad for domestic politics came at the right time for U.S. foreign policy. Trying to cling onto an unsalvageable world order would be much more likely to destroy the U.S. global power than what Trump is doing, which is just traditional Realpolitik.
From Oren's article: "Is it plausible that Trump the populist could deliver a message that “I don’t need a tax cut, we’re giving tax cuts to the people who need them”? It’s not implausible, though admittedly also it is not in evidence as something he has considered." That is real desperation talking, right there. Who does Oren think Trump is?
And if we're Invoking Reagan, better to invoke Reagan's foreign policy regarding Russia, not his essentially Libertarian domestic policy outlook that sent the US into 50 years of decline and into a the New Roaring twenties of unsustainable wealth disparity.
As to who Trump is, I feel compelled to refer readers to Heather Cox Richardson's Letters from an American from March 2nd, 2025. That is in addition to Trump's grotesque behavior toward Zelenski and Hegseth's abandonment of US cybersecurity efforts against Russia, Trump's abandonment of NATO and our European allies and weakening of our own position before negotiating for "Peace", AKA capitulation. This is the art of the deal? The anti-Europe pro-Russia cranks here are either delusional or Russian trolls. I urge you to read Letters from an American.
Others are mentioning what I have mentioned several times as well. Oren's economic prescriptions and diagnoses are compelling. His insistence on cramming those into a reactionary "conservative" box is repelling. As long as he's thinking out of the box, perhaps he could apply that thinking to his political self polarization. That would be genuinely intellectually rigorous.
Yes. Indeed I find his expectation that "building America" would somehow split the Democratic coalition interesting. Biden did work on building America. He passed the IRA which made massive investments in America, investments that Trump is now killing. The Republicans voted in lockstep against it while the Democrats were united behind it. Yet to read this piece the idea that Democrats favor building is nowhere in evidence.
Allowing Europe to have free healthcare and other social benefits denied to our citizens because we provide their defense is beyond stupid and is ending no matter what anyone thinks.
Paying for the defense of Europe. Here’s the math. EU’s GDP is $19T. Russia’s is $2T. If the EU spent 3% of GDP on defense that would total $570B. If Russia tried to match that effort it would take 28% of their output. Obviously impossible. Europe can easily defend itself.
The assurance that Jelensky is seeking is that we will send in our troops if Putin breaches the agreement. No American president including Trump and Biden would or could give him that assurance because it’s a de facto NATO membership. People don’t seem to understand what is being negotiated. We have no idea if Putin will stick to any agreement he makes (and he is not to be trusted) so we can’t commit to an armed response by our troops to his perfidy. We can only say that if it does happen we will continue to supply weapons and ammunition to Ukraine.
It is a very difficult time for our nation where most now have no experience of military service and no desire that their children or grandchildren ever have that experience and yet are forced to struggle with our relationship to an ongoing European war. I have nothing but contempt for those who urge us to support a war with no intention to actually ever have to suffer from the consequences of their urging.
LOL man Oren you really attract the trolls and haters! lol crazy. You must be on to something to have all this thrown at you. They are afraid of you, my man. Keep up the great talking points. You're doing great.
Wow...ffs...you think if you dress a pig in high heals a dress and put lipstick on it it's somehow no longer a pig. Trumps makeup, hair, and other cosmetic devices doesn't make him human capable of any kind of intelligent thought. He's still just a pig. That's what I think of his State of the Union address.
Whatever Trump says, it won't change what he has done. The damage due to his mass layoffs and tariffs, his threats to our allies (most of whom supply the raw materials we might need for "building America") and now his attacks on scientific research and universities will wreak untold damage.
Moreover, Biden already talked about Building America, indeed he did it. The Democrats passed a massive infrastructure bill that jump started investment across the country. All Republicans voted against it and now Trump has worked to stop the investment that resulted from it. Biden approved more oil drilling than his predecessors (drill baby drill) and our under his watch our oil exports were at their highest.
Far from "splitting the democratic coalition," this effort to build America, yes including alternative energy, united them like never before and pissed off the Republicans. If Building America is what you want you should have been supporting him and lamenting Trump's destruction. Instead you seem to want to engage in the pretense that he is doing it and Democrats never would (even though, again, they actually did).
You call for nuclear but keep in mind we have no solution for long-term storage and Republicans have also blocked that as well.
A president who campaigns on reducing education spending and who champions cuts to the very agency that tracks education performance and holds educational institutions to account, is not a man who is really improving education.
This reads not like a serious bipartisan position but a Republican wishlist. As such it is hard to take it seriously.w
Lmao I love how every right wing think piece is now literal Trump fantasy fiction.
“Listen if his entire brain were to change, here’s why it would be great!”
I'm unsubscribing. I really thought your think tank was onto something. I'm an independent Mainer (a mindset this country needs much more of) and relished reading anything that promised to be open arms to the merits of the arguments. At first you treaded lightly on the politics and stayed on point about the economic merits of arguments - something anyone could get behind.
I came for the well-thought out discussions. I had high hopes that this would morph into a new type of think tank that steered clear of all of the distractions. It doesn't seem that is the case anymore. It's a shame, because you're speaking to both the center-left and center-right in your arguments and it's widely agreed that we need much more of this and much less hyper-partisanship.
So it's baffling why your institution would subscribe more and more to a partisan approach. At the beginning it seemed that you were going to be a institution, while nominally conservative, that could speak sanity to both parties. I tune out when the partisanship starts infringing on the merits of the arguments, and lately there's just too much going out of the way to throw some conservative red meat into posts, and you just lose me when you go down this path.
And if you really want to see progress on any of the ideas that you advocate for, you would actually focus on converting intelligent members of both parties instead of just the center-right.
Hi Oren - I endorse the first two commenters: What David August said about partisanship, 100%. What Karl said about Trump's absurd continuation of national debt accumulation - 1000%. Two things greatly worried the first president in his final days: (#1) Partisanship, which Washington deplored for all that Jefferson and his ilk did to exacerbate it (#2) A peaceful unwinding of the nation's self-destructive reliance on slavery (which Jefferson, the arch hypocrite, helped to expand) which would otherwise just provoke more civil war. Today? #1 continues to worsen. #2 reverberates to this day. The fact that many ordinary people are talking about feeling an impending civil war shows that hyper-partisanship is the most pressing issue for America. Like David August, I was hoping for less partisanship. Like Karl, I don't understand why Team Trump thinks smashing against everything all at once is a plan. Oren, you concede that Team Trump seems to have no coherent plan. None of the rest of us non-partisans can see one. Here's what we see: Domestically - more crippling debt. Internationally - no good allies.
What good allies. The Euros are worthless at best and hostile at worse. JD was right about the lack of common values. Canada, Australia and NZ are just as bad. There are other possibilities like Japan, India and KSA that could be cultivated.
Perhaps he could explain why obliterating the world order that produced the most prosperous period in human history is a good idea? A period also marked by a uniquely successful security structure devoid of major power conflict, also counter to most of human history? Or, what economy in the world he would choose over the one he inherited? Or, whether he intends to break the record of debt accumulation set in his first term? Or, why he continues to lie about the 2020 election and his attempted coup, undermining election integrity, the foundation of a free society? Or, why he appointed unqualified loyalists to the power ministries? There is a reason the high command he appointed in his first term explicitly warned us of his authoritarian impulses. Remember, JD was right when he first told us about Don, similar to the comments of Rubio and so many others who first spoke the obvious truth, then self-gelded publicly. Read our foremost authorities on authoritarian regimes and y’all might worry less about elites arguing over arcane economic policy, and more about the future of our republic and the world order Don now needs to recreate. Only a decadent nation would take our incredible bounty for granted. I’m tired of whining by “think” tanks trolling for dollars. Good luck America.
Trump didn't destroy a "world order." The "world order" you speak of was coming to and end regardless. The Unipolar moment was a temporary anomaly that only existed when Russia was dealing with the collapse of the USSR and China was on it's rise. U.S. is no longer capable of upholding a world order like we saw the last 30 years. It doesn't help that the U.S.' European allies seem to take this so called "world order" even less seriously than Donald Trump does, considering they've spent the last couple of decades deindustrializing and letting their militaries turn into what can barely be described as a fighting force. Even after Russia's invasion in 2022, what major changes have the Europeans made to their defense policy? Nothing, that's what. They still can't even come close to out producing the Russians. Their army size hasn't increased by any significant margin whatsoever. The idea that the U.S. could keep arming the Ukrainians indefinitely, while also preparing to effectively defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion if it were to come is a fantasy. Trump's self interested pragmatic approach, while bad for domestic politics came at the right time for U.S. foreign policy. Trying to cling onto an unsalvageable world order would be much more likely to destroy the U.S. global power than what Trump is doing, which is just traditional Realpolitik.
Because the average American doesn't see the benefits vs. the costs of the post-war order being worth it.
From Oren's article: "Is it plausible that Trump the populist could deliver a message that “I don’t need a tax cut, we’re giving tax cuts to the people who need them”? It’s not implausible, though admittedly also it is not in evidence as something he has considered." That is real desperation talking, right there. Who does Oren think Trump is?
And if we're Invoking Reagan, better to invoke Reagan's foreign policy regarding Russia, not his essentially Libertarian domestic policy outlook that sent the US into 50 years of decline and into a the New Roaring twenties of unsustainable wealth disparity.
As to who Trump is, I feel compelled to refer readers to Heather Cox Richardson's Letters from an American from March 2nd, 2025. That is in addition to Trump's grotesque behavior toward Zelenski and Hegseth's abandonment of US cybersecurity efforts against Russia, Trump's abandonment of NATO and our European allies and weakening of our own position before negotiating for "Peace", AKA capitulation. This is the art of the deal? The anti-Europe pro-Russia cranks here are either delusional or Russian trolls. I urge you to read Letters from an American.
Others are mentioning what I have mentioned several times as well. Oren's economic prescriptions and diagnoses are compelling. His insistence on cramming those into a reactionary "conservative" box is repelling. As long as he's thinking out of the box, perhaps he could apply that thinking to his political self polarization. That would be genuinely intellectually rigorous.
Yes. Indeed I find his expectation that "building America" would somehow split the Democratic coalition interesting. Biden did work on building America. He passed the IRA which made massive investments in America, investments that Trump is now killing. The Republicans voted in lockstep against it while the Democrats were united behind it. Yet to read this piece the idea that Democrats favor building is nowhere in evidence.
Some thoughts on Ukraine policy:
Allowing Europe to have free healthcare and other social benefits denied to our citizens because we provide their defense is beyond stupid and is ending no matter what anyone thinks.
Paying for the defense of Europe. Here’s the math. EU’s GDP is $19T. Russia’s is $2T. If the EU spent 3% of GDP on defense that would total $570B. If Russia tried to match that effort it would take 28% of their output. Obviously impossible. Europe can easily defend itself.
The assurance that Jelensky is seeking is that we will send in our troops if Putin breaches the agreement. No American president including Trump and Biden would or could give him that assurance because it’s a de facto NATO membership. People don’t seem to understand what is being negotiated. We have no idea if Putin will stick to any agreement he makes (and he is not to be trusted) so we can’t commit to an armed response by our troops to his perfidy. We can only say that if it does happen we will continue to supply weapons and ammunition to Ukraine.
It is a very difficult time for our nation where most now have no experience of military service and no desire that their children or grandchildren ever have that experience and yet are forced to struggle with our relationship to an ongoing European war. I have nothing but contempt for those who urge us to support a war with no intention to actually ever have to suffer from the consequences of their urging.
LOL man Oren you really attract the trolls and haters! lol crazy. You must be on to something to have all this thrown at you. They are afraid of you, my man. Keep up the great talking points. You're doing great.
I really don't need the diatribe.....what the hell are you smoking ?
Wow...ffs...you think if you dress a pig in high heals a dress and put lipstick on it it's somehow no longer a pig. Trumps makeup, hair, and other cosmetic devices doesn't make him human capable of any kind of intelligent thought. He's still just a pig. That's what I think of his State of the Union address.
Shorter version of this article:Trump administration might be great without Trump in it.
I get it ..most of the moves so far make no sense as policy. They make sense as theater and I don't know that's going to be enough.
News flash! This shit show is going to improve with age!
Whatever Trump says, it won't change what he has done. The damage due to his mass layoffs and tariffs, his threats to our allies (most of whom supply the raw materials we might need for "building America") and now his attacks on scientific research and universities will wreak untold damage.
Moreover, Biden already talked about Building America, indeed he did it. The Democrats passed a massive infrastructure bill that jump started investment across the country. All Republicans voted against it and now Trump has worked to stop the investment that resulted from it. Biden approved more oil drilling than his predecessors (drill baby drill) and our under his watch our oil exports were at their highest.
Far from "splitting the democratic coalition," this effort to build America, yes including alternative energy, united them like never before and pissed off the Republicans. If Building America is what you want you should have been supporting him and lamenting Trump's destruction. Instead you seem to want to engage in the pretense that he is doing it and Democrats never would (even though, again, they actually did).
You call for nuclear but keep in mind we have no solution for long-term storage and Republicans have also blocked that as well.
A president who campaigns on reducing education spending and who champions cuts to the very agency that tracks education performance and holds educational institutions to account, is not a man who is really improving education.
This reads not like a serious bipartisan position but a Republican wishlist. As such it is hard to take it seriously.w