Sneak Peek: Subscriber Links-Cluster Post
Dropping the paywall on this one!
One of the perks of being a Family Frontier subscriber is that you get access to a monthly curated links post. I thought I’d share, for everyone, May’s post that went out last week to subscribers. My goal here is both to give you a look behind the curtain, and also because I’m trying out a new links format and I’m curious if y’all find it useful!
I’m going to try something different this month. Instead of listing a series of distinct books, reports, podcasts, and articles, I’m going to offer you a cluster of five related pieces that I think do a good job illuminating different aspects of one issue. In this case, the issue at hand is the political realignment happening in the American electorate and its implications for family policy.
Here are the five pieces (all paywalled links are gift links, so you should be able to access them regardless of subscription status):
How Donald Trump Has Remade America’s Political Landscape, The New York Times
American Realignment, The Atlantic
The Masculinity Crisis and the Future of American Democracy, Stefan Smith blog
How the iPhone Drove Men and Women Apart, The New York Times “Interesting Times” podcast / transcript
These may not seem connected, so let me give a brief explanation:
The first two pieces are descriptive analyses showing just how much political coalitions are shifting: and, in most cases, shifting in favor of Republicans. This is particularly true of the rightward shift among working-class voters generally and working-class men in particular. To my point in my Waiting For a Trifecta piece, it’s tough sledding ahead for progressive policy goals.
Stefan Smith is the head of digital engagement at the ACLU and has worked on various Democratic political campaigns, including Pete Buttigieg’s primary campaign and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 effort. He offers what I find to be a provocative analysis of the state of men in the electorate, concluding that “While the crisis of male disengagement is real and escalating, it is not absolute. Across the country, certain leaders have cracked the code—blending masculine authenticity with civic credibility, and reaching young male voters not through apology or posturing, but through proportional alignment. Their victories offer a roadmap for how masculinity can be re-integrated into a progressive vision of public life without capitulating to reactionary tropes.”
Drilling down on one piece of that code, political scientist John DiIulio, Jr.—who “served as first Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in the G.W. Bush administration and assisted the Obama administration in reconstituting and expanding that office”—talks about how labor policy can help restore prospects for American men and also address the falling birth rate without resorting to coercive tactics: “The short answer is a pro-worker natalist policy that emphasizes so-called predistribution—altering the spread of the social income through better jobs, higher wages, and worker bargaining power, rather than redistributive handouts from above.”1
Finally, sociologist Alice Evans (who I quote frequently because I think she’s among the best in the biz) has a long, nuanced talk with NYT columnist Ross Douthat about the birth rate and its apparent antecedent, declining formation of long-term romantic relationships—drilling down especially on the role that technology may be having not just in the U.S. but globally.
My point here is not to offer an answer—I’m not sure there is an “answer” as such—nor do I agree with 100% of what’s in each piece. But I can see a synthesis of these five offerings that points in certain directions. I hope put together, these links help push your thinking as well.
Let me know your reactions!
Note: I still don’t like the word “natalist”
Thank you!