APF: Political Economies and Social Visions Emerging on the Left

The Braver Angels DC Project invites you to its fifth of 2023, held in-person only at The Hamilton Restaurant in downtown Washington D.C. Join us for the panel from 6-8pm on Tuesday, June 6th, 2023 followed by a reception with hors d’ouerves and refreshments. This event is free and open to all Braver Angels members and friends, and to interested members of the Washington D.C. policy community. All are welcome!

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Our guests, Shadi Hamid of and Pete Davis of the , are accomplished writers and activists in liberal and progressive policy circles, observing and participating in ongoing debates over Democratic social and economic policy, and especially on questions of how cultural divides should be considered aside bread-and-butter policy questions in the vast coalition of the modern American left. And aside from these, they are constantly writing and podcasting on a variety of issues relating to social trust, intellectual humility, the enduring quality of political division as a theoretical problem, the assumptions on which diverse coalitions can manage their divides for national purposes—all things of deep political and philosophical relevance to the intellectual work of Braver Angels. (Here’s a piece by Shadi and a piece by Pete on these!)

Luke Nathan Phillips of will chair a conversation with Shadi and Pete examining some current divisions of the left, and leftward schools of thought emerging amid the unique problems of our time—old and new varieties of what has come to be called “neoliberalism,” new developments in “supply-side progressivism” and “state capacity,” the current states of democratic socialism and social democracy, whether a broad-based left-populism exists, and what that means for the rhetoric of class war in the current age, the age-old divisions between different kinds of Democratic centrists and different kinds of leftist activists, and more—and consider their strengths and weaknesses and possible directions, and what observers of the development of American political ideology should be paying most attention to. The conversation will focus, especially, on what all this means for social solidarity and stability, politics beyond the friend/enemy distinction, and the left’s enduring contributions to the mutual bonds and responsibilities of American public life.

The Braver Angels D.C. Project, a combined project of Braver U and College Debates and Discourse to engage the world of policy intellectuals and policy professionals in the nation’s capital on its own terms, is committed to exploring questions of deep significance to depolarization, political theory, national identity, ideological development, and the process of policymaking, in a spirit of civic friendship and honesty inquiry. Over the course of Spring and Fall of 2023, look forward to more America’s Public Forums in D.C. with guests and partners from across the spectrum and around the circle, assessing questions of interest for the work of Braver Angels in D.C. and to the nation far beyond.

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For questions on logistics and otherwise, please contact Luke at [email protected] . The event will be held in The Loft venue at The Hamilton Restaurant, at 600 14th St. NW, Washington D.C.

After the moderated conversation, there will be time for audience q&a. The event will be filmed and available on the Braver Angels YouTube channel within a few days. It will not be livestreamed. Please register on Eventbrite ahead of the event!

Individuals’ appearance on America’s Public Forum does not indicate an endorsement of their policy or politics by Braver Angels as an organization; it merely indicates a shared willingness to explore great themes in the public discourse. They speak as individuals rather than as representatives of affiliated organizations.

Host or Publisher Braver Angels