Author: Laura Field

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Extraconstitutional Limbo

Laura Field

I have an article up today with The Bulwark Online where I argue that we should be explicit about the fact that we are in a constitutional crisis, and that Trump’s legitimacy has been undermined to such a clear and obvious extent that other elected representatives have a clear and obvious duty to impeach and remove him in order to bring us back within the clear confines of the constitution. I try to make this argument in the least incendiary way possible, without focusing on specific questions about incitement or coordination. I emphasize what was plain for everyone to see … Continue reading Extraconstitutional Limbo

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Watch the Conor Lamb speech if you haven’t already

Laura Field

I hadn’t seen Representative Conor Lamb’s speech on Wednesday until today. Greg Sargent wrote about it for the Washington Post, and his thoughtful discussion is worth reading, too. The speech is simple but very powerful, and it clearly upset many of his Republican colleagues. “We know that that attack today didn’t come out of nowhere, it was inspired by lies, the same lies that you are hearing in this room tonight.” “They desecrated these halls and this chamber and practically every inch of ground where we work. And for the most part they walked in free. A lot of them … Continue reading Watch the Conor Lamb speech if you haven’t already

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Laura Field lists her favorite books of 2020

Laura Field

This has been a humbling year full of turmoil and strife. Here are five books that helped me through it: The Lost History of Liberalism, by Helena Rosenblatt. This is an academic book, but it’s still pretty accessible and has impressive breadth. Rosenblatt approaches her subject from a linguistic perspective: she traces the meaning of the word liberalism back through history, and then interprets out from there. I was skeptical about this at first, fearing that it would be too narrow or boring, but not for long. Within a few chapters, Rosenblatt does away the notion that there is any … Continue reading Laura Field lists her favorite books of 2020

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Secessionist Chic

Laura Field

Intellectuals on the right have primed conservatives for secessionist thinking with their attacks on democratic processes, their attacks on liberals, and numerous ideas about the need for separate conservative communities and spaces. After four years of Trump, I find many things about the American political landscape disorienting, and this includes recent gestures towards secession on the right. When Rush Limbaugh suggests that he believes that “there can’t be peaceful coexistence between conservatives and liberals” and that “the US is trending towards secession,” is it something to take seriously?   On the one hand, the answer seems clear: no, not really. Limbaugh … Continue reading Secessionist Chic

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Quick response to Ross Douthat

Laura Field

This week Ross Douthat took up some of my arguments in his column (partly as a response to my article at The Bulwark, where I critiqued his and others’ blasé attitude about Trump). He raises some interesting questions about the effectiveness of “The Resistance,” and concludes that anti-Biden efforts that seek to imitate the left’s resistance won’t work because, as with Trump, it’s the normal bread-and-butter political stuff that really matters. It is a thrill to be engaged like this in the NYT, and I will have to think about this some more, but at bottom I think Douthat’s argument … Continue reading Quick response to Ross Douthat

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Recommended Reading: Sarah Churchwell’s “American Fascism: It Has Happened Here.”

Laura Field

Last week on our blog I wrote about the authoritarian/illiberal threat to democracy posed by Trump, as a post-electoral follow-up to an essay I published in The Bulwark on October 31. In the essay for The Bulwark, I took on the question of Trump’s fascism as it has been discussed and debated, at length, in the media over the last four years (Eric Levitz provides a good overview of what is/was at stake in that discussion here; Corey Robin and David Klion offer a very interesting counter-interpretation from the left right here). I used to be staunchly in the “it’s … Continue reading Recommended Reading: Sarah Churchwell’s “American Fascism: It Has Happened Here.”