By Sade Collier (blog post) & Naomi Tomlin (video), Fall 2024 interns

The 2024 primary election season is defined by its missed marks. Take this astute essay by our next-door neighbors at Dissent magazine, who wrote about how liberal institutionalists have isolated the insurgent left and passively strengthened Trumpism, and this essay from the The Nation that pushes the Democratic Party to take accountability for a failed campaign cycle. What’s remarkable about this moment is that it left us split with dual feelings of hope and despondency, which both encourage us to look beyond the now. 

On the evening of Thursday, November 21, we gathered some of the country’s leading political and social thinkers for a virtual salon titled What’s Next, America? to discuss where we go from here, and what conjectures the American electorate is balancing the next four years. With an energizing introduction by MSNBC’s Joy Reid, former ACLU Legal Director David Cole, New York Times columnist Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, The Nation justice correspondent Elie Mystal, Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD), and former gubernatorial candidate Zephyr Teachout joined The New Press in structuring a conversation on how we can meet the moment—this includes being honest about the dynamics that have fractured the Left and advocating for a serious mobilization against fascism. We here at The New Press wanted to know why president-elect Donald Trump and sitting vice president Kamala Harris were both impacted by a lower voter turnout rate in 2024 than 2020, Hispanic and working-class voters displayed a striking affinity for Trump, Black women particularly felt cloistered in their support for Harris, and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib received twice as many votes as Harris in her bid for reelection. 

On the first wintery evening of the year, Diane Wachtell, executive director of The New Press, said to a virtual crowd, "We here at The New Press intend to provide the ‘intellectual scaffolding for social movements’ through our progressive publishing. This moment of division may produce hope or despondency, but those feelings are signifiers of desired change.” Our virtual salon allowed us to experiment with collective brainstorming to treat this moment of electorate fracture as an inflection point for a brighter future. 

We are sharing the highlights from the full introductory remarks by our brilliant featured speakers with you here.

To watch the hour-long video, please click here. 

If you are turning to The New Press for more ideas, we’re sharing excerpts of books we’ve published by our featured speakers below. You can review our catalog for additional timely books on American Democracy. 

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Rules for Resistance: Advice from Around the Globe for the Age of Trump 

Edited by David Cole and Melanie Wachtell Stinnett 

Around the world, populist leaders have seized political control and proposed challenges to functioning, equitable Democracies. Rules for Resistance offers a compilation of dissenting voices from across the globe to distill the collective knowledge and wisdom of those who “have seen this video before.” With us entering an era of Trump 2.0, the advice offered in this collection is urgent. 

Thick: And Other Essays 

by Tressie McMillan Cottom 

Named a top book of 2019 by TIME, New York Times Book Review, New York Public Library, Chicago Tribune, and more, acclaimed essayist Tressie McMillan Cottom refuses to shy away from blending the personal with the political in these treatises on beauty, media, money, and more. This “transgressive, provocative, and brilliant” (Roxane Gay) collection cements McMillan Cottom’s position as a public thinker capable of shedding new light on what the “personal essay” can do. 

Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution

by Elie Mystal 

This sharp bestseller by The Nation justice correspondent Elie Mystal is a “reading of the Constitution that all social justice advocates should study” (Kirkus Reviews, starred). Mystal weighs in on every hot-button issue facing the county (and the Supreme Court) today with the unique witticisms that have made him a leading legal thinker in the 21st century. You can read an excerpt of Allow Me to Retort here. 

NOTE: Mystal’s latest book, Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America is coming out at The New Press in March 2025. 

100% Democracy: The Case for Universal Voting 

by E.J. Dionne Jr., Miles Rapoport 

Leading political expert Miles Rapoport and Washington Post journalist E.J. Dionne Jr. offer in 100% Democracy a clear pathway that can aid the revival of American democracy: mandatory voting. They argue that universal participation on behalf of the electorate would be the surest way to protect against voter suppression and active disenfranchisement. You can read an op-ed in the Washington Post adapted from 100% Democracy here.