I hear this, but I think that structurally, the Democrats, in articulating a pluralist, multicultural society, have a different task than Republicans do. Speaking plainly in a language that ordinary people can understand is one thing -- FDR did that. We must also contain multitudes. #BigMessyAmerica

I heard "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" on the radio this morning, and it caught me, having read "The Broken Heart of America." Suddenly, I listened to the lyrics with a context of the story of "Frankie & Johnny" songs and black, urban neighborhoods. #BigMessyAmerica www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTrs...

I don’t think domination is pragmatic. #BigMessyAmerica

Politics, in this case, means democracy. We are a country that has valued spectatorship over participation, consumption over production, efficiency over humanity. We have to get our democracy mojo back. #BigMessyAmerica

To be clear, I think the #UrbanRuralDivide is real. Both sides perpetuate it. It is as if people think it is more useful to exploit the tension for short-term gain, rather than working to build a #BigMessyAmerica that can contain multitudes.

Front page of @greenfieldrecorder.bsky.social in #GreenfieldMA on the Franklin County Pride March. #BigMessyAmerica

Once upon a time, Boston mayors were legendary for their corruption and racial myopia. Michelle Wu, on the other hand, is like the mayor for all Massachusetts. #BigMessyAmerica

A Citizen's Response To the National Security Strategy of the United States - The Land Institute An abridged version of Wendell Berry's essay responding to the September 2002 National Security Strategy of the United States.

Wendell Berry is one of our national treasures, a throwback to an agrarian populism that was once common in rural America. He wrote this in 2002, in response to the country's then-new "national security" policy. #BigMessyAmerica landinstitute.org/media-covera...

I agree with this critique of centrist Democrats. We should have a vision of the America we want. I would argue that it is a pluralist, inclusive America, a #BigMessyAmerica.

Why Cities Fail When They Plan Top-Down and Hope Bottom-Up "Jane Jacobs ends through Robert Moses means" is the modus operandi of many planners and advocates. It's also a total misunderstanding of both the brilliance of Jacobs and the shortcomings of Moses.

This blog post by @clmarohn.bsky.social is pretty amazing: "Governing like Caesar with Jesus in mind." #BigMessyAmerica www.strongtowns.org/journal/2025...

At its best, centrism is not just avoiding the extremes and watching polls. At its best, those in the middle are spiders, making connections between various constituencies, combining their voices in novel ways and building a big tent for all of us from broad cloth. #BigMessyAmerica

Trump does represent something authentic in the American Id. And we on the left would like to sever that ugly part and say it’s not us. It’s not America. But America includes ugliness. A #BigMessyAmerica accepts the warts-and-all assessment of who we are and strives incrementally for better.

This is a pretty bleak way of looking at it. But it tracks with H.L. Mencken's famous adage: "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." Keep in mind, Mencken was (to an arguable degree) a Nazi sympathizer. #BigMessyAmerica

This is important. The #UrbanRuralDivide is real, but we aren't very curious about it. We should be. #BigMessyAmerica #BeerBaseballAndTheBible

From left to right: American tennis players Donald Budge, Gene Mako, Germans Gottfried Von Cramm and Henner Henkel just before the Davis Cup inter-zone finals between Germany and United States.

Tennis in 1937: Davis Cup tie, U.S. v. Germany. California public courts rat Don Budge v. German aristocrat (and closeted gay man) Gottfried Von Cramm. At Wimbledon. #BigMessyAmerica www.tennis.com/news/article...

Trump executive order seeks to 'restore' American history through Smithsonian overhaul The "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History" order removes "divisive, race-centered ideology" from Smithsonian museums, educational and research centers, and the National Zoo.

Trump's executive order is a kulturkampf move to enforce from above a right-wing ideology at the Smithsonian. That's not how America is supposed to work. NPR's reporting doesn't give readers that context, nor does it signal the gravity of the situation. #BigMessyAmerica www.npr.org/2025/03/27/n...

Cory Booker's anti-Trump speech on the Senate floor has lasted 15 hours and counting The New Jersey Democrat has been criticizing the Trump administration's policies on immigration, education, the economy and more since 7 p.m. Monday. Here's what to know about his marathon speech.

I'm watching the Cory Booker speech on the Senate Floor right now. #BigMessyAmerica www.npr.org/2025/04/01/n...

Rosie the Riveter poster: "We Can Do It!"

The Nazis thought their strength was in their military might. Their blitzkrieg and their Luftwaffe. WWII showed that strength is in alliances and working together against a common foe. What lesson have we learned as a country? #BigMessyAmerica

“Boston was born standing up to bullies.” You go, Mayor Wu! #BigMessyAmerica youtu.be/5sFuF7eF67Q?...

DiZoglio, Beacon Hill Dems are never, ever getting back together | Bay State Briefing The months-long dispute between the state Auditor Diana DiZoglio and Democratic leaders on Beacon Hill recently took an explosive turn.

This is some solid #MAPoli analysis. And there's an urban-rural tension underneath it that is worth paying attention to. #BigMessyAmerica #BeerBaseballAndTheBible www.masslive.com/politics/202...

Breakfast: cheesy grits with eggs over easy. And the seconds mug with the pock-marks in the glaze that I love. #BigMessyAmerica

#BigMessyAmerica

Awesome! And what is great about American music is it has been a collider, bringing musical traditions from around the world and fusing them together. Black musicians have been especially adept at this. It is a great ambassador for pluralism. #BigMessyAmerica

It's not nothing. You are mining for diamonds in the rough. They are out there. We must not give up on them. #BigMessyAmerica

This being said, I'm leery of the way that Hedges talks about the term "Woke" and also the way he throws FDR under the bus. I will not let go of the idea of a successful broad coalition that could make our country better. #BigMessyAmerica

Pound is absolutely problematic. But he's also very American. And I'm very much on a #BigMessyAmerica kick. We don't read poets because they're nice, or because they write pretty words that make us happy. We read them because they put us in touch with the electric truth of the universe.

Rattle: Poetry … without pretension since 1995.

@rbreich.bsky.social put this poem on his Substack this morning. It’s by Alison Luterman. It’s called “Praise the Broken Promises of America” and it was originally published in Rattle. #BigMessyAmerica www.rattle.com?utm_source=s...

Maybe the key to this moment is that all of us need to personally defeat the inner narcissist within ourselves to accept the bigger power of pluralism. #BigMessyAmerica

Kamala Harris didn’t win, but Madison Keys did. Does that mean tennis is in a better place than American democracy? #BigMessyAmerica

This is an interesting thread, although it makes me a little surly. I think it overfits the evidence to argue against bipartisan cooperation. Governing is necessarily coalition-building. Reaching across the aisle is not necessarily a bad thing. For me, this is about a #BigMessyAmerica.