TLP Weekend Edition (May 31-June 1, 2025)

What we're reading and checking out.

Larne in Country Antrim, Northern Ireland. The seaside town plays a role in Adrian McKinty’s new short story on Substack featured in this weekend’s recommendations. (Getty Images)

📖 “American Realignment,” by Patrick Ruffini. In The Atlantic, TLP friend Patrick Ruffini examines the evidence about whether or not there is a “realignment” going on in American politics. Ruffini believes there is:

Today, machine politics are not held in high esteem. But they did have a way of finding overlooked voting blocs and putting them under protection. Other such examples of political organization and advocacy are remembered more fondly, such as the migration of Black voters into the Democratic Party following the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which cemented a more than 9-to-1 Democratic advantage in many Black neighborhoods. But more recently, this political solidarity has been held together by social forces—the expectation by other Black Americans that their friends and neighbors will support Democrats—than by an ideological affinity for the party, as documented in the political scientists Ismail K. White and Chryl N. Laird’s book, Steadfast Democrats.

In an era of nationalized politics and growing polarization, the social basis for Democratic majorities is looking more and more tenuous. Yes, the particular appeal with which Trump was able to attract Hispanics and young Black men may last for only an election cycle or two, but the fact that those communities are realigning to a party that matches their views on issues, particularly on cultural issues such as gender, means that many are likely to stick around.

A populist shift in the form of Donald Trump’s larger-than-life persona was enough to make many nonwhite voters shed decades-long partisan loyalties. Absent a big change in how these voters perceive the Democratic Party, they aren’t going back.

Highly recommended.

🇺🇸 “How Donald Trump Has Remade America’s Political Landscape,” by Shane Goldmacher, June Kim, and Christine Zhang. After reading Patrick’s piece, also check out the excellent New York Times deep dive on voter shifts from 2012 to 2024:

Donald J. Trump’s victory in 2024 was not an outlier.

It was the culmination of continuous gains by Republicans in much of the country each time he has run for president, a sea of red that amounts to a flashing warning sign for a Democratic Party out of power and hoping for a comeback.

The steady march to the right at the county level reveals not just the extent of the nation’s transformation in the Trump era but also the degree to which the United States now resembles two countries charging in opposite directions.

Afterwards, take a deep breath and dive into some Catalist data. They have a report on their findings but the punk rock kids always look at the underlying data. Check out their massive spreadsheet—every election, every group. Good stuff.

📊 "The Dignity Index," by UNITE. In an effort to help lower the temperature and levels of hostility in American politics, a group of civic-minded individuals in Utah in 2018 created the Dignity Index, a system that ranks statements from politicians ranging from the most dignified (score of 8) to the most contemptuous (score of 1). The index if grounded in a few core beliefs:

• Contempt causes division; dignity eases division.

• If we put a spotlight on dignity and contempt, we will use more dignity and less contempt.

• If we show Americans how they can help ease our divisions, they will jump on it.

Though it began as a tool for holding bombastic politicians accountable, Americans can also employ the index and its lessons in their everyday lives. Check it out, read about the different scores, and ask whether the way you practice your own politics lands more on the dignified side or contemptuous side.

✍🏻 “Jayne's Blue Wish—A Sean Duffy Story,” by Adrian McKinty. TLP has recommended McKinty’s Sean Duffy books in the past but now the ace author has his own Substack and recently published his first piece—a standalone story set in the middle of the Duffy series. Sean and Crabbie are out and about in Northern Ireland trying to figure out who is blackmailing a wealthy local family with compromising old photographs. The characters, dialogue, and plot in the story are all enjoyable, along with Duffy’s signature musical tastes and dad jokes:

We drove back into Larne.

Crabbie was looking grim.

“Did you hear about the man who was addicted to brake fluid?” I said.

“Please, Sean. . .”

“It was ok, because he could stop any time.”

Crabbie said nothing but his look. . .his look, was a delicious mixture of disappointment and world weariness.

I put the radio on.

It must have flipped to some oldies or pirate station because they were playing the Yardbirds and no one played the Yardbirds. It was one of those psychedelic numbers from 1967 with Beck and Page as dual leads. At the same time on the other side of London Nick Drake and Syd Barrett were taking jangly English folk into psychedelia. What were the Fairports doing around that time? I liked all that shit. When I got a moment I’d have to take a deep dive into my records. No point spilling all this inner monologue on the Crabman. Not his cup of tea at all.

🎶 “Tom Waits Complete,” a playlist from Tom Waits. McKinty’s books all feature titles drawn from Waits’s songs and lyrics. A few years back, Waits himself curated a nice playlist from across his deep catalogue of recordings. Number 74 on the list is the title of the latest Duffy novel, “Hang On St. Christoper.” Give it a spin and check out the books!