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Adam Jentleson @adamjentleson.bsky.social · 21d

The process before us will not always be tidy, but it will always be interesting. Regardless of whether you agree with us—and especially if you do not—we invite you to come along.

Our Mission: To Spark A Realignment

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

searchlightinst.substack.com

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Adam Jentleson @adamjentleson.bsky.social · 21d

By building a home for bold, creative thinking that is free to range across ideological boundaries, we will replace today’s reign of orthodoxy with a spirit of open, winning heterodoxy.

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Adam Jentleson @adamjentleson.bsky.social · 21d

At most, realignments come along once a generation. Sparking one is a daunting task, and it starts with building infrastructure. While we do not claim to have all the answers—yet—we do claim to have created the institution that will discover them.

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Adam Jentleson @adamjentleson.bsky.social · 21d

Ultimately, Supermajority Thinking leads to a pro-growth, pluralist, all-terrain populism—a populism that can go anywhere, and is not artificially cordoned off to a certain set of issues.

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Adam Jentleson @adamjentleson.bsky.social · 21d

Third: Supermajority Thinking is attentive to the American people, but sees public opinion as malleable.

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Adam Jentleson @adamjentleson.bsky.social · 21d

Second: Supermajority Thinking requires starting from first principles and following them wherever they lead—including when they take us outside of traditional ideological categories.

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Adam Jentleson @adamjentleson.bsky.social · 21d

First: Supermajority Thinking is a necessary precondition of stable, majority-rule governance and policymaking.

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Adam Jentleson @adamjentleson.bsky.social · 21d

We are guided by a concept called Supermajority Thinking, which has three underlying ideas.

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Adam Jentleson @adamjentleson.bsky.social · 21d

We believe that ideas matter. From the New Deal era to the Reagan revolution, realignments happen downstream of the positions leaders take. To forge the next realignment, we have created a home for creative thinkers dedicated to disrupting today’s paradigm of purity, smallness, and fear.

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Adam Jentleson @adamjentleson.bsky.social · 21d

I’d like to introduce you to the Searchlight Institute. We believe that a realignment is not just possible, but necessary – and we are here to make it happen.

https://searchlightinst.substack.com/p/our-mission-to-spark-a-realignment

t.co

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Daniel Schlozman @daschloz.bsky.social · 27d

A good time to say, since we're talking about the Biden years, that @samrosenfeld.bsky.social and I wrote a paper for APSA, to be presented Sat. at noon, about why the Biden-era Democrats turned to policy as their salvation, and why it didn't work out. Here's the first paragraph.

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Steven S Smith @profstevensmith.bsky.social · Aug 19

On the GEM/Yglesias spat. Morris is right: cong'l election outcomes are shaped by factors far more important the candidate moderation. Old news. But issue positioning is one of the few things that could affect the outcome that can be controlled by a candidate or party in an election year.

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · Aug 17

Gallego on Mamdani: "It's okay to say 'I disagree with this, this, and this, but I agree with that.' But the idea that we're just gonna throw out people that are really bringing in new ideas to the fold, exciting people, just because they're slightly to the right or to the left of us is dumb."

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dirtywork16.bsky.social @dirtywork16.bsky.social · Aug 12

Ya small results = null result is pretty unpersuasive in this context. If the claim is "it doesn't matter if you put up a moderate or a non moderate in a purple district" , that claim seems to be dubious. If the claim is "putting up a moderate doesn't guarantee a win".. fair enough I guess?

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Adam Jentleson @adamjentleson.bsky.social · Aug 12

three points is a lot!

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Joel Wertheimer @wertwhile.bsky.social · Jun 25

Whispers: budget is there for a lot more officers and could not add more officers and give a raise and ask Jess Tisch to stay on and buy a lot of good will. And then focus on collective bargaining reform. There are ways to do this like Bernie did.

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Joel Wertheimer @wertwhile.bsky.social · Jun 23

Kathy Hochul doing public nuclear power generation is pretty cool. She's been kinda great the last few months? www.wsj.com/business/ene...

Exclusive | New York to Build One of First U.S. Nuclear-Power Plants in Generation

Gov. Kathy Hochul has directed the state’s public electric utility to add at least 1 gigawatt of new nuclear-power production.

www.wsj.com

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · Jun 14

Walz announces that Rep. Melissa Hortman is dead as a result of a "politically motivated assassination"

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David Karol @davidkarol.bsky.social · May 25

I know Yglesias isn't everyone's favorite, but it's amazing how angry many people -often with PhDs-get at a suggestion that there are tradeoffs in politics. Remarkably, many who purport to believe the republic is hanging by a thread are in the "no compromise with the voters!" camp.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias.bsky.social · May 25

I think a really underrated idea for Democrats would be to to try:

(a) Study public opinion accurately
(b) Adopt views, especially on social and moral values issues that align with public opinion

Or they can try this.

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/25/u...

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Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias.bsky.social · May 25

This is why I emphasized "study public opinion accurately."

Progressives have invested huge sums of money in misleading polls to convince people that all of their ideas are popular when it isn't true and it's been very damaging.

bsky.app/profile/jere...

Jeremy Espenshade @jeremyke.bsky.social · May 25

Nearly every Democratic platform policy is broadly popular and nearly every Republican platform policy is broadly unpopular. I don't understand what you're suggesting would be different. Even if no Democrat held any unpopular position, Fox and Co would claim they did anyway.

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Aaron Strauss @aaronstrauss.bsky.social · May 15

It shouldn't take a recession for Democrats to win over people who we're helping afford healthcare, food, and housing -- no more sticking our heads in the sand, please!!

Also: finding was replicated by the NYT

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Leonid Baezhnev @rev-avocado.bsky.social · Apr 6

I think trade protectionism has historically been essentially a cross-cutting culture war shibboleth that you aren't a certain kind of elite than a policy view based in a materialist analysis.

Marxist-Glonzoist @primaryschool.bsky.social · Apr 6

also, no, it's not good politics in Deluzio's district, the voters in his affluent suburban district primarily work in healthcare, government, and education. Aliquippa might like it but most of the district is suburban Allegheny County.

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social · Apr 6

I still can’t get over this.

It may be good politics in Deluzio’s district. But for national Dems to elevate it during an anti-tariff uprising across all 50 states is beyond malpractice.

The had a gun pointed at an unarmed opponent and somehow shot themselves in the foot.

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WuTangIsForTheChildren @wutangforchildren.bsky.social · Apr 5

Dave Chappelle nailed it 🤣🎯

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Conor Sen @conorsen.bsky.social · Apr 4

We’re setting ourselves up for part of the 2028 Dem primary being anti-establishment bro energy that’s rabidly pro-free trade against ideological leftists running back part of Bernie 2016.

William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · Apr 4

I do think blanket opposition to free trade was kind of a luxury belief for a lot of political actors because it was so assumed that the pro-trade coalition was so strong we'd never get something like this. whoops.

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Adam Jentleson @adamjentleson.bsky.social · Apr 1

Also the talking filibuster is good and we should go back to it, instead of the silent kind we have today where senators never even have to speak on the floor.

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