This piece originally appeared in Commonplace.
The Democratic Party is in total disarray. Its exhausted leadership has struggled to focus on any single front to concentrate its fire on the new administration, while AOC and Gavin Newsom do their warmups for the 2028 primaries. DOGE cuts and trade wars could give Democrats a launchpad for retaking the House in 2026, but it does not give them a positive platform in any meaningful sense. Perhaps that is why a new book from Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson has captured the policy world’s attention so soon after the Left’s big defeat last November. In Abundance, they argue for a liberalism that builds. But the Right is already doing the building.
There is plenty to like in what has come to be called “the Abundance Agenda”. More energy, homes, trains, roads, medicines, and technology are undoubtedly needed to improve the lives of Americans and would increase our national strength. It is also encouraging to see some liberals making the case for supply-side reform at a time when most do not seem ready to sit down and reflect on how their philosophy created so much of what they now complain about. Getting tough with the folks on your side of the aisle is never easy, and they are playing a productive role in the national conversation, unlike the people burning Teslas or engaging in the performative politics of “the resistance.” But there is no getting away from the fact that the blockers—not the builders—have been empowered by decades of liberal governance at the state and federal levels.
It is undeniable that environmental legislation from Congress, like the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), has hamstrung America’s ability to build. Restrictive zoning—putting a legal limit on how much housing can be built in particular areas—in states like California has consistently failed to deliver more homes. Poor planning has blocked big construction projects like high-speed rail, despite successive waves of federal subsidies under Obama and Biden. Blue state governance has led to people voting with their feet, moving from California to states like Arizona, Texas, and Georgia. But lost in the abundance debate is that red states are not simply the beneficiaries of liberal misrule. They have been bolder in delivering what abundance requires, including reforming zoning regulations and paring back environmental protections that have caused problems elsewhere.
