How Abundism Eased the Path to Trump's Ballroom
When liberals delegitimize aesthetic and preservationist values, don't be surprised that conservatives will use that to defend Trump's teardown.
Courtesy of the White House. The ballroom is twice the size of the executive mansion.
According to a new Yahoo/YouGov poll Trump’s Ultimate Refurbishment of the White House complex is wildly unpopular. Fifty-seven percent disapprove of Trump demolishing the East Wing and 61 percent disapprove of Trump adding a 90,000-square foot ballroom. Also, 53 percent disapprove of the project’s being funded by private corporate donations.
My latest New Republic piece is about how defenders of this bulldozing spree are relying on arguments set forth in the “Abundance” liberalism books that I’ve written about previously—Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s Abundance; Marc J. Dunkelman’s Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back; and Yoni Appelbaum’s Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity. Be careful what you wish for—you just might get it!
You can read my piece here.