Thread by @ezraklein

I've seen a lot of people link to my piece with Tip O'Neill's old aphorism that "all politics is local."

I don't think that's quite right. It's that local politics is increasingly national. nytimes.com/2022/01/09/opi…

I talked with @JakeMGrumbach for the piece, who's forthcoming book, "Laboratories Against Democracy," is all about this. He had a line I didn't end up getting into the column, but have been thinking about since:

As he put it, this moment is unique in how much "national conflict is playing out through subnational institutions."

Look at any past American conflict and it played out, at least partly, through state and local institutions.

But Grumbach argues those were often regional or inter-state conflicts that became nationalized. They laddered up, not down

What's different now, he argues, is that nationalized parties + nationalized media + nationalized fundraising mean truly national conflicts are becoming localized, to an extent with no real precedent in American history.

It's a thesis I need to think about more, but you can pre-order the book here: press.princeton.edu/books/hardcove…

Anyway, the world has changed since the 80s.

All politics is now national, and all politics is now local.