597 | Michael Laskaway: Why States Are the Real Center of American Politics
Episode
51 min
Read time
2 min
Topics
Leadership, Artificial Intelligence, Software Development
AI-Generated Summary
Key Takeaways
- ✓State-centered governance: The right has spent decades building infrastructure around state-level power while the left defaulted to federal solutions. States control utilities, election systems, degree requirements, and right-to-repair legislation — policy levers with direct, immediate impact on daily costs and quality of life that federal gridlock cannot touch.
- ✓The American Promise framework: States Forum uses four principles — representative democracy, effective government, fair markets, and personal freedom — drawn from the Declaration of Independence as an editorial and ideological test. This worldview functions as a fusionist filter, allowing thinkers across factional lines to collaborate without requiring agreement on every policy dispute.
- ✓AI regulation as a state-level flashback: When federal legislators proposed banning state-level AI regulation, both left and right state legislators pushed back — primarily because data centers are driving up local utility bills. Framing AI policy through constituent electricity costs, not abstract human flourishing, is what actually moves state-level coalitions.
- ✓Ballot-counting speed as a trust-building tool: Secretaries of state could spend the two years before 2028 publicly and aggressively reducing ballot-counting times. This technocratic fix carries rare narrative weight — it directly addresses a widespread, concrete source of institutional distrust without requiring any partisan concession on election integrity principles.
- ✓Narrative before policy: The center-left's struggle in long-form formats like three-hour podcasts stems from leading with policy plans rather than personal story arcs. A more effective approach connects policy positions to an evolving personal or historical narrative first, then derives the policy — the model the populist right has used consistently since the mid-2010s.
What It Covers
Marshall Koslowski and States Forum Journal editor-in-chief Michael Laskaway argue that American states — not Washington — are the functional center of political change, and that the center-left lacks a coherent narrative framework to capitalize on that power amid federal dysfunction.
Key Questions Answered
- •State-centered governance: The right has spent decades building infrastructure around state-level power while the left defaulted to federal solutions. States control utilities, election systems, degree requirements, and right-to-repair legislation — policy levers with direct, immediate impact on daily costs and quality of life that federal gridlock cannot touch.
- •The American Promise framework: States Forum uses four principles — representative democracy, effective government, fair markets, and personal freedom — drawn from the Declaration of Independence as an editorial and ideological test. This worldview functions as a fusionist filter, allowing thinkers across factional lines to collaborate without requiring agreement on every policy dispute.
- •AI regulation as a state-level flashback: When federal legislators proposed banning state-level AI regulation, both left and right state legislators pushed back — primarily because data centers are driving up local utility bills. Framing AI policy through constituent electricity costs, not abstract human flourishing, is what actually moves state-level coalitions.
- •Ballot-counting speed as a trust-building tool: Secretaries of state could spend the two years before 2028 publicly and aggressively reducing ballot-counting times. This technocratic fix carries rare narrative weight — it directly addresses a widespread, concrete source of institutional distrust without requiring any partisan concession on election integrity principles.
- •Narrative before policy: The center-left's struggle in long-form formats like three-hour podcasts stems from leading with policy plans rather than personal story arcs. A more effective approach connects policy positions to an evolving personal or historical narrative first, then derives the policy — the model the populist right has used consistently since the mid-2010s.
Notable Moment
Laskaway references historian Alan Brinkley's argument that New Deal economic conflicts were ultimately resolved not by intellectual debate but by historical circumstance — suggesting today's abundance-versus-anti-monopoly tensions may similarly require time and external events, not just better conference norms, to resolve.
Episode Transcript
Marshall here. Welcome back to the Realignment. Hey, everyone. This week, the Realignment schedule is a little bit different. I was on the road last week, and then the latest US Iran Israel conflict kicked off. So you should check out yesterday's special episode with former cohost and host of breaking points, Sagar and Jetty, on the conflict itself. Today's and Thursday's episodes are follow ups to my essay, the missing liberal story, that I published in The States Forum Journal last month. I turned the piece into an audio essay and have linked it in the show notes so you can check it out there if you'd like. Today's episode is with Michael Laskaway, the editor in chief of the State Storm Journal. My son was part of a broader second issue of theirs, so we discuss a couple other pieces they published, explain their broader thesis about liberalism needing to shift its attention to the states and their ability to actually address the big problems in all of our lives in the face of Washington dysfunction. We wrap our conversation by discussing the themes of my essay and where they could lead. I said this before, but one of the reasons why I was so excited to publish in the States Forum Journal is they are my favorite post twenty twenty four organization. And I particularly enjoyed my episode with their cofounder, former New York state legislator, Daniel Squadron, where we connected on our shared thesis that the central problem is the lack of a worldview on the center left, which directly led to my essay. Hope you all enjoy the conversation. Michael Olaskaway, welcome to the realignment. Thank you, Marshall. I'm really glad to be here. You are kicking off the first of hopefully many states forum realignment weeks. You're kind of doing, like, a channel takeover if this were a, you know, influencer campaign, though the five zero one c three nonprofit space is not quite as lucrative for either party, but, you know, we'll try to make it work. That is that's awesome. As much of that as you wanna do, we are open for. So folks will probably know about the States Forum as I've been sort of hawking my own things here. Obviously, I published my essay, the missing liberal story in the second edition of the States Forum Journal. And then last summer, Daniel Squadron and I, a former state legislator from New York, who is the cofounder of the States Forum, came on the show to discuss. So if you wanna learn more about the broad picture, listen to that episode. It will be in the show notes. But we're here to talk about the States Forum from your perspective, Michael, where you are the editor in chief. So how about you just introduce from your vantage point? Because so much of the Daniel conversation was based on him being a former state legislator. As an editor in chief, how about …
Get the full transcript (9,997 words) + summary by email — free
One-time email with the complete transcript and AI summary of this episode. No account needed.
One email, no spam. We’ll also show you what SignalCast does.
You just read a 3-minute summary of a 48-minute episode.
Get The Realignment summarized like this every Monday — plus up to 2 more podcasts, free.
Pick Your Podcasts — FreeKeep Reading
More from The Realignment
The Realignment at WelcomeFest 2026 | The Difference Between Good and Bad Moderation with Steve Teles
Jun 3 · 51 min
The Journal
She Swore Off Legacy Media. Now She's Running CBS News.
Oct 8
More from The Realignment
How the U.S. Can Deter China from Invading Taiwan in 2027 with Eyck Freymann
May 28 · 59 min
In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen
Friday Wrap-Up: A Hedge Fund Legend and Reflections on the Global AI Race
Aug 28
Books, tools, and gear mentioned in this episode
SignalCast may earn commission on purchases via these links.
newsletter
“States Forum Journal editor-in-chief Michael Laskaway”
More from The Realignment
We summarize every new episode. Want them in your inbox?
The Realignment at WelcomeFest 2026 | The Difference Between Good and Bad Moderation with Steve Teles
How the U.S. Can Deter China from Invading Taiwan in 2027 with Eyck Freymann
How to Bring Back National Ambition - Inside the Build America Caucus with Rep. Josh Harder
Season Finale | Danielle Lee Tomson: Why the Future is Fusion
601 | Noam Scheiber: How the Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class Could Reshape America
Similar Episodes
Related episodes from other podcasts
The Journal
Oct 8
She Swore Off Legacy Media. Now She's Running CBS News.
In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen
Aug 28
Friday Wrap-Up: A Hedge Fund Legend and Reflections on the Global AI Race
The Daily (NYT)
Jun 7
Scott Pelley on His Firing and the ‘Massacre’ at ’60 Minutes’
10% Happier with Dan Harris
May 25
How to Click With Anyone, Read Every Room, and Stop Absorbing Other People's Stress | Kate Murphy
The Daily (NYT)
May 24
Sites Unseen: What’s Revealed by Traveling With the Blind
Explore Related Topics
This podcast is featured in Best Politics Podcasts (2026) — ranked and reviewed with AI summaries.
Read this week's AI & Machine Learning Podcast Insights — cross-podcast analysis updated weekly.
You're clearly into The Realignment.
Every Monday, we deliver AI summaries of the latest episodes from The Realignment and 192+ other podcasts. Free for one show.
Start My Monday DigestNo credit card · Unsubscribe anytime