Author of Fear; The Reactionary Mind; and The Enigma of Clarence Thomas. At work on King Capital. Blog at coreyrobin.com.
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Articles by Corey Robin
Whatever Centrists Say, the Left Won Big in the Midterms Original
As recently as five years ago, the argument against the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the Left from centrists and libs in the Democratic Party was this: Run left or socialist or progressive candidates, and you’ll lose; because the Trumpists are so terrible, you can’t afford to run that risk; give up your utopian plans and settle for reality. Now the midterms happen, and many DSA and progressive candidates win, in both high-profile and low-profile races.
Last Night’s Victories Were Made Possible by Zohran Mamdani
Last Night’s Victories Were Made Possible by Zohran Mamdani Published November 4, 2026 If there’s one person who saw yesterday’s repudiation of the right coming long before everyone else did, it’s Zohran Mamdani. In one way or another, he and the movement that created him are the architects of the Democrats’ victory. Two years ago, the day after the 2024 election, the mood was grim; the future was bleak. Nobody saw the possibility for regrouping. What did Mamdani do?
Last Night’s Victories Were Made Possible by Zohran Mamdani Original
If there’s one person who saw yesterday’s repudiation of the right coming, long before everyone else did, it’s Zohran Mamdani. In one way or another, he and the movement that created him are the architects of the Democrats’ victory. Two years ago, the day after after the 2024 election, the mood was grim; the future was bleak. Nobody saw the possibility for regrouping. What did Mamdani do? Just one week after Donald Trump’s victory, he went out and interviewed Trump voters all across the city.
The US Electorate Is Permanently Mobilized and Unable to Move
Six theses on the midterm elections: Early voting tallies are through the roof. If the patterns continue, turnout is expected to match that of the midterm elections in 2018, which saw the highest turnout rate in a midterm election since 1914. This comes in the wake of turnout for the 2020 election, which was the highest since 1900. Turnout in the 2026 midterm election is supposed to be especially high among black, Latino, and independent voters.
The US Electorate Is Permanently Mobilized and Unable to Move
Follow The US Electorate Is Permanently Mobilized and Unable to Move Mon, November 2, 2026 at 12:33 PM EST On the one hand, US voters are more incensed about the dysfunction of American politics and society than they have been in a century. On the other, nothing is changing in American life. (Ricky Carioti - Pool / Getty Images) Six theses on the midterm elections: Early voting tallies are through the roof.
Fatherland Feels Both Ancient and Tragically Contemporary
Fatherland, the new Paweł Pawlikowski film about Thomas Mann’s 1949 trip to Germany, may be the most powerful film about the current moment — really, the last ten years — that I’ve seen. It’s not about the current moment at all, in fact. It’s about Mann’s olympian, and doomed, effort to remain a man of culture, a voice of liberal civilization in the face of that civilization’s total collapse. In other words, it’s about the current moment.
The Private Life of Power
I met Karan Mahajan, the Indian-American novelist and essayist, in 2018, when we were both fellows at the Cullman Center of the New York Public Library. Karan was beginning to write The Complex, his novel that has just been released; I was finishing The Enigma of Clarence Thomas. I was drawn to Karan right away. Not only is he one of the best talkers in the world, ready to go anywhere in a conversation, but he’s also genuinely interested in right-wing politics.
The Private Life of Power
3 hours ago Flydubai pilot reveals desperate attempts to unlock cockpit door to passengers while being attacked The Independent - Holly Patrick • 3h The Indian airline captain who was stabbed while foiling an alleged attempt by his co-pilot to crash a Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv has recalled the moment he managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers to enter and restrain the attacker. In a video call to the Indian prime minister while recovering in an Abu Dhabi hospital, Capt.
What Clarence Thomas and the State of Israel Have in Common
As everyone in the country who’s not a fanatical Trumpist breaths a sigh of relief over yesterday’s Supreme Court affirmation of birthright citizenship, it seems like a useful moment to reflect on Israel. The principle of birthright citizenship states that it matters not a whit who your parents are or where they’re from; you are a citizen of the United States merely by the fact that you were born on its soil. That’s it.
What If Socialism Takes Over the Democratic Party?
In a probing Substack, John Judis writes, “In ten or fifteen years, it is very possible that the Democratic Party will be known as ‘democratic socialist’ in the same way it is now known widely as ‘liberal.’” Before you dismiss this as ideological patter from a political adventurer, you should know that Judis is a relentlessly unenthusiastic realist, who’s been watching and commenting on the American political scene longer than I’ve been alive. I’d like to take up his thought, with two tweaks.
Capitalism’s Long Revolution
The Long Revolution Will capitalism last forever? Capitalism’s Long Revolution What happens to our understanding of capitalism when we assume that it might not come to an end? Ad Policy Illustration by Lily Qian. This article appears in the June 2026 issue. No one agrees on when, where, or how capitalism began, or whether it had a beginning at all, but everyone agrees that capitalism, the word, first appeared in the 19th century.
The Iraq War Presaged Donald Trump’s War on Iran
The New York Times had a decent-enough report yesterday on how the United States made its decision to go war with Iran. Though it’s filled with sharp reporting and detailed accounting, it fails to identify the big forest amid the trees. That’s this: despite the differences in personnel between the Bush and the Trump administrations, the parallels between the war in Iraq and the war in Iran are pretty straightforward.
Study How Zohran Mamdani Handles This Heckler
If you watch this short clip of Zohran Mamdani getting heckled, you’ll see why he’s the greatest living politician in the United States today. Without batting an eye, Mamdani says, in response to the heckler: I want that man to be able to afford to keep living in New York City. Because the day that I don’t hear him yelling at me, it means he got priced out of this place. And I don’t want that. I don’t want that for him. I don’t want that for anybody in this city.
A Simple Demand: No Aid to Israel
According to this latest NBC News poll, 67 percent of Democrats say that their sympathies lie with Palestinians over Israelis. This is an astonishing sea change in the opinion of a major part of the electorate. Just thirteen years ago, in 2013, only 18 percent of Democrats said that their sympathies lay with the Palestinians. This shift, moreover, is not confined to Democrats.
Average People Won Universal Childcare for New York
🚨 Big news for the littlest New Yorkers: 2-K is coming. Starting this year, we’re delivering 2,000 FREE child care seats for 2-year-olds across our city. By Fall 2027, we'll be ready to serve 12,000 kids.
The General Split Within Jewish Voters on Zohran Mamdani
The opposition of Jewish voters to Zohran Mamdani has been, and will continue to be, a flash point of commentary and conflict over the mayor. It reminds me a bit of how black voters were often the flash point of commentary and conflict over Bernie Sanders in 2016. In the last year, Michael Lange has emerged as the sharpest analyst of New York City electoral politics. When it comes to the unlikely campaign and career of Mamdani, hardly anyone has equaled Lange’s record of analysis and prediction.
Democratic Excellence
Democratic Excellence Published January 3, 2026 Zohran Mamdani has introduced several changes to American politics—joining ideological maximalism to policy minimalism, crafting a winning political identity as a Muslim socialist, taking a stand on Palestine, listening to voters.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani Will Usher in a New Era of Excellence
Speaking at Zohran Mamdani’s inauguration as mayor today, Imam Khalid Latif invoked the phrase “moral imagination.” Those of you historically inclined and theoretically attuned will instantly recognize the term. It was coined by Edmund Burke in the eighteenth century and beloved by mid-century writers like Lionel Trilling and Gertrude Himmelfarb.
Democratic Excellence | Corey Robin
Illustration by Stuart Davis Zohran Mamdani has introduced several changes to American politics—joining ideological maximalism to policy minimalism, crafting a winning political identity as a Muslim socialist, taking a stand on Palestine, listening to voters.
Capitalism and the Commodification of Nature
Last Friday, I spoke on a panel at NYU on political theorist Alyssa Battistoni’s new book Free Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature. The room was packed, somewhat unusual for an academic book of political theory. But if you’ve read Battistoni’s book or know of her work, you’ll understand why.
Norman Podhoretz Always Stood Out
A personal word about Norman Podhoretz, the neoconservative longtime editor of Commentary, who died two days ago. As some of you many know, back in 2000 or so, I interviewed a bunch of conservatives for a magazine piece I was doing. Amazingly, I got an interview with Bill Buckley, an interview with Irving Kristol, and an interview with Norman Podhoretz. I spoke with Buckley in his Upper East Side town house on Park Avenue, surrounded by portraits of his wife and little dishes of cigarettes.
Democrats Caved In the Shutdown Because of the Filibuster
Democrats Caved In the Shutdown Because of the Filibuster Published November 13, 2025 Why did the Democrats cave in on the shut down? It seems clear that the main issue was not electoral backlash, since most of the senators who caved are not up for reelection, and the politics were trending in the Democrats’ favor, or at least not against them. The main issue was the filibuster.
Democrats Caved in the Shutdown Because of the Filibuster
Why did the Democrats cave in on the shut down? It seems clear that the main issue was not electoral backlash, since most of the senators who caved are not up for reelection, and the politics were trending in the Democrats’ favor, or at least not against them. The main issue was the filibuster. There was growing pressure from Donald Trump on the Republicans to get rid of it, and the Democratic leadership had every reason to fear its elimination. Why?
Zohran Mamdani Is Bringing Bernie’s “Nevada Moment” Home
Two quick points about Zohran Mamdani that we need to remember. First, it’s easy to see Mamdani’s victory as one data point, lost amid a sea of other data points. But Mamdani’s victory is a continuation of what I called the “Nevada Moment,” back in February 2020.
Liberal Capitalism’s Long Authoritarian Streak
We’re coming up, in two years, on the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Albert Hirschman’s The Passions and the Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism before Its Triumph. Some of you may know of Hirschman as one of the main characters in that not-so-good, pulpy Netflix series Transatlantic, which depicts the efforts of Hirschman and others to rescue European Jewish intellectuals from the Nazis in France.
W. E. B. Du Bois on Blowing Up the White House’s East Wing
W. E. B. Du Bois on Blowing Up the White House’s East Wing Published October 28, 2025 One of the elements of W. E. B. Du Bois’s argument in Black Reconstruction in America that surprised me most the last time that I taught it (or maybe the time before that), was just how much attention he pays to the Radical Republican vision of congressional power and congressional government over and against a Constitution based on presidential power and presidential government.
W. E. B. Du Bois on Blowing Up the White House’s East Wing
One of the elements of W. E. B. Du Bois’s argument in Black Reconstruction in America that surprised me most the last time that I taught it (or maybe the time before that), was just how much attention he pays to the Radical Republican vision of congressional power and congressional government over and against a Constitution based on presidential power and presidential government.
A New Democratic Party, From the Gasping of the Old
I finally had a chance to read that long Astead Herndon profile of Zohran Kwame Mamdani in the New York Times, which I recommend. I was especially struck by this passage. Gaspard first met Mamdani in South Africa in 2016, at the premiere for “Queen of Katwe,” a Disney movie set in Uganda and directed by Mamdani’s mother, Mira Nair. Gaspard said the young man, just 24 at the time, showed flashes of the charisma that would later serve his entrance into politics.
Zohran Mamdani’s Golden Opportunity
Reading this New York Times report on Eric Adams’s dropping out of the race — where Adams is described, with no sense of irony, as “politically moderate” and is quoted as warning against Zohran Mamdani’s desire to “destroy the very system we built together over generations” while Andrew Cuomo is quoted as saying, “We are facing an existential threat in an extreme radicalism that threatens the existence of this city as we know it” — it dawns on me that the Left is being presented with a golden...
Zohran Mamdani’s Golden Opportunity
With Eric Adams out of the New York mayoral race and the corrupt Andrew Cuomo his main opponent, Zohran Mamdani has a chance to cast his democratic socialism, his alleged “extremism,” as tied to the creation of a lawful society.
Yes, Private Employers Can Violate Your Free Speech Rights
I hate to be that guy on the Left, but I’m going to be that guy on the Left. One of the arguments Republicans are making tonight about the firing of Jimmy Kimmel is that while they’re unhappy and uncomfortable with the head of the FCC’s threatening to pull ABC’s license, they’d be absolutely fine if the network simply made its own decision, sans government pressure, to fire Kimmel.
Abraham Lincoln Knew Violence Must Be Addressed at the Root
I understand the impulse, at moments like these, for politicians and public spokespersons to say that we need to talk across the divide, to acknowledge our similarities amid our differences, that we need leaders who understand there is no red America, no blue America, just America. It’s not my way of writing or speaking, but it runs deep in our political tradition. So it’s not surprising that people would turn to it.
McCarthyism on the Campuses
McCarthyism on the Campuses Published September 18, 2025 Judith Butler is one of 160 faculty, students, and staff members at UC Berkeley whose name the University of California has to the Trump administration to help with the federal government’s investigation into alleged antisemitism on the Berkeley campus. Let’s slow that statement down so we can understand its components more clearly.
Should We Invade Israel?
When I was in graduate school in the 1990s, the dominant idea in liberal foreign policy circles was that of humanitarian intervention, or the Responsibility to Protect principle. The claim was that, though states should ordinarily respect the sovereignty of other states, under extreme circumstances, say of genocide or ethnic cleansing, it was not just […] Sorry, but this article is available to subscribers only. Please log in or become a subscriber.
All of This Because of Political Speech
Judith Butler is one of 160 faculty, students, and staff members at UC Berkeley whose name the University of California has turned over to the Trump administration to help with the federal government’s investigation into alleged antisemitism on the Berkeley campus. Let’s slow that statement down so we can understand its components more clearly.
New Yorkers Support Zohran Mamdani - and Palestine
Here are some findings from the last two days of the New York Times: “Zohran Mamdani has opened a commanding lead in the race for mayor of New York City, buoyed by support for his affordability platform.” Mamdani leads among black voters, Latino voters, Asian voters, and white voters. Of all the candidates in the race, Mamdani also has the highest percentage of support among Jewish voters. His support among younger and educated voters is off the charts.
Who Gets a “Right of Return”?
The Forward has been running a series of articles about a group in northern Arkansas that owns adjacent tracts of land that Jews and non-whites are forbidden to purchase or live on. On Thursday, the attorney general of Arkansas said this was legal. The details are complicated — mostly focused on the fact that there’s been no purchase or sale or business transaction yet, so nothing formally violating the law — but the significance of this story for thinking about Israel and Zionism is not.
Should We Invade Israel in the Name of Humanitarianism?
When I was in graduate school in the 1990s — and this continued into the aughts and 2010s — the dominant idea in liberal foreign policy circles was that of humanitarian intervention or Responsibility to Protect.
Billionaire Bill Ackman Has the Best Arrogance Money Can Buy
I’m not a fan of Billy Ackman for several reasons, but nothing has roused my ire more than than this: because of Ackman, I now have to write about sports, which is something I never talk about unless it’s to make fun of it. For those of you who don’t follow such things, Ackman bought his way into some sort of big tennis match with a lot of big tennis pros. He sucked and lost, prompting Martina Navratilova to mockingly tweet of him, “Oh to have the confidence . . .” She might have added: “. . .
Zohran Mamdani Is Getting Us Unstuck
Two weeks ago, the New York Times ginned up a controversy over Zohran Mamdani’s college application. In his senior year of high school, Mamdani applied to Columbia University. Asked to identify his race, he checked off the boxes for Asian American and African American. He made a point of specifying that by African American he meant that he was from Uganda.
Zohran Mamdani Is Getting Us Unstuck
Two weeks ago, the New York Times ginned up a controversy over Zohran Mamdani’s college application. In his senior year of high school, Mamdani applied to Columbia University. Asked to identify his race, he checked off the boxes for Asian American and African American. He made a point of specifying that by African American he meant that he was from Uganda.
The Socialist Movement Led Zohran Mamdani to Victory
The two best analyses of Zohran Mamdani’s recent victory are this one, by Michael Thomas Carter, and this conversation that Daniel Denvir, the Terry Gross of the Left, hosted with two organizers in New York City. Both analyses focus on the elephant in the room. Virtually all of the commentariat have emphasized Mamdani’s videos, his undeniable charisma and political fluency, and Andrew Cuomo’s weaknesses.
A Billionaire Trump Backer Is Desperate to Stop Zohran Mamdani
Gazillionaire Bill Ackman says that he is “gravely concerned” by the possibility of Zohran Mamdani getting elected mayor because rich people are going to flee New York and the city will become “economically unviable.” Paul Krugman says this kind of talk is nothing more than “hysteria” from “the moguls of madness.” I know Krugman only won the Nobel Prize in Economics while Ackman is a rich Trump supporter whose major achievement is getting the first black woman president of Harvard fired, but...
Corey Robin, Waiting Game — Sidecar
Late capitalism is an ambiguous term. Lateness may imply death or an ending, as when we speak of my late grandfather or the late afternoon. When the German social theorist Werner Sombart first used the term in the early twentieth century, late capitalism did mean the end of capitalism. Yet ‘late’ in the superlative also suggests up-to-date or state-of-the-art, pointing not to the demise of something but to its refinement and advance.
But for the Grace of Wall Street Go I
Where would we be without the market? The stock market, the bond market, the financial markets in general—all of these institutions, journalists tell us, are the ultimate, perhaps only, check on President Trump’s power. Esteemed scholars reassure us of the same—that the world’s oldest constitution is backstopped by Wall Street and the dollar. Investors, the argument goes, need their investments protected. The courts, independent and powerful, can provide that protection.
Graduation is a beast of two burdens. It’s a celebration of students who’ve done the work and parents who’ve paid the bills. But it’s also supposed to float above the fray where the younger generation earns grades and the older one writes checks. Enter the graduation speaker, whose job it is to reconcile those two spheres, the lower and the higher. Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.
Who Is Most Scared on Harvard’s Campus? Don’t Ask the New York Times.
When it comes to how it treats different groups on campus, Harvard wants the world to know that it is balanced. It cares about all groups equally. So naturally, on Tuesday, when it issued a lengthy report about antisemitism at Harvard, the university also issued a lengthy report on Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias at Harvard. The reports reveal a profound imbalance at Harvard. One group, overwhelmingly, feels unwelcome and unsafe.
How the Constitution’s Framers Got It Wrong
One of the continuing puzzles I come back to is the separation of powers: Where did the framers go wrong? Political scientists often claim that it is norms that undergird the US Constitution, but this is not at all the view of the framers. If anything, the idea that norms underpin the Constitution, maintaining its delicate balance of separated and limited powers, is an almost pre-founders, naive view of things.
Recovering Our Power
There’s a moment in chapter 12 of Capital where Karl Marx describes a critical phase of glassmaking in a manufacturing workshop. Five workers gather at “the hole” of the furnace, each focused on an individual task that, taken together, will produce a bottle.
Recovering Our Power
There’s a moment in chapter 12 of Capital where Karl Marx describes a critical phase of glassmaking in a manufacturing workshop. Five workers gather at “the hole” of the furnace, each focused on an individual task that, taken together, will produce a bottle.
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