Waleed Shahid
@waleedshahid.bsky.social
Currently @mayor.nyc.gov. Very Senior Democratic Strategist. Former Spokesperson, Justice Democrats. Formerly @ Bernie Sanders, AOC, Jamaal Bowman, Summer Lee, YNWA.
Reposted by Waleed Shahid
So what this describes is ethnic cleansing www.nytimes.com/2026/04/01/w...
April 1, 2026 at 12:24 PM
So what this describes is ethnic cleansing www.nytimes.com/2026/04/01/w...
I wanted to share an update with you all. I’ve decided to take on an important role in the new @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social administration as Deputy Communications Director of Economic Justice.
January 26, 2026 at 7:08 PM
I wanted to share an update with you all. I’ve decided to take on an important role in the new @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social administration as Deputy Communications Director of Economic Justice.
Reposted by Waleed Shahid
It’s -9 degrees. Downtown Minneapolis is packed for the anti-ICE rally and the crowd keeps growing
January 23, 2026 at 8:16 PM
It’s -9 degrees. Downtown Minneapolis is packed for the anti-ICE rally and the crowd keeps growing
Reposted by Waleed Shahid
NEWS: The Social Security Administration has referred two DOGE employees for Hatch Act violations after discovering contacts with a political group seeking SSA data to overturn election results. www.politico.com/news/2026/01...
January 20, 2026 at 6:53 PM
NEWS: The Social Security Administration has referred two DOGE employees for Hatch Act violations after discovering contacts with a political group seeking SSA data to overturn election results. www.politico.com/news/2026/01...
Reposted by Waleed Shahid
fantastic piece. chilling.
What if the apocalypse didn’t hate us? What if it just wanted to help? Pluribus ends with a village deemed obsolete and an atom bomb delivered on request. Gilligan’s calmest horror about uniformity and AI.
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/pluribus-f...
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/pluribus-f...
Pluribus Finale, or The World’s Most Helpful Apocalypse
Gilligan's hive mind doesn’t conquer you. It politely completes your onboarding.
www.waleed-shahid.com
January 2, 2026 at 6:58 PM
fantastic piece. chilling.
What if the apocalypse didn’t hate us? What if it just wanted to help? Pluribus ends with a village deemed obsolete and an atom bomb delivered on request. Gilligan’s calmest horror about uniformity and AI.
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/pluribus-f...
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/pluribus-f...
Pluribus Finale, or The World’s Most Helpful Apocalypse
Gilligan's hive mind doesn’t conquer you. It politely completes your onboarding.
www.waleed-shahid.com
January 2, 2026 at 6:16 PM
What if the apocalypse didn’t hate us? What if it just wanted to help? Pluribus ends with a village deemed obsolete and an atom bomb delivered on request. Gilligan’s calmest horror about uniformity and AI.
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/pluribus-f...
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/pluribus-f...
Reposted by Waleed Shahid
This was excellent. Lots of insights from political science, political theory, and history. And incorporates events at home and abroad.
Why does liberalism feel stuck managing decline instead of building a future?
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/why-is-lib...
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/why-is-lib...
Why Is Liberalism Adrift?
From social democracy to the Democratic Party liberalism: how parties learn to speak the language of constraint -- and what it costs them.
www.waleed-shahid.com
December 23, 2025 at 9:48 PM
This was excellent. Lots of insights from political science, political theory, and history. And incorporates events at home and abroad.
Why does liberalism feel stuck managing decline instead of building a future?
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/why-is-lib...
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/why-is-lib...
Why Is Liberalism Adrift?
From social democracy to the Democratic Party liberalism: how parties learn to speak the language of constraint -- and what it costs them.
www.waleed-shahid.com
December 23, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Why does liberalism feel stuck managing decline instead of building a future?
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/why-is-lib...
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/why-is-lib...
Reposted by Waleed Shahid
New Dig ep and we are libbing out hard with @ericblanc.bsky.social, @leahgreenberg.bsky.social, and @waleedshahid.bsky.social. The lib resistance made a sharp left turn since Trump returned: voting Zohran, fighting ICE, and looking favorably upon socialism. www.thedigradio.com/podcast/welc...
Welcome to the Resistance w/ Eric Blanc, Leah Greenberg, Waleed Shahid
Featuring Eric Blanc, Leah Greenberg, and Waleed Shahid on the liberal resistance’s sharp left turn since Trump returned to the White House. Libs are voting Zohran at the ballot box, fighting ICE in t...
www.thedigradio.com
December 12, 2025 at 8:45 PM
New Dig ep and we are libbing out hard with @ericblanc.bsky.social, @leahgreenberg.bsky.social, and @waleedshahid.bsky.social. The lib resistance made a sharp left turn since Trump returned: voting Zohran, fighting ICE, and looking favorably upon socialism. www.thedigradio.com/podcast/welc...
New: We should treat civil rights leaders as the Founding Fathers and Mothers of a new republic. Today’s liberalism debates (over identity, the state, and capitalism) are their unfinished quarrels.
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/snccs-ghos...
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/snccs-ghos...
SNCC’s Ghosts, the Fourth Republic, and the Crisis of Liberalism
Liberalism versus nationalism, social democracy versus identity politics: the Fourth Republic’s buried quarrels and the search for a new American order.
www.waleed-shahid.com
December 12, 2025 at 3:18 PM
New: We should treat civil rights leaders as the Founding Fathers and Mothers of a new republic. Today’s liberalism debates (over identity, the state, and capitalism) are their unfinished quarrels.
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/snccs-ghos...
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/snccs-ghos...
Fascinating chart from @gelliottmorris.com: the pivot to “affordability” in Democratic messaging follows Zohran Mamdani’s NYC primary victory in June. I dig into what that means for party realignment here.
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/how-one-pr...
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/how-one-pr...
December 11, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Fascinating chart from @gelliottmorris.com: the pivot to “affordability” in Democratic messaging follows Zohran Mamdani’s NYC primary victory in June. I dig into what that means for party realignment here.
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/how-one-pr...
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/how-one-pr...
Fascinating chart from @gelliottmorris: the pivot to “affordability” in Democratic messaging follows Zohran Mamdani’s NYC primary victory in June. I dig into what that means for party realignment here.
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/how-one-pr...
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/how-one-pr...
December 11, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Fascinating chart from @gelliottmorris: the pivot to “affordability” in Democratic messaging follows Zohran Mamdani’s NYC primary victory in June. I dig into what that means for party realignment here.
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/how-one-pr...
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/how-one-pr...
Reposted by Waleed Shahid
This is a really excellent explanation of liberalism’s shortcomings, why it also remains essential, how the quest for justice lost its way, and how we can get back to a synthesis of justice and liberalism, from @waleedshahid.bsky.social www.waleed-shahid.com/p/the-henhou...
The Henhouse Liberalism Built
A response to Matthew Yglesias. What he calls “postliberalism” is often liberalism’s own elite, anemic offspring.
www.waleed-shahid.com
December 7, 2025 at 5:46 PM
This is a really excellent explanation of liberalism’s shortcomings, why it also remains essential, how the quest for justice lost its way, and how we can get back to a synthesis of justice and liberalism, from @waleedshahid.bsky.social www.waleed-shahid.com/p/the-henhou...
In response to Matt Yglesias piece: If you zoom out, today’s so-called “postliberal” politics looks less like a break with liberalism than the predictable product of it.
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/the-henhou...
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/the-henhou...
The Henhouse Liberalism Built
A response to Matthew Yglesias. What he calls “postliberalism” is often liberalism’s own elite, anemic offspring.
www.waleed-shahid.com
December 5, 2025 at 5:51 PM
In response to Matt Yglesias piece: If you zoom out, today’s so-called “postliberal” politics looks less like a break with liberalism than the predictable product of it.
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/the-henhou...
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/the-henhou...
Most Americans think the system is broken and that Democrats overpromise and underdeliver. So 2028 won’t be a rerun of the 2020 ideas primary. It’ll be about your theory of power: the Senate, gerrymandering, and the media ecosystem we have to govern in.
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/the-2028-i...
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/the-2028-i...
The 2028 “Ideas Primary” Probably Won’t Be About Ideas
It will be about theories of power...and vibes.
www.waleed-shahid.com
December 4, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Most Americans think the system is broken and that Democrats overpromise and underdeliver. So 2028 won’t be a rerun of the 2020 ideas primary. It’ll be about your theory of power: the Senate, gerrymandering, and the media ecosystem we have to govern in.
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/the-2028-i...
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/the-2028-i...
Wrote about Pluribus, Vince Gilligan’s new series, and why its alien hive mind feels disturbingly close to our AI yes-bots: always affirming, incapable of refusal, drowning us in “help.”
waleedshahid.substack.com/p/pluribus-a...
waleedshahid.substack.com/p/pluribus-a...
Pluribus and the Sycophantic AI Hive
Vince Gilligan's show turns an alien hive mind into the ultimate yes-bot: endlessly supportive, catastrophically accommodating.
waleedshahid.substack.com
December 3, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Wrote about Pluribus, Vince Gilligan’s new series, and why its alien hive mind feels disturbingly close to our AI yes-bots: always affirming, incapable of refusal, drowning us in “help.”
waleedshahid.substack.com/p/pluribus-a...
waleedshahid.substack.com/p/pluribus-a...
Wrote a little essay about the strange, tender moment when friends visit your newborn and someone asks, “Do you want to hold her?” It turns out that question is a bit of a Rorschach test in coupledom.
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/you-can-ho...
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/you-can-ho...
You Can Hold Her Now
What happens when our friends meet our baby (and themselves) for the first time.
www.waleed-shahid.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Wrote a little essay about the strange, tender moment when friends visit your newborn and someone asks, “Do you want to hold her?” It turns out that question is a bit of a Rorschach test in coupledom.
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/you-can-ho...
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/you-can-ho...
The Heterodoxy Mirage
A yearning for a bygone era that substitutes nostalgia for power.
open.substack.com
November 12, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Reposted by Waleed Shahid
The Senate exists for the same reason that the ACA doesn't have a public option: it was negotiated to placate the necessary votes. Slave states were nervous about being beholden to public will so we massively over-elevated state representation. www.law.cornell.edu/constitution...
The Great Compromise of the Constitutional Convention
www.law.cornell.edu
November 9, 2025 at 10:00 PM
The Senate exists for the same reason that the ACA doesn't have a public option: it was negotiated to placate the necessary votes. Slave states were nervous about being beholden to public will so we massively over-elevated state representation. www.law.cornell.edu/constitution...
Reposted by Waleed Shahid
I don't know what the Senate is going to do. But if they do in fact fold in exchange for nothing, they will be living up to past performance. To expect the Senate to carry out the will of the American people is to misunderstand why it was created in the first place.
November 9, 2025 at 9:55 PM
I don't know what the Senate is going to do. But if they do in fact fold in exchange for nothing, they will be living up to past performance. To expect the Senate to carry out the will of the American people is to misunderstand why it was created in the first place.
On MSNBC talking about what Tuesday’s election results reveal about Trump, the Democratic Party, and Zohran Mamdani’s coalition.
November 6, 2025 at 4:23 PM
On MSNBC talking about what Tuesday’s election results reveal about Trump, the Democratic Party, and Zohran Mamdani’s coalition.
Every generation of New York politics has had its immigrant realignment. The Irish built Tammany, Jewish socialists built labor, Italians powered La Guardia--and now Mamdani is building something new out of bodegas, cabstands, and delivery apps.
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/the-long-a...
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/the-long-a...
The Long Arc of Immigrant Power in New York
What Zohran Mamdani’s victory speech shares with the Irish ward bosses and Jewish socialists who built the city’s first immigrant-powered coalitions.
www.waleed-shahid.com
November 6, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Every generation of New York politics has had its immigrant realignment. The Irish built Tammany, Jewish socialists built labor, Italians powered La Guardia--and now Mamdani is building something new out of bodegas, cabstands, and delivery apps.
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/the-long-a...
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/the-long-a...
A century ago, Fiorello La Guardia built a new majority from immigrants and renters. Today, Zohran Mamdani is trying to do the same in a city where Gaza and groceries belong to the same story.
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/zohran-nyc...
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/zohran-nyc...
Zohran, NYC's Old New Majority, and 2026
Plus four lessons on Democratic populism.
www.waleed-shahid.com
November 5, 2025 at 8:05 PM
A century ago, Fiorello La Guardia built a new majority from immigrants and renters. Today, Zohran Mamdani is trying to do the same in a city where Gaza and groceries belong to the same story.
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/zohran-nyc...
www.waleed-shahid.com/p/zohran-nyc...