The hottest Partisanship Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top U.S. Politics Topics

Support Your Local Collaborator

Astral Codex Ten • 30421 implied HN points • 18 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. Trusted cross‑ideological collaborators who can credibly influence a hostile government are rare and often the only ones who can stop truly harmful policies, so avoid publicly shaming or driving them away.
  2. Policy writing and advocacy meant to reach officials will sometimes need pragmatic, respectful framing rather than denunciations; demanding public condemnations or purity signals can destroy practical influence.
  3. Keep ideological minorities inside movements instead of purging them, because they provide access and can win real improvements, and respect individuals’ ethical choices to engage rather than socially pressuring them to quit.

It’s the people, stupid

benn.substack • 767 implied HN points • 13 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. People often choose sides for petty, emotional reasons, favoring close games, underdog stories, or avoiding annoying upsets instead of weighing rational stakes. Those rooting decisions prioritize drama and narratives over objective significance.
  2. Partisan identity shapes how people judge the economy, so supporters tend to say the economy is better when their side holds power; poll answers often reflect cheerleading more than real changes in behavior. This means perceptions can be self-reinforcing without matching material outcomes.
  3. Personalities, vibes, and influencer culture now sway big decisions in business, tech, and policy, so personal rivalries and celebrity figures can affect major contracts and public choices. Pettiness can therefore influence serious outcomes, not just entertainment.

Strange Bedfellows

Campaign Trails • 4625 implied HN points • 17 Oct 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. People from different political backgrounds can still agree on important issues, like protecting democracy. It's curious to see alliances form where you least expect them.
  2. Supporting a candidate like Kamala Harris doesn't mean changing beliefs or plans. It's more about attracting voters from all sides for a better chance at winning an election.
  3. Historically, reaching out to people from the opposing party has led to successful campaigns. Winning broad support is key to pushing forward important policies after elections.

Support for Israel in the US Has Collapsed, Radically — and Finally — Opening the Debate

Glenn Greenwald • 3892 implied HN points • 04 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. For decades U.S. politics treated support for Israel as an unbreakable bipartisan consensus, but that consensus has now collapsed.
  2. Public opinion has shifted sharply, with most demographic groups — especially younger Americans — now sympathizing more with Palestinians than Israelis.
  3. U.S. military involvement alongside Israel has escalated into dangerous strikes against Iran and other targets, risking a wider regional war and fueling growing domestic opposition.

Will a Nazi Tattoo Cost Democrats the Senate?

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 556 implied HN points • 16 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. Many Democrats and progressives are backing Graham Platner because they think he can win, even though he has been linked to a Nazi tattoo.
  2. Supporters are downplaying or ignoring his faux working-class background and his brushes with bigots to focus on flipping a Senate seat.
  3. Prioritizing electability over character concerns could hurt Democratic credibility and might backfire politically down the road.
Get a weekly roundup of the best Substack posts, by hacker news affinity:

Want To See What a Blue State Looks Like

Points And Figures • 612 implied HN points • 18 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. Illinois is used as an example of a deeply blue state where Democrats dominate elections, leading to left-leaning officials, higher taxes, and people moving away.
  2. To avoid a similar outcome, Republicans and conservatives are urged to fund and back viable candidates in purple states like Nevada and, above all, turn out to vote.
  3. A candidate stresses decades of financial experience and is seeking donations and national backing to win the Nevada state treasurer race and counter heavy Democratic spending.

Was MAGA ever really "anti-war"?

Michael Tracey • 56 implied HN points • 24 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. People's attitudes toward war mostly track their partisan loyalties rather than a steady anti-war or pro-war philosophy, so support shifts when leaders or party cues change.
  2. Despite anti-war rhetoric, Trump and key MAGA figures pursued aggressive military policies — big budgets, lethal strikes, and expanded deployments — that contradict claims of being "anti-war."
  3. Prominent supposed anti-war allies who joined the movement helped legitimize those contradictions, feeding false promises of ending endless war while normalizing intervention and bypassing public debate.

Newsom Looks Small in the Face of a Big War

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 1706 implied HN points • 05 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. He publicly blamed Israeli strikes for killing children and used that to attack Trump, a stance the writer says reflects rising anti‑Israel or anti‑Jewish sentiment among Democrats.
  2. He offers little criticism of Iran’s rulers, instead directing his harshest words at Israel and Trump.
  3. That blame-focused, tribal rhetoric makes him look small on a major international conflict and raises doubts about his ability to lead beyond his base as a 2028 front‑runner.

The Current Thing

In My Tribe • 668 implied HN points • 02 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. The U.S. decided to fight Iran now to confront a regime that has long attacked America and to prevent further nuclear and missile advances, so the real choice was timing rather than peace versus war.
  2. Iran’s leadership looks unwilling to surrender peacefully, so the approach should be to keep removing regime leaders until they accept terms while sparing the general population from massive suffering.
  3. The war will deepen domestic political splits — with vocal anti-American and pro-Iran voices on the left and blame-shifting on the right — even though most Americans may ultimately support ousting the regime.

Candace Owens, Great American Basket Case

TK News by Matt Taibbi • 9714 implied HN points • 24 Dec 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. She is a forceful pundit who spreads bold, detailed conspiracy theories with strong certainty. Her style lets her shape conversations and influence parts of the Republican Party.
  2. Her stories stitch together many actors and unlikely links, turning wild ideas into persuasive narratives. That approach fills a trust vacuum and attracts people who want something to believe in.
  3. The rise of influencer-driven, high-certainty narratives weakens trust in traditional media and institutions. That makes political debate more volatile and can produce real-world consequences for parties and international affairs.

Can Talarico win in November?

Silver Bulletin • 607 implied HN points • 04 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. James Talarico won the Democratic primary with strong turnout where he needed it, and prediction markets proved quicker and more confident than polls in signaling his edge.
  2. The Republican race moved to a runoff between Cornyn and Paxton after polls overstated Paxton’s advantage, showing prediction markets were overconfident on the GOP side and leaving open questions about Trump’s endorsement.
  3. Crockett was not clearly more liberal than Talarico but ran a hotter, more partisan style, while Talarico’s calmer, more moderate-seeming approach likely improved his electability perception in a red state, though November will still be a tough climb for a Democrat.

Donald Trump’s Feel-Good State of the Union

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 783 implied HN points • 25 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. He used an upbeat "we're winning" message to sell the first year of his second presidency. That tone was meant to distract from slipping approval ratings and weak midterm prospects.
  2. He mixed patriotic pageantry with partisan provocation, spotlighting Olympic athletes and awarding a Medal of Freedom. Those theatrical moments were aimed at energizing supporters and setting a triumphant mood.
  3. The address was designed to reset his presidency and revive a proven campaign formula. It focused on projecting confidence and highlighting achievements to shift the political narrative.

One Man

Steady • 45343 implied HN points • 23 Jan 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. One man has fundamentally changed the political landscape and societal norms.
  2. He has impacted various aspects of life, from personal interactions to policies and climate change efforts.
  3. His influence has provoked divisions and challenges that require collective effort to address.

The White Women as Race Traitor

Richard Hanania's Newsletter • 4047 implied HN points • 18 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. The ICE surge into Minnesota is driven more by tribal anger and symbolic posturing than by rational immigration policy or effectiveness.
  2. Conservative commentators have responded by attacking and psychoanalyzing protesting white women, using sexist labels to dismiss their dissent.
  3. Modern right-wing politics prize loyalty, aggression, and friend-enemy thinking over legal norms and careful policy, which makes the movement unified but also risky and possibly self-destructive if a more competent leader harnesses it.

The Jeffrey Epstein Saga is the Worst-Reported Story of All Time

TK News by Matt Taibbi • 5063 implied HN points • 19 Dec 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. News coverage of the Epstein case is deeply flawed and often prints easily debunked claims. That bad reporting has helped fuel conspiracy theories embraced across the political spectrum.
  2. Reporters frequently leave out inconvenient facts—like questionable witness claims, legal details, and weak evidence—and instead amplify sensational, unproven allegations. This creates a false narrative that overstates connections to famous people and intelligence services.
  3. The release of more documents will trigger fresh media frenzy and political spin, but the records are unlikely to prove the most dramatic conspiracies. Even if evidence is thin, the myth is likely to persist and be remembered as a lasting false legend.

Will the Iran War Turn Trump’s Base Against Him?

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 315 implied HN points • 02 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. The MAGA movement is split between anti-war non‑interventionists and interventionists who are fighting over the GOP’s future.
  2. Many of Trump’s dovish supporters feel torn between their anti‑war principles and loyalty to him, so they often grumble but stick with him after limited or successful strikes.
  3. GOP voters and lawmakers have largely rallied behind Trump while the Iran campaign is going well, even though some in his base see the strikes as a betrayal.

Five Craziest Things About the Epstein Case, Vol. 1

TK News by Matt Taibbi • 4134 implied HN points • 19 Dec 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. The word "pedophile" has been thrown around so freely in coverage of Epstein that it functions like a rhetorical bomb, shutting down careful thinking.
  2. The Epstein story has been weaponized by politicians and media as partisan ammunition, fueling moral panic and reflexive accusations instead of sober inquiry.
  3. The actual legal record is often ignored: Epstein's sole conviction was a 2008 plea to two state charges, yet many people make broad, evidence-free claims without checking the facts.

American Conservatives Are Disgusting Frauds

Caitlin’s Newsletter • 2347 implied HN points • 08 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. Multiple videos show an ICE officer shooting a mother of three in a way that looks clearly unjustified and contradicts claims he was run over.
  2. Many American conservatives defended that killing while also cheering aggressive actions abroad, highlighting a pattern of hypocrisy where they claim to oppose tyranny but support state violence and warmongering.
  3. The argument is that conservatives craft moral narratives about faith, free speech, and the rule of law, yet in practice they prioritize power, militarism, and repression over those professed values.

The Corrupt & Craven Supreme Court Has a Tariff Opinion This AM!

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 369 implied HN points • 20 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. The three dissents mainly defend the idea that it's acceptable when a Republican president takes these powers, showing partisan and authoritarian commitments rather than neutral legal reasoning.
  2. The court's center (Roberts, Barrett, Gorsuch) was corrupt or craven in giving a Republican president a full year to use emergency tariff powers, which let him create facts on the ground and deter businesses from resisting.
  3. Allowing an "emergency" plus "unreviewable" tariff authority is structurally dangerous: it weakens property rights, risks long‑term economic harm, and the opinions signal shifts on the Major Questions Doctrine and on treating foreign trade as a presidential privilege.

The singularity won't be gentle

Silver Bulletin • 800 implied HN points • 11 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. If AI even somewhat transforms work and daily life, it will change politics in deep and unpredictable ways. Expect big disruptions rather than a smooth, gentle transition.
  2. Tech elites are out of touch with the broader public and often misread political dynamics. Their concentration of power and overconfidence could provoke strong backlash.
  3. Creative and knowledge workers who shape public opinion are particularly vulnerable to AI-driven job disruption. If they or their children feel their livelihoods are threatened, that could drive substantial political pushback.

Ideology Isn't About Ideas (2)

Fake Noûs • 631 implied HN points • 07 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. People often adopt ideologies for non-intellectual reasons — to express their personality, belong to a tribe, or feel righteous — rather than to track truth.
  2. Personality and genetics shape political beliefs, so traits like openness or conscientiousness correlate with different ideologies and make certain positions feel natural.
  3. Because ideology is largely tribal and emotional, people are vulnerable to false stories that fit their narrative. So be skeptical, tolerant of others, and avoid letting your tribe's stories make you a sucker.

The State of the Union Is Overstated

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 282 implied HN points • 24 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. State of the Union speeches used to shape history, but today they mostly play out as partisan theater for tribal audiences.
  2. Nothing a president says in the speech is likely to break deep polarization or meaningfully reverse current political headwinds.
  3. Media and public obsession with parsing every line and reaction exaggerates the speech’s real impact compared with steady trends like approval ratings.

The Media Keeps Trying to “Understand” Trump Voters Because They Don’t Want to Accept the Truth About Them

Bulwark+ • 14976 implied HN points • 15 Jan 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. The media attempts to understand Trump voters but may not fully accept the truth about their motivations.
  2. Guardrails in democracy may not be enough to prevent certain actions of those seeking power.
  3. Google search influences web design, impacting user experience and content creation.

Brendan Carr Once Defended Free Speech. Now He Is Trump’s Chief Censor.

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 306 implied HN points • 19 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. Republicans loudly condemned the Biden administration for silencing dissent, but now that they’re in power those First Amendment worries have largely vanished.
  2. Brendan Carr, once a vocal defender of free speech, is now leading efforts to pressure platforms to censor critics under the Trump administration.
  3. During COVID, social platforms suppressed dissenting scientists—blacklisting, banning, and deleting content—which shows how content moderation can stifle alternative viewpoints.

Two Sides of The News

Points And Figures • 1039 implied HN points • 13 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. A grand jury probe of the Fed highlights how polarized the country is—people interpret the same event very differently depending on their biases.
  2. Some view the investigation as sensible oversight to expose waste, fraud, and mission drift at the Fed, citing large staffs, costly projects, and policy shifts into areas like climate and equality.
  3. Others warn such probes could undermine Fed independence and economic stability, while some advocate cutting government waste and moving away from Keynesian policies toward freer-market ideas.

Will We Regret the Release of the Epstein Files?

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 463 implied HN points • 04 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. The Department of Justice released millions of partially redacted Epstein files — emails, photos, and investigative reports — and those materials are already flooding social media.
  2. Nobody knows which details in the files are true, false, or misleading, but people with even slight or tangential connections to Epstein are already being embarrassed, harassed, or smeared.
  3. There was broad bipartisan support to force disclosure, yet critics warned the mass release would reveal and injure innocent witnesses, alibi providers, and family members, and reputations are now being harmed.

What I have Learned (Or At Least I Think So)

Phillips’s Newsletter • 171 implied HN points • 27 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. There really is an establishment or “deep state,” but it operates very differently from the simple, controlling caricature people imagine.
  2. The last few years reveal a bleak picture of institutions and human nature, yet at the same time there are remarkable people of the highest calibre and integrity; the lows are very low but the highs are exceptionally high.
  3. Becoming more visible since 2022 pushed reflection away from tallying correct predictions toward deeper, personal lessons about politics, analysis, and life.

North Carolina Republicans create "secret police force"

Popular Information • 13718 implied HN points • 02 Oct 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. North Carolina Republicans have created a 'secret police force' through a legislative committee with extraordinary investigative powers.
  2. The new rules by North Carolina Republicans could potentially compromise privacy, attorney-client privilege, and accountability.
  3. Changes in public records laws in North Carolina give lawmakers more authority over what documents are considered public, raising concerns about transparency and accountability.

The Authoritarian Playbook: 2025

Bulwark+ • 7488 implied HN points • 19 Jan 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. A report warns of destructive actions an authoritarian president could take in 2025, building on past behaviors.
  2. The report outlines potential actions, such as abusing pardons to incite violence and using federal power for political aims.
  3. The authors stress the importance of not underestimating the potential impact of a second term for Trump and the need for vigilance.

And Now, the Narrative Changes

Bulwark+ • 7075 implied HN points • 24 Jan 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. The Republican Party is facing challenges due to a significant portion of voters who do not align with Trump's base.
  2. There's a shifting focus from primary battles to the upcoming general election, where Trump may struggle with moderates and independents.
  3. Biden's reelection campaign could benefit from improving economic optimism among voters, resembling Obama's successful 2012 campaign.

Biden's media problem

Slow Boring • 7173 implied HN points • 22 Jan 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. The media landscape skews left due to demographics, influencing the coverage of political topics
  2. Media coverage focuses more on student loans than Medicare, impacting public perception of key policies
  3. Left-wing media's emphasis on negativity can hinder positive reporting on successful policies

An Uncomfortable, But Justified, Column About War

QTR’s Fringe Finance • 74 implied HN points • 03 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. Open discourse is essential: pressure-test ideas by listening to opposing views so you don’t get stuck in an echo chamber.
  2. Think independently: say what you really believe instead of tailoring opinions to please others, and focus on a consistent process rather than always siding with one tribe.
  3. Seek counterarguments: actively find the strongest challenges to your views to expose blind spots, reduce risk, and make better decisions in politics, relationships, and investing.

The Trump Derangement Index

In My Tribe • 607 implied HN points • 01 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. Tribalism and affective polarization make people fear and dislike opposing groups, which undermines compromise, trust, and fact-based political debate.
  2. Some progressives reject the idea that polarization is symmetric and instead portray the right as an existential, fascistic threat, while both sides have grown louder and more tribal in their rhetoric.
  3. The Trump Derangement Index is a simple scale that asks who you'd prefer over Trump, showing how people can prefer many non-Trump Republicans yet still favor Trump over most leading Democrats.

how to tell if you are the problem

bad cattitude • 206 implied HN points • 03 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. Ask yourself one simple question: can you remain friends with someone who holds a significant political or social view you disagree with? If the answer is no, that’s a warning that your beliefs may have hardened into dogma that damages relationships and social cohesion.
  2. When a political faction gains unchecked power it often radicalizes and pushes ideology into institutions like schools, provoking backlash and deeper polarization; both left and right can do this and ideology-as-identity fuels censorship, purity tests, and broken ties.
  3. The cure is humility, honest questioning, and practical problem‑solving while preserving relationships across disagreement, but there are moral boundaries—people who advocate or seek to impose extreme harms (e.g., child slavery or forced child marriage) are rightly excluded and resisted.

Trump’s Voters Will Back an Iran Strike

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 241 implied HN points • 05 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. MAGA leaders push a noninterventionist line, but many of their voters don't actually share that view.
  2. Recent polls show large support among Trump voters for military action: about half would back action in Iran, 61% of 'MAGA Republicans' favored intervention there, and 65% supported military action in at least one country.
  3. American attitudes toward foreign intervention shift with events, so the political right can be isolationist at times and interventionist at others, surprising its ideologues.

Recency Bias

Points And Figures • 799 implied HN points • 16 Dec 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Partisanship
  1. People overweight recent events and flip opinions quickly, which leads to hot takes and 180-degree swings in judgment.
  2. Media often amplifies mistakes and negative news more than successes, which distorts how well things are actually going.
  3. Upcoming policy changes and investments can change the economic and political picture by election time, so early predictions may be premature.