The Realignment 572 | Season Premiere: Steve Teles on The Realignment's New Home at Niskanen & Where Abundance Goes Next After Last Week's Conference + A Note on Charlie Kirk
Sep 11, 2025
Steve Teles, a Senior Fellow at Niskanen and a professor at Johns Hopkins, dives into the complex landscape of political discourse following recent events. He discusses the ramifications of Charlie Kirk's assassination and its ties to historical political violence. The conversation highlights tensions within the Abundance project, contrasting 'abundance' interpretations, and the challenges faced by moderates. Teles emphasizes the importance of inclusivity and transparency in political dialogues, especially regarding critical issues like crime and energy policies.
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Ideas Spread Through Local Practice
- Abundance matters because ideas travel when practitioners use them, not just when pundits debate them.
- Local officials adopting abundance concepts validate the movement and enable iterative idea-practice feedback loops.
Supply Framing Appeals To Local Officials
- Abundance resonates with local officials because it offers a straightforward causal story: supply constraints cause many local problems.
- That resonance makes the agenda usable and politically portable outside DC elites.
Expand Your Housing Toolkit
- Use a toolkit approach: combine regulatory, financing, and capacity fixes rather than choosing one silver bullet.
- Empower local governments to act because many abundance levers are within their authority.
