Waleed’s Substack

A personal update.

Transitions.

Jan 26 • Waleed Shahid

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December 2025

How One Primary Gave Democrats Affordability

Zohran Mamdani’s upset win did not change the map, it changed the script that Democrats now run on.

Dec 11, 2025 • Waleed Shahid

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The Henhouse Liberalism Built

A response to Matthew Yglesias. What he calls “postliberalism” is often liberalism’s own elite, anemic offspring.

Dec 4, 2025 • Waleed Shahid

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The 2028 “Ideas Primary” Probably Won’t Be About Ideas

It will be about theories of power...and vibes.

Dec 4, 2025 • Waleed Shahid

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November 2025

You Can Hold Her Now

What happens when our friends meet our baby (and themselves) for the first time.

Nov 25, 2025 • Waleed Shahid

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The Heterodoxy Mirage

A yearning for a bygone era that substitutes nostalgia for power.

Nov 12, 2025 • Waleed Shahid

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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.

Nov 6, 2025 • Waleed Shahid

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Zohran, NYC's Old New Majority, and 2026

Plus four lessons on Democratic populism.

Nov 5, 2025 • Waleed Shahid

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September 2025

Should Democrats Moderate? They Already Do.

Forget the punditry. 2024 Democratic ads tell the real story.

Sep 29, 2025 • Waleed Shahid

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Realignment Isn’t A Playlist

On Searchlight, why Democrats can’t simply curate their way to power and what it takes to forge an era of democratic renewal.

Sep 22, 2025 • Waleed Shahid

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August 2025

What Yglesias Gets Wrong About the 1850s

Republicans forged purpose out of disparate interests and factional conflict.

Aug 26, 2025 • Waleed Shahid

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Inside Uncommitted: The 1-Year Anniversary of a Missed Turn at the DNC

Twelve months on, the cost of ignoring anti-war voters is plain.

Aug 19, 2025 • Waleed Shahid

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