The man who powered the presses, how fascists actually rise, building a media adequate to the moment, and a Taylor Swift poem -- Weekend reads for April 13

Some things worth your attention this weekend

Happy weekend!

This week, the shape of the 2024 election became clearer than ever. With Arizona reverting to an 1864 near-total abortion ban, the Republican Party seemed to amend its pitch. No longer content to return America to the 1950s, it is proposing a restoration of the nineteenth century. This is what the “again” in MAGA portends.

These developments highlight the importance of what Anat Shenker-Osorio showed us not long ago: how to “de-silo” the abortion fight by linking it to other liberties.

ON MESSAGE: How to "de-silo" the abortion fight

And when you step back, as we like to do here, what you realize is that these moves by the extreme right are actually signs of a bigger turning: after decades of claiming to own the concept of “freedom,” the right is losing interest in the idea. And that’s actually an opportunity, as is argued here:

FREE FOR ALL: Joe Biden's reconquest of "freedom"

Meanwhile, we have for you our usual weekend compilation of links. We think you’ll enjoy the chance to chew on the below readings — which take you from the inside of The New York Times’s printing operations to the lessons of mid-twentieth-century European history, from a vision for a new, social-media-age political “war room” to a poem inspired by Taylor Swift. These posts are a perk for our wonderful subscribers.

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“If something went wrong with one of the huge machines that printed the newspaper, Mr. Dimmock and his team of electricians had to fix it, and fast. The work spanned day and night, weeks and weekends. Mailroom stackers, strapping machines, metal plate stamps, flickering bulbs — if it was plugged in, it required his attention.” [The New York Times]