That Patchwork (formerly Statehood) is an original blog about democracy, economics and culture from a decentralist angle. That Patchwork challenges the most entrenched axiom in American politics: that what we call democracy and what we seek in a “more perfect union” should be sought through a national narrative or the federal government. That entrenched premise has led to toxic nationalization, a totalizing preoccupation with national conformity where the absence of consensus is mistaken for existential dysfunction rather than the nature of federated and pluralist democracy.
The term “patchwork” referring to various designs stitched together to form a whole. But the term has also been applied to lament America’s diverse and decentralized political system, usually by journalists and political figures with an interest in advancing national narratives. Today, the reigning presumption regardless of political party, ideology or status is that observations, ideas and solutions are best made with a national interest. That Patchwork rejects this premise.
That Patchwork is premised on the idea that dispersed power is vital to democracy and individual rights. Consolidated systems — whether they are autocratic or the technocratic and socialized systems in the West — exact long-term costs and greater risks that weaken democracy and individual rights. Since it’s founding, the United States has stood as a refuge for its political, economic and cultural decentralist features: federalism, economic liberty and multiculturalism. This trifecta is always under threat, to varying degrees, by the seen and unseen forces that have long pushed power upwards, from extremism to pragmatism to brute self-interest at the federal level.
The aim of That Patchwork will be to underscore the excesses of central power. Importantly, it will question the epistemic approaches in popular analysis that reflexively frame local and opaque trends as those of dire national import, and by doing so, embolden central power.
Why subscribe? That Patchwork is a first-of-its-kind blog with a shockingly neglected angle. The media ecosystem we have now observes the risks of consolidation but does not question it. The conversation happening now is which side’s version of power consolidation is better or worse. That Patchwork departs from this orthodoxy to posit that the distribution of the power, not its bearer or its outcomes, is worthy of scrutiny.
Free subscribers will gain access to most posts. Paid subscribers will receive exclusive posts and additional future content. And frankly, you’ll also be modestly improving the quality life of an open-minded part-time journalist who is neither a millionaire or entrenched member of the elite media class.
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