Liberals Need a Clearer Vision of the Constitution. Here's What It Could Look Like.
About this episode
Klein speaks with constitutional scholar Larry Kramer about why liberals need their own affirmative vision of the Constitution. Kramer, a leading proponent of 'popular constitutionalism,' argues that progressives ceded constitutional interpretation to the right and must reclaim it — not just as a legal project but as a democratic one. They discuss the history of how the Court's role expanded, why originalism gained dominance, and what a liberal constitutionalism centered on democratic self-government and equality could look like. The conversation is both theoretical and strategic: with a conservative supermajority on the Court, Kramer argues, liberals cannot win by playing the right's game — they need a different theory of what the Constitution is for.