There's a new political movement that I'm genuinely excited about -- the Abundance movement.

Abundance is focused on creating a flourishing society by making government more capable, but also more lean and efficient. Abundance favors deregulation so that it's easier for individuals to build housing, start and operate businesses, and provide low cost medical care. However, Abundance also favors increasing state capacity so that the government can effectively provide high quality services (eg quickly issuing building permits) to its citizens. It's pro-technology, pro-effective-bureaucracy, anti-ineffective-bureaucracy, anti-excess-regulation, and anti-corruption. It wants the people who work in civil services to be highly competent.

It's focused on problems like cost disease -- the fact that housing, college tuition, and medical care are getting far more expensive without getting better. It looks for market-based solutions when appropriate and state-driven solutions when appropriate. It's willing to spend a lot of money on infrastructure projects, but only ones that truly make economic sense.

Abundance really doesn't have much to say about identity politics -- it wants to alleviate suffering by taking concrete actions that help people across the political spectrum. True justice comes from concrete actions to improve people's well being.

Right now the Abundance faction is growing within the Democratic party. It's gradually taking over in San Francisco and in California, and it's starting to show up at the national level. However, I think it has a lot to offer moderate Republicans who want deregulation, high individual freedom, and a business-friendly environment. It has a lot of resonance with manifestos like Marc Andreessen's "It's time to build", and it addresses a lot of the complaints that Republicans (and many Democrats!) have about stifling regulation in California.

Kamala Harris has mentioned she favors some Abundance-related ideas (eg the YIMBY movement) already. While she's not fully aligned with Abundance yet, I think the Democrats (including her) will move in this direction with time.

If you're a voter who is disaffected with both parties, I strongly recommend checking it out.