Compact Podcast: "Postliberalism, Post-Obamacare, Post-Netflix"

Date: December 9, 2025
Hosts: Matthew Schmitz (A), Geoff Shullenberger (B), Ashley Frawley (C)

Overview

In this episode, Matthew Schmitz, Geoff Shullenberger, and Ashley Frawley dissect three main topics: the potential expiration of Obamacare subsidies, the high-stakes corporate tussle over Warner Brothers (merger with Netflix vs. acquisition by Paramount), and shifting intellectual currents around "postliberalism." The panel provides a critical, at times wry exploration of how current political, economic, and cultural structures are reaching their limits, with incisive commentary on the failure of existing models and the search for new organizing principles—whether in healthcare, media, or politics.

1. Post-Obamacare: Healthcare Subsidies & Systemic Breakdown

Key Discussion Points:

• Possible Expiration of Obamacare Subsidies:
  Republicans seem set on letting pandemic-era health insurance subsidies expire, with $350 billion at stake over the next decade. Concerns include fraud, with insurers allegedly signing up people who are covered elsewhere to pocket subsidies (00:00–03:04).

• Systemic Dysfunction:
  Geoff lays out the defensive, patchwork nature of both parties:

  "Democrats are playing the role of conservatives here... attempting to prop up the system as it currently exists, which unfortunately is increasingly unstable and seems likely to collapse under its own weight." — Geoff (03:04)

• Perverse Incentives & Corruption:
  Both insurance companies and healthcare providers are responding to entrenched incentives that create massive inefficiencies:

  "The whole system is full of corruption and of perverse incentives... Democrats set up Obamacare... to shield some portion of the public from the worst effects of these defects." — Geoff (04:10)

• No Clear Vision or Will for Reform:
  Republicans, Geoff argues, have "sheer nihilism" rather than any constructive agenda:

  "On the other side you have a sensible willingness to just kind of see the whole thing burned down. But not really..." (08:33)

  "It's a very depressing situation and I think shows the fundamental kind of lack of vision and willingness to actually do anything serious on the part of both parties." (10:28)

• Market-Based Fantasy:
  Ashley recounts the "neoliberal" theory that removing subsidies will allow price signals and competition to fix the system, but calls it a fantasy:

  "It's not the case that people shop around when they're like dealing with their bone sticking out of their knee." — Ashley (12:41)

• The Obamacare Irony:
  Obamacare itself was a synthesis of market theories, yet is labeled "socialist":

  "Obamacare was essentially a kind of descendant of exactly these sorts of theories... And then, of course, once it was put in place, it was accused of being socialism and so on, but... it's in a way sort of the least like socialized medicine of all the aspects of the American system." — Geoff (12:51, 16:30)

• No Real Markets, Only Distorted Hybrids:
  The existing system is neither a true market nor true "socialism," but an incoherent patchwork of tax benefits, subsidies, and public-private outsourcing—all failing to deliver affordable, effective care (14:00–18:00).

Notable Quotes:

• "We're trying to navigate space travel using a pre-Copernican system... everyone knows that the economics don't work, but there's nothing else. There's no alternative." — Ashley (17:56)
• "Welfare economics is the only thing that's left essentially, after the death of really existing socialism." — Ashley (19:09)

2. Post-Netflix: The Future of Media and Monopoly

Key Discussion Points:

• Mega-Mergers and Political Entanglements:
  Netflix and Warner Brothers announced merger plans. Paramount (with ties to the Ellison family, Donald Trump, and Jared Kushner) countered with a takeover bid, politicizing Hollywood consolidation (19:09–20:24).

• Antitrust Arguments:
  Matthew objects forcefully to both mergers:

  "Neither bid is good, and both should be resisted by antitrust regulators. ... consolidation... is going to reduce the number of an already very limited set of power players... that'll have bad effects in two clear ways..." — Matthew (20:24)

• Consumer Harms:

  • Lower wages and less work for creative professionals.
  • Less competition and innovation, ultimately hurting consumers.

• Legal and Regulatory Climate:

  • Even as legal scholars like Tim Wu claim either merger should be illegal under antitrust law, changing political winds mean these deals might get a pass under GOP regulators (22:30).

• Industry "Genre-Bending":
  Companies blur boundaries between social media and streaming services, arguing broad “video” competition to skirt antitrust (23:06).

• Market Absurdities for Viewers:
  Geoff highlights the practical problems:

  "The most awful thing about the streaming era is the absurdity of having to have all these different subscriptions... this bizarre situation where you bookmark some film on HBO... then it's not there, it's on Paramount or Hulu..." — Geoff (24:46)

• The Case for Physical Media:
  Matthew humorously insists:

  "All you have to do is buy a Blu Ray player… you can watch whatever you want… the image will be superior… it will help you think more deliberately about your entertainment choices. It will return in a small way, the film as an event, not just as a kind of TikTok slop..." — Matthew (27:30)

• Monopoly and Historical Inevitable:
  Ashley makes a Marxian point about the irrepressible drive toward monopoly:

  "You can do all sorts of things to break up monopolies, but it's going to happen… It's like asking water not to flow downhill... This is a tendency that is deep within capitalism." — Ashley (32:35)

• Consolidation as Technological Potential (and Limit):

  "Eventually you're going to have one big system you're all going to subscribe to and it won't be very profitable... The way to get there is horribly destructive, and we haven't figured that bit out..." — Ashley (34:49) "Competition leads to consolidation... Follow it through. Have courage to see this through to what could be good for humans..." — Ashley (33:45)

Notable Quotes:

• "At least with the older system there were actual... capital investment and physical distribution structure... now it's just pure... holding hostage of culture by these nefarious entities..." — Geoff (25:15)
• "I do miss Blockbuster. I won't lie. But to be able to think of things you remembered in your childhood and be like, show that to my kids right now — fantastic." — Ashley (35:06)

3. Postliberalism: Meanings, Contradictions & Catholic Surprises

Key Discussion Points:

• Defining Postliberalism is Elusive:
  Ashley attended a conference on postliberalism, expecting to push back on its axioms. She finds that:

  "It's become this kind of grab bag of all these different ideologies and viewpoints that don't fit neatly into our... political alignments." — Ashley (37:54)

• Therapeutic Repackaging of Virtue:
  Much of what is branded post-liberal, Ashley finds, is "a repackaging of what had been sold in therapeutic form 15, 20 years ago"—a yearning for lost virtue and "human flourishing," recently recycled as policy or pop psychology (38:24–40:30).

• The Real Dilemma:
  Modern politics cannot escape the split between "economic" and "political" liberalism—leaving us stuck with welfare-patched libertarian economics and a culture obsessed with freedom but unconvinced about virtue:

  "We have this libertarian economics with welfare patches. That's kind of the extent of it." — Ashley (46:40)

• Liberalism's Contradictions:
  Liberal political freedoms inevitably rub up against economic realities; eventually people demand a say over "the stuff that really matters in their lives," and economics tries to insulate itself, creating a kind of democratic deficit (42:00–44:00).

• Irony: Catholicism as Liberal Bastion?
  Ashley notes many at the conference thought Catholicism has become "the last bastion of classical liberal values"—valuing both human progress and necessary restraint (46:00).

  "...the people who were speaking from that perspective sounded the most classically liberal to me, ironically." — Ashley (47:53)

• Societal Evolution:
  Matthew ties postliberal debates to the reality that “managerial" and "corporatist" forms of organization have replaced the individualist, smallholder, classically liberal model, making post-liberal searching inevitable:

  "Development of our economy and society has moved beyond what I think of as the classically liberal order... We went through a managerial revolution... administrative procedures... have really big implications for the way our society and economy function. But that rulemaking process is corporatist. It's not liberal." — Matthew (48:04)

• New Synthesis Needed:
  The question now is whether new ideologies can articulate an ethos for a world that is structurally no longer classically liberal.

  "Are we in a post liberal moment? I tend to think we are." — Matthew (48:56)

Notable Quotes:

• "Are we in a post liberal moment? I tend to think we are… just because the development of our economy and society has moved beyond... the classically liberal order..." — Matthew (48:56)
• "Catholicism was proto liberal… The point of departure is the point of deter return in a higher form. So it could be that we're kind of reaching beyond liberalism while trying to maintain some of its most powerful revolutionary thrust." — Ashley (50:53)

Memorable Moments

• Blu Ray Player as Protest:
  Matthew’s tongue-in-cheek advocacy for physical media as a bulwark against streaming monopolies (27:26–29:58).

• MAGA Hollywood?
  Geoff’s facetious suggestion that an Ellison-Trump mega studio could produce patriotic epics à la Soviet cinema (30:36–31:09).

• Ashley’s Marxist Riff:
  Her dramatic assertion that monopoly is a structural inevitability in capitalism, not just a matter of failed regulation (32:35–34:49).

• Postliberal Ironies:
  Unexpected discovery that Catholic thinkers in the "postliberal" space articulate the classical liberal virtues most clearly (46:00–47:53).

Key Timestamps for Segments

• Obamacare Subsidies & Health System Analysis:
  00:00–19:09

• Hollywood Mergers, Streaming Monopolies, and Physical Media:
  19:09–36:00

• Monopoly as Economic Law, Marx, and the End of Markets:
  32:35–35:13

• "What Should Be Filmed?" (Speculative/Humorous Segment):
  35:13–37:54

• Postliberalism Conference, Definitions, and Contradictions:
  37:54–51:57

Tone and Style

The conversation is skeptical, dryly humorous, iconoclastic, and intellectually eclectic—ranging from left and right critiques, with an undercurrent of disillusionment with current models and curiosity about what could succeed them.

Recommended Follow-Up:

• Listen to previous episodes on the crisis of liberalism (Ashley and Geoff).
• Subscribe to Compact for ongoing analysis of ideological trends and political realignments.