The Next Move’s 2025 In Review: November
Between two very political holidays.
A note from The Next Move: Happy holidays! To celebrate the end of a successful first year on Substack, we’re giving away five chess boards signed by RDI’s Garry Kasparov. Anyone signed up as a premium subscriber by December 31, 2025 will be automatically eligible to win.1 Sign up for a premium subscription in the next two weeks, and you’ll also save 30% off of the regular rate!
November was bookended by two politically significant holidays: Veterans Day (observed amid increasing efforts to make the military a partisan apparatus) and Thanksgiving (observed amid general despair). The Next Move kept the focus on the bigger picture—while also covering all of the craziness in between.
Civic duty over personal loyalty: Renew Democracy Initiative board member and retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman marked Veterans Day with a message on illegal and unethical orders.
Despite growing up in the USSR, Garry Kasparov was exposed to the fruits of a free society from a young age. For Thanksgiving, Garry put a spotlight on the historically unprecedented prosperity that democracy makes possible.
We can’t ignore the Epstein Files (and with his name, RDI CEO Uriel Epshtein [no relation] really can’t). Uriel argues that the scandal is more than lewd political drama—it speaks to the democratic values of accountability and transparency.
1. Please see full rules and regulations for The Next Move December 2025 raffle.