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The UnPopulist

@theunpopulist.net

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Defending liberal democracy against authoritarianism in the U.S. and around the world.

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Jacob T. Levy's avatar Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social
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Headed to DC for this amazing conference from the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, publisher of @theunpopulist.net .

I'm as excited about the people attending in the audience I'm going to get to talk to as I am about the people on the program!

www.ismaglobal.org/conference-s...

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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The Supreme Court's immunity ruling will make it hard to punish Trump for his past lawlessness, while inviting future abuses.

New from @jacobtlevy.bsky.social:

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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For Niall Ferguson, the U.S. government’s DEI priorities, climate change goals, and support for Ukraine are somehow comparable to the horrors of the largest totalitarian system in human history. Atrocious decision by The Free Press to publish Ferguson's piece.

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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In her new book, @noupside.bsky.social describes how a loose coalition of influencers mobilized on social media and targeted her for the crime of flagging lies and misinformation.

Must-read.

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Berny Belvedere's avatar Berny Belvedere @bernybelvedere.bsky.social
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The Supreme Court's presidential immunity decision was bonkers. I did a roundup tracking reactions from across the ideological spectrum. Give it a read:

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Andy Craig's avatar Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social
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At @theunpopulist.net, I offer some reflections on what the American Revolution meant and how we should think of it today.

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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Trump constantly complains that he is targeted and singled out for abuse by the criminal justice system. But the reality is Trump's been treated far better and received more preferential treatment than just about anyone ever ensnared by the law.

@radleybalko.bsky.social

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Berny Belvedere's avatar Berny Belvedere @bernybelvedere.bsky.social
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"What is beginning to emerge is that the right-wing victimization complex isn’t merely wrong—it’s completely backwards. Trump’s allies weren’t even treated the same as everyone else—they were treated quite a bit better."

Remarkable essay by @radleybalko.bsky.social

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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Ireland’s intriguing experiment in deliberative democracy liberalized abortion in a Catholic country without deepening polarization

@landryayres.bsky.social

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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Elon Musk, a self-proclaimed "free speech absolutist," has aggressively deployed government power to kill what he calls the "woke mind virus."

Must-read from @andycraig.bsky.social

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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"The record of national leaders who attempt a coup, fail, and then get power again is really bad for democracy."

—@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social, from his convo with @bernybelvedere.bsky.social

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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One can argue over whether this country has reached the point where it is a “surveillance state.” But there’s no question its government has exponentially greater access to Americans’ sensitive info than it had during the darkest years of the J. Edgar Hoover era.

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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The Biden administration has gone out of its way to kill surveillance reforms intended to protect civil liberties that have broad bipartisan consensus. In doing so, it is handing a future rogue president dangerous powers for all kinds of nefarious purposes.

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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David Austin Walsh contends that William F. Buckley’s purge of extremists was halting and partial and that mainstream conservatives were more than happy to harness the energy of radicals in their quest to remake American politics.

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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“David saw the core of his life’s project as lifting up others to go make a difference in the world. Those of us who had the immense privilege of knowing him will never be the same.” — @andycraig.bsky.social on David Boaz

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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In his criticisms of the Fed, Trump made it plain that his own interests should be its highest priority. A president who would use the Justice Department to persecute his enemies, as Trump has vowed, would undoubtedly try to make Fed policy serve his interests, political or commercial.

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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Ideologies aren’t just descriptions of the political lay of the land but also contain embedded visions for how society should be. They have a *world-making* as opposed to merely a *world-representing* aspect to them. Ideology blends the descriptive with the prescriptive.

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Nicholas Grossman's avatar Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
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Trump v. US Constitutional democracy, what is fascism and what purpose does the word serve, how democratic backsliding works, how the law ultimately rests on norms, and more in this great podcast I recorded with @bernybelvedere.bsky.social for @theunpopulist.net.
Listen (or read a transcript) here:

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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AfD’s members have trivialized the Holocaust, encouraged their followers to chant Nazi slogans, and participated in a secret conference where they fantasized about forced deportations of naturalized citizens they derisively call “Passport Germans.”

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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In 2019, Trump wanted to saddle the Fed’s board of governors with a pair of unqualified loyalists, Herman Cain and Stephen Moore. Trump backed off only when it became clear that the *Republican*-controlled Senate wouldn’t confirm either.

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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"Those who deny they're influenced by ideology are often the most susceptible to ideological capture."

Don't miss @aaronrosspowell.com's thoughtful Q&A with political scientist Jason Blakely on the topic of ideology and how it's inescapable.

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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In recent years, the Mises Caucus—named more for the think-tank's ideas than the actual economist—launched hostile takeovers of state parties and then the national party, leading to the L.P. increasingly adopting rhetoric that sounded more like the tiki-torch brigade than one committed to liberty.

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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Immigrants will work if the government allows them to. Despite numerous legal obstacles to finding jobs in the United States, immigrants are more likely to work than U.S.-born workers overall and at every education level—a difference that grows significantly among the least skilled.

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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"It’s time to recognize that there is no going “back” to a normal 'liberal' conservatism, since that never really existed." —@mattpolprof.bsky.social

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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Sanctuary policies have their flaws and limitations. But they have strong constitutional grounding and are a useful check on federal power, especially on overreaching presidents of both parties. Here’s an explainer.

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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Right-wing populism is surging in Europe and realigning its politics in an illiberal direction.

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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Looking at current trends, it’s hard to see how the British right will be able to resist becoming the sort of radicalized, identity-obsessed, conspiracy-indulgent bloc that permeates the MAGA GOP.

@aselrod.bsky.social

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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"Donald Trump didn’t campaign on free markets, liberal values, or a strong national defense. He emphasized his opposition to free trade and immigration and engaged in open racial and religious scapegoating." Read David Boaz's essay on the world-transforming power of a liberty-focused liberalism.

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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Let us create a system where people aren’t forced to hand over their life savings to cartels. Let them line up transportation, housing, and jobs in advance of their arrival. Let’s allow Border Patrol to focus on genuine threats. Let them come legally.

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Andy Craig's avatar Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social
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On Friday, my former boss, mentor, and dear friend David Boaz passed away. At @theunpopulist.net, I share some thoughts about my time as his staff writer at the Cato Institute, along with tributes from others who knew him well. He was an incredible man, and I'm going to miss him.

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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We are thrilled to announce Liberalism for the 21st Century, an absolute game-changer of a conference convened by our publisher, the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism (ISMA). You won’t want to miss it. Go here to read more and see you in July!

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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Trump’s brand of illiberal populism had more than a passing resemblance to Murray Rothbard’s paleolibertarianism, embodying the burn-it-all-down reactionary ethos that saw tearing down institutions as a crucial first step, even if it required an unrestrained autocrat.

@andycraig.bsky.social

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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This is how federalism—specifically, how sanctuary jurisdictions—can push back against presidential overreach.

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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Brexit charlatan Nigel Farage has decided to run in the U.K. elections after all. He initially declined in order to help Trump’s reelection bid at the “grassroots” level. But it’s hard for him to stay out of the limelight.

Here’s @aselrod.bsky.social on Farage’s party, Reform UK

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Alan Elrod's avatar Alan Elrod @aselrod.bsky.social
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Farage is now standing in the UK general election (running in the seat of Clacton in Essex). Imo this makes the scenarios I laid out for @theunpopulist.net wherein the Tories are pulled to the right by Reform a bit more likely than they were before.

open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...

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The UnPopulist's avatar The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net
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By accommodating and embracing conservative culture warriors, even including avowed white supremacists, Rothbard believed he was forming the basis of a political coalition to demolish modern big government—an early version of “drain the swamp,” as it were.

@andycraig.bsky.social

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