Populism’s Self-Defeating Trap
Populist rhetoric is exceptionally effective for pursuing and gaining power, but it provides no program for the complexities of actual governance.
Tomislav Kardum
· 7 min read
Politics
A collection of 630 posts
Capitalism’s Paradox
Why prosperity breeds guilt, how status incentives reward critique, and what happens when function is replaced by moral performance.
Sarah Wooten
· 5 min read
American Liberalism and Illiberalism
Americans who may have ferocious disagreements about the size of government, foreign policy, and a wide range of other issues must find a way to unite around their shared commitment to the liberal idea.
Matt Johnson
· 15 min read
How Not to Develop a Country
The idea that we should redistribute wealth by fiat from prosperous to low-income and stagnating countries remains popular even though it is profoundly misguided.
Deepak Srinivasan, Rohit Shinde
· 14 min read
Saudi Arabia’s Counter-Reformation
The Takfiris are back in business.
Aurele Tobelem
· 11 min read
Progressive Moral Reasoning and Iran’s Revolt
Progressive discourse has become highly adept at identifying oppression, exclusion, and harm. But it is far less capable of understanding the basic conditions of political order.
Roohola Ramezani
· 11 min read
The Fall of Zhang Youxia
A septuagenarian loyalist may be facing execution for the crimes of caution and professionalism.
Aaron Sarin
· 8 min read
The Supreme Leader’s Reckoning
The brutality the security forces are unleashing in Iran is not an improvisation. It is doctrine.
Roya Hakakian
· 6 min read
Who Got the Camera?
The right-wing response to recent events in Minneapolis indicates that MAGA conservatives are determined to repeat the mistakes made by Daryl Gates 35 years ago.
Dilan Esper
· 6 min read
Getting to Denmark
Greenland and the erosion of deep literacy.
Adam Garfinkle
· 13 min read
Risky, Costly, and Extremely Cold
Any invasion of Greenland would be a logistical nightmare with no economic upside.
Sean Welsh
· 9 min read
Stranded in History
China’s over-reaction to a measured remark about Taiwan made by the Japanese prime minister is an attempt to move the Overton Window.
Aaron Sarin
· 8 min read
Atlas No More
It is difficult to overstate just how reactionary Trump’s 2025 National Security Strategy is.
Brian Stewart
· 24 min read
Iran’s Forward-Operating Base in the West
With the survival of Nicolas Maduro’s regime now uncertain, Iran and Hezbollah have much to lose in Caracas.
Emanuele Ottolenghi
· 7 min read
A Story Spiked
Bari Weiss’s eleventh-hour cancellation of a 60 Minutes exposé on migrants imprisoned in El Salvador raises troubling questions about editorial independence at CBS News.
Cathy Young
· 18 min read