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50:39
What Tools Does Congress Still Retain to Control a Recalcitrant Executive? A Conversation with Josh Chafetz
Eventually, though, Congress needs to fix itself to effectively rein in the president
 • Andy Craig
An Inaugural Address to Cure the Dark Passions Dividing Our Country
America desperately needs a healer-in-chief to turn a page on the rhetoric of carnage
 • William Galston
The Trump Administration’s Killing Rampage on Open Seas: A Video Roundup
Our mid-December collection of clips on the White House's brutal boat strikes—and what they reveal about this president's governing ethos
 • Landry Ayres
Wicked Shows Us the Moral Strategies for Resisting a Regime Gone Bad
It depicts how corrupt authoritarians invert our conception of good and evil
 • Eric K. Ward
Nationalism Is Driving the Neo Right’s Virulent Antisemitic Turn
Its zero-sum mentality is fundamentally at odds with American universalism that defends the equal rights of all
 • Ilya Somin
Taking the Dark Passions Driving Our Wave of Populist Authoritarianism Seriously: A Conversation with Bill Galston
The public is exhausted with demagogic hate mongering and a leader who uses ameliorative rhetoric can heal and unite the country
 • Shikha Dalmia
Trump Pardons His Honduran Strongman Buddy Convicted of Cocaine Trafficking as Hegseth Executes Venezuelans Suspected of Drug Smuggling: An…
Our early-December selection of the president's latest and greatest assaults on the rule of law
 • Robert Tracinski
The UnPopulist Video
Short clips, medium-length vids, and longform video essays from The UnPopulist
Trump’s Pardons Cover Every Conceivable Form of Corruption
He is doling them to crooks, cronies, campaign contributors, violent insurrectionists, child sex offenders, convicted drug dealers, and others
 • Robert Tracinski
Trump and Putin Are Trying to Rescue Hungarian Strongman Orbán from Electoral Defeat
It is unclear if they'll succeed but they show that the world's autocrats are working hard to keep each other in power
 • H. David Baer
Even by a Strict Definition, Elon Musk Is a Fascist
He is weaponizing Tolkien to promote violence by ‘hard men’ against Asian immigrants
 • Toby Buckle
46:47
A Persecution Complex Links the Pilgrims and Christian Nationalism: A Conversation With Tyler Huckabee
Evangelicals are espousing a faith based on their political project, not a sincere interpretation of the Bible
 • Berny Belvedere
Thanksgiving, Above All, Celebrates Our Escape From a Pre-Liberal World
But the liberal order's very success in overcoming the horrors of that world has made postliberal ideologies forget what lies on its other side
 • Arthur Melzer
Congress Can Toughen Existing Laws to Expose Trump’s Pardon-for-Sale Racket
The Supreme Court’s immunity ruling gave presidents a free pass for corruption, but Congress can still demand transparency
 • Kim Wehle
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The latest from
Andy Craig
What Tools Does Congress Still Retain to Control a Recalcitrant Executive? A Conversation with Josh Chafetz
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Shikha Dalmia
Taking the Dark Passions Driving Our Wave of Populist Authoritarianism Seriously: A Conversation with Bill Galston
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Berny Belvedere
A Persecution Complex Links the Pilgrims and Christian Nationalism: A Conversation With Tyler Huckabee
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Birch Smith
We Are Well on the Road to an Immigration Police State
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Liberalism & Religion

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46:47
A Persecution Complex Links the Pilgrims and Christian Nationalism: A Conversation With Tyler Huckabee
Evangelicals are espousing a faith based on their political project, not a sincere interpretation of the Bible
 • Berny Belvedere
Can Each Side's Faith Break the Cycle of Mutually Assured Destruction for Israelis and Palestinians?
An epistolary exchange between an Islamic scholar and a rabbi points to the concept of universal empathy in their traditions as the key
 • Michael G. Holzman and Mustafa Akyol
Political Triumphalism Is Contrary to the Spirit of Yom Kippur
The Jewish holiday’s emphasis on repentance requires confronting our past sins, not burying them
 • Michael G. Holzman
Yoram Hazony’s National Conservatism Wants to Abandon Liberal Democracy so that the Jewish People Maintain Hegemony in Israel
He wants to give Protestant America the right to disempower other faiths and ethnic groups so that Israel can do the same
 • Michael G. Holzman
Authoritarian Rulers Are Co-Opting the Sphere of the Sacred to Consolidate Control
China’s attempt to designate the new Dalai Lama in violation of longstanding Tibetan tradition is the most visible example of this trend
 • Amal Chandra
1:00:46
A Revival of True Christianity Would Also Revive American Liberal Democracy: A Conversation with Jonathan Rauch
The turn away from Jesus and lust for power is ruining the Protestant faith and the polity
 • Berny Belvedere
We Need to Restore a Healthy Protestantism to Save American Liberalism
An incisive book by an atheist convincingly shows how both major strands of this faith tradition lost their way
 • Berny Belvedere
Bishop Budde Wasn’t Breaching Her Clerical Charge by Speaking Truth to Trump from the Pulpit
Her choice of the prophetic role drew on a long tradition in American democracy and it was the right call
 • Michael G. Holzman

Fireproofing the Presidency

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Trump Is Using Fake Emergencies to Grab More Power than King George III
He has complete contempt for the legal and statutory limits to his authority so more laws will not constrain him
 • Chris Edelson
Trump’s Leaked Plan to Deploy the Texas National Guard Against Illinois Will Tear Apart the Union
If it goes forward, it will plunge the country into an unprecedented constitutional crisis
 • Andy Craig
A Trump Appointee Slaps Down Pam Bondi’s Malign Lawsuit Against Maryland Judges
Her attempt to weaponize the DOJ and intimidate them for upholding basic due process for vulnerable migrants failed
 • Walter Olson
The Truth Is, There Are No Legal Limits on an American President’s Warmaking
And the public no longer really cares about distant wars whose bill won’t come due for a while
 • Trevor Burrus
The Judiciary Will Become Virtually Powerless in Protecting Your Rights if the Current Budget Bill Becomes Law
Senate Republicans have proposed an even worse version of a House provision that will require citizens suing the government to post enormous sums in…
 • Clint Bolick
Don't Be Fooled, Courts Can't Really Stop Trump From Assaulting Law Firms
He has too many means to intimidate them that judicial relief cannot touch, scaring them away from representing politically disfavored clients
 • Walter Olson
An Effective Resistance Strategy Against Trump’s Constitutional Assaults Needs to Mobilize Both Courts and Public Opinion
History shows that the two work in tandem and we shouldn’t pick one or the other
 • Ilya Somin
The Supreme Court Should Resist Handing Sweeping Removal Powers to this President in the Name of Constitutional Purity
If an authoritarian weren’t in the White House, conservative justices could have justified doing so
 • Corbin K. Barthold

World

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Trump and Putin Are Trying to Rescue Hungarian Strongman Orbán from Electoral Defeat
It is unclear if they'll succeed but they show that the world's autocrats are working hard to keep each other in power
 • H. David Baer
Even by a Strict Definition, Elon Musk Is a Fascist
He is weaponizing Tolkien to promote violence by ‘hard men’ against Asian immigrants
 • Toby Buckle
Trump Goes After the BBC for Telling True Lies About His Insurrection
He and the U.K. right are making bad faith attacks on the broadcaster to extract a heavy price for a small editorial error
 • Dalibor Rohac
Defeating Populist Authoritarians Requires Real-Time Pushback on Social Media
But liberals also need to be clear about what they stand for and deliver governing results to voters
Trump Has Taken Only Months to Accomplish the Level of Authoritarian Consolidation That Took Orbán and Modi Years
But America's aversion to tyranny gives it a much better chance of restoring its liberal democracy than their countries
 • Shikha Dalmia
The Failure of Macron’s Technocratic Governing Style Is Boosting the Nativist Right in France
Contrary to the French president’s aims, the cordon sanitaire that kept Le Pen’s National Rally out of the government is crumbling
 • Marlene Laruelle
Is a Liberal Realignment Emerging from the Rubble of MAGA Authoritarianism?
Democrats have an opportunity to champion a confident, forward-looking market liberalism given that the GOP has fully returned to its reactionary roots
 • Michael Wood
Can Each Side's Faith Break the Cycle of Mutually Assured Destruction for Israelis and Palestinians?
An epistolary exchange between an Islamic scholar and a rabbi points to the concept of universal empathy in their traditions as the key
 • Michael G. Holzman and Mustafa Akyol
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