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The ‘Charming’ MAGA Coalition Backing Vance: A Video Roundup
Our late-September collection of clips
Stephen Miller Is Paying Monstrous Dictators to Admit Expelled Immigrants
A Democratic Congress needs to urgently investigate this abuse of taxpayer dollars that were actually meant for refugees
 • Greg Sargent
The DSA’s Extreme Platform Is Bad for Liberalism and Democrats
Its ‘socialism’ is not a cure for fascism—it’s just another form of authoritarianism
 • Matt Johnson
A Scheme to Pack and Unpack the Supreme Court Will Backfire Badly
It will sap precious political capital from more worthy reforms and lead to greater political polarization
 • Gregg Nunziata
At Five, We Are More Necessary Than We Ever Wanted to Be
On our milestone birthday, we’re doubling down on the fight for liberal democracy
 • Shikha Dalmia

Recent posts

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Protecting the Republic When an Angel Isn’t in the Oval Office
Restoring presidential restraint to avoid autocracy will be as difficult as necessary post-Trump
Can Elite Rule Be Reconciled with Democracy?
A liberal theorist offers an intriguing if imperfect framework for an age-old question
 • Matt McManus
Trump’s Iran War Is a Rolling Disaster With No End in Sight
The conflict is expanding, cutting off more oil supply routes—and the president has no idea what to do except lie
 • Nicholas Grossman
Vance Has a Solid Lead for the GOP Nomination in Trump’s Hardcore Populist Base, ISMA Survey Finds
He’s castigating Democrats and immigrants in increasingly shrill populist terms—and it’s working
 • Thomas Shull
Trump’s Trade War with Canada Will Make America Backward Again
His actions will diminish US prosperity and security while Canada joins other powers in a new rules-based order
 • Bob Rae
The Trump Administration Is Encouraging Illegal Acts by Government Employees and Agencies to Advance the President’s Agenda: An Executive…
Our mid-September selection of the president’s latest and greatest assaults on the rule of law
 • Executive Watch
54:30
Liberals Need to Loosen Up to Play the Social Media Game Against Authoritarians: A Conversation with Renée DiResta
Their need to stay on message makes them less effective communicators
 • Berny Belvedere
Twenty-Five Years Later: Our Staff Remembers 9/11
The UnPopulist's writers on where they were that morning—and how they've come to see the events that followed
 • Shikha Dalmia, Berny Belvedere, and Andy Craig
What Populists Call Goalpost-Shifting Is Liberalism's Quest for Greater Fairness
They go after precisely what’s best about the system, the ability to self-correct
 • Tarnell Brown
The German Far Right’s Regional Victory Will Have Major National Consequences
Establishment parties have no idea how to repair this massive breach in Germany’s post-WWII firewall against resurgent fascism
Has Right-Wing Troll Milo’s ‘Lived Experience’ With ICE Awokened Him?: A Video Roundup
Our early-September collection of clips
Is Wage Labor Freedom or Servitude?
Americans viewed wage labor as a dependence—until industrialization made it a vehicle for escaping poverty
 • Brink Lindsey
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Shikha Dalmia
At Five, We Are More Necessary Than We Ever Wanted to Be
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Berny Belvedere
Liberals Need to Loosen Up to Play the Social Media Game Against Authoritarians: A Conversation with Renée DiResta
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Andy Craig
Twenty-Five Years Later: Our Staff Remembers 9/11
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Landry Ayres
The Revolution Is Dead, God Save King Trump: A Video Roundup
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Has the Trump Administration Crossed the Rubicon When Lawlessness Makes Lawful Transition Impossible?
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The UnPopulist Presents:

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

Reconstruction Agenda

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49:42
Fixing America's Negative Polarization With Proportional Representation: A Conversation With Lee Drutman
Presidentialism plus single-member districts is a bad combination that incentivizes leaders to consolidate power by fueling division.
 • Andy Craig
29:16
A Bloated Executive and a Starved Congress Is a Bad Combination: A Conversation with Kevin Kosar
It distorts our scheme of checks and balances and undermines our ability to self-govern
 • Andy Craig
31:56
Americans Have Never Had Less Recourse for the US Government Violating Rights: A Conversation With Steve Vladeck
Accountability under both state and federal law faces high hurdles, but Congress could fix that
 • Andy Craig
Robust State Constitutionalism Can Protect Rights and Resist Authoritarianism
We need a movement to fully unlock the potential for resistance by states
 • Kathrina Szymborski Wolfkot
Americans Need Legal Remedies Restored Now to Protect Themselves Against Reckless ICE Agents
Congress, state legislatures, and courts can take steps to reopen avenues for litigation unduly closed off
 • Anya A. Bidwell and Marie Miller
All-Party Primaries Can Release Us From Our Partisan Doom-Loop Trap
Our republic is being destroyed by an electoral system that ignores the vast majority of the voting public
 • Danielle Allen
Trump’s Bogus Rationale for Invading Venezuela Is an Impeachable Offense
The Framers would have regarded this president as an out-of-control lunatic in desperate need of reining in by Congress
 • Andy Craig
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

Podcasts

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54:30
Liberals Need to Loosen Up to Play the Social Media Game Against Authoritarians: A Conversation with Renée DiResta
Their need to stay on message makes them less effective communicators
 • Berny Belvedere
35:34
Is Trump's Populist Coalition Shrinking?: Zooming In With Andy Craig and Tom Shull
ISMA's new survey suggests that the president's use of extralegal power is losing its appeal to even his most committed supporters
 • Andy Craig and Thomas Shull
1:09:06
Dismantling the Legacies of Illiberalism Haunting the US: Zooming In With Jamelle Bouie, David French, Danielle Allen
'Is a utopian liberalism possible?' A LibCon2026 podcast
 • Aaron Ross Powell
49:42
Fixing America's Negative Polarization With Proportional Representation: A Conversation With Lee Drutman
Presidentialism plus single-member districts is a bad combination that incentivizes leaders to consolidate power by fueling division.
 • Andy Craig
58:01
Trump Has Not Turned Americans Against Immigrants: A Conversation with Greg Sargent
The administration’s cruelty has deeply disturbed the country, opening the door for reforms with more legal pathways
 • Shikha Dalmia
48:43
The Trump Administration's Anti-Foreigner Animus Is a Betrayal of the World Cup—the Most Cosmopolitan Sport on Earth
Its visa and deportation policies have cast a pall on the game, but fans are finding ways to watch and celebrate despite the fear
 • Berny Belvedere
Podcasts
Logo for Zooming In at The UnPopulist
Zooming In at The UnPopulist
Liberals Need to Loosen Up to Play the Social Media Game Against Authoritarians: A Conversation with Renée DiResta
Logo for Reconstruction Agenda
Reconstruction Agenda
Fixing America's Negative Polarization With Proportional Representation: A Conversation With Lee Drutman
Recommendations
View all 24
Persuasion
Persuasion
Yascha Mounk
The Bulwark
The Bulwark
The Bulwark
Notes from the Middleground
Notes from the Middleground
Damon Linker
Project Liberal
Project Liberal
Joshua Reed Eakle
Executive Functions
Executive Functions
Jack Goldsmith
Top posts

Book Reviews

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Can Elite Rule Be Reconciled with Democracy?
A liberal theorist offers an intriguing if imperfect framework for an age-old question
 • Matt McManus
Liberal Societies Need Grand Stories About Themselves
An interesting new book by a former Economist writer says that would jolt individuals out of their ennui
 • Jonathan Rauch
Does Immigration Lead to ‘Democratic Drain’ and Illiberalism in Native Countries?
A fascinating book by a political scientist says yes—but, in fact, there is strong evidence for the opposite case, too
 • Stan Veuger
Universities' Best Defense Against Censorship in the Public Square Is Free Inquiry
In their otherwise valuable new book, two prominent professors acknowledge the need for diverse viewpoints on campuses but don't offer a cure for…
 • Jonathan Marks
How the Chinese Immigrant Experience Shaped Birthright Citizenship
Reviving this history is vital to understanding the 14th Amendment's true intention
 • J. L. Wall
The Constitution's Sweeping Pardon Power Is Its Achilles' Heel for Checking an Imperial President
Worse, there are no good fixes in our polarized times for stopping the abuse of this dangerous tool
 • Gabriel Schoenfeld

World

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Trump’s Trade War with Canada Will Make America Backward Again
His actions will diminish US prosperity and security while Canada joins other powers in a new rules-based order
 • Bob Rae
The German Far Right’s Regional Victory Will Have Major National Consequences
Establishment parties have no idea how to repair this massive breach in Germany’s post-WWII firewall against resurgent fascism
Trump’s Iran War Has Succeeded on No Stated Count and Failed on Many Unstated Ones
He wanted to feed his vanity with a quick victory but instead has brought ignominy to the U.S. and endangered the world
 • Steve Chapman
Germany's AfD Is Closer Than Ever to Power
How a country shaped by its fascist past is on the verge of watching the far-right party close in on control
 • Tim Ganser
India's Gen Z—aka Cockroaches—Brings Strongman Modi to Heel
But whether the mass youth movement can win the battle against his authoritarian misrule and nasty sectarianism remains to be seen
 • Debasish Roy Chowdhury
Britain's New Prime Minister Sees Proportional Representation as a Cure to Polarization
America needs a leader to champion similar electoral reforms in this country
 • Grant Tudor
The Iran War Might End Fossil Fuel Dependence
The world is poised to pivot to alternatives in a big way because its energy needs cannot be held hostage to the whims of a rogue president and a…
 • Tibita Kaneene
Armenia Rejects Populism and Chooses Democracy Despite a Devastating Military Defeat
In fact, voters handed a mandate to the man who lost territory
 • Alexander Kaffka
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