LibCon2026: The Reconstruction Coalition

We are catalyzing a new political alignment, bringing together widely divergent liberals determined to defeat authoritarianism—come join us!

Photo: Kristoffer Tripplaar

This year, the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism’s “Liberalism for the 21st Century” conference—LibCon—arrives not quite two weeks after one of the most remarkable achievements in human history: the 250th anniversary of the American founding. While we are not drawing a full parallel with the task that fell to the Revolutionary generation and the one opponents of authoritarianism face today, it would be foolish not to notice that, like it, we are at a crossroads: One choice will keep us on course as a free and self-governing republic and the other will lead us into an authoritarian abyss.

Having prevailed in overthrowing their colonial masters, the Founders confronted an existential question: What kind of a country should America be—whether it should even be a country instead of merely a loose federation of colonies? They knew they didn’t want to be ruled by an overseas power, but that didn’t mean that their own choice was clear. Indeed, when the British were forced out of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, Pakistan chose to be an Islamic Republic and India a pluralist liberal democracy (that is now hell bent on becoming the Hindu version of Pakistan, given the rise of Hindu nationalism).

The Founding generation had to hammer out a consensus among crisscrossing interests and factions that included slaveholding southern states vs. northern states growing uncomfortable with slavery (resolved, shamefully, by the three-fifths compromise); commercial and mercantile interests in New England and New York vs. agrarian and plantation interests in Virginia and South Carolina; proponents of relatively strong central government like Alexander Hamilton vs. those from smaller states who were wary of federal overreach; and, finally, those who advocated a strong executive vs. those who wanted to keep the presidency weak.

Ultimately, the Founders pulled together a coalition around a liberal republic—“liberal” because it guaranteed the inalienable rights of all its citizens (with one awful exception) and “republic” because it rejected monarchical rule and gave the people ultimate sovereignty over their government. And to prevent the concentration of power, they created three distinct branches of government, with distinct roles and responsibilities, to act as checks on one another—all accountable to the rule of law. Crucially, voters themselves were also constrained by the Constitution; they could never simply vote to abolish the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

This entire constitutional operating system has been under an unprecedented assault by the forces of populist demagoguery—a perennial worry of the Founders familiar with unconstrained democracies in ancient city states. We now face a version of the same question that the Founders did: Are we going to choose, 250 years later, to throw away our liberal legacy and allow the logic of a cheap nationalism swallow us into a divisive despotism, or are we going to restore our founding commitments to freedom, justice, and equality for all?

We believe the answer depends, in no small part, on whether those of us who cherish America’s liberal democracy—that Ronald Reagan called the “shining city upon a hill”—are willing to set aside their differences and forge a coalition to jointly fight for it.

That is what LibCon is attempting to build.

In just three years, LibCon’s coalition has come to span the entire ideological gamut: Erstwhile Republicans who gave up on their party after its authoritarian takeover; conservatives despondent about the current state of the GOP still holding out hope for their party’s return to health; market-friendly, socially progressive classical liberals (in which we put The UnPopulist); independents, centrists, and moderates in the democracy space troubled by partisan radicalization and democratic backsliding; center-left outfits alarmed by right-wing authoritarianism but also concerned about their own side’s excesses; abundance liberals averse to statist economic strategies as a first resort for growth; social justice advocates pressing for a fuller realization of liberal democracy’s promise of equal dignity for all. Many of these are not natural allies. They speak different languages, accentuate different values, and, inexorably, frustrate and even irritate each other.

And yet, like the Founding generation, what holds them together is more important than what pulls them apart: a shared commitment to the rule of law over corrupt patrimonialism and a belief in inclusive pluralism over exclusionary nativism.

There are many groups that share these goals—but they have been siloed from each other, stuck in an old left/right divide, quarreling over policy. They are unable to fluently speak to each other. The progressive left, the classical liberal right, and the centrists rarely share a stage.

LibCon has changed that. Our speakers have always spanned the entire ideological and political spectrum. And this year, as befits the theme of the conference—reconstructing our decimated institutions and making them less vulnerable to future populist demagogues while delivering better results for ordinary Americans—this is even more the case. The lineup includes: Princeton’s Jan-Werner Müller, the world’s most prominent scholar of populism; Harvard’s Danielle Allen; The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer and Anne Applebaum, the world’s biggest authority on 21st-century authoritarianism; President Obama’s White House Counsel and co-author of After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency, Bob Bauer; former attorney general and Bush senior’s debate coach, Stu Gerson; Nicaraguan democracy leader who survived nearly two years in solitary confinement before being stripped of his citizenship and exiled Felix Maradiaga; Hong Kong’s student leader who spearheaded the Umbrella Movement against the Chinese takeover and who now lives in exile in England with a bounty on his head, Nathan Law; Poland’s former minister of justice, who spent two years dismantling authoritarian institutional capture from the inside, Adam Bodnar; McGill University political theorist and classical liberal Jacob T. Levy; The Dispatch’s Kevin Williamson, who broke with his National Review pals to fight Trumpism; The Bulwark’s Sarah Longwell, Bill Kristol, and Cathy Young; The New York Times’ Ezra Klein and David French; the Cato Institute’s brilliant legal commentator Walter Olson; the uber thoughtful Brookings Institute fellow Jonathan Rauch; the country’s premier criminal justice reporter Radley Balko; LibCon veteran who needs no introduction, Francis Fukuyama; and many, many more luminaries that you can check out here.

Our lineup is a microcosm of the coalition we’re building; proof of concept, as it were, assembled in a single room. But it isn’t just our speakers who are diverse—our attendees are, too. This is how Rutgers historian Jennifer Mittelstadt, a panelist last year, put it to us: “You gathered together people usually not in the same room. Sitting at various tables I met young trans journalists, a self-described libertarian from Indiana with a queer son, a founder of a new activist group, a social worker from Northern California who came on her own dime. That NEVER happens at conferences.” And while we are boasting, Damon Linker called last year’s LibCon “a huge success” and credited us for “conjuring this event and its rapidly expanding network of participants and supporters out of thin air.” León Krauze of The Washington Post described it as “an invitation to action rather than mere reflection.” Steven Pinker called it “a splendid and important conference.”

There is no other convening like this anywhere else on the planet.

How have we assembled this coalition? By maintaining moral clarity about what we are trying to accomplish—defeating authoritarianism—while eschewing moral purity. We draw boundaries that automatically screen out those who don’t recognize the current authoritarian threat as existential, or who elevate lesser concerns to dilute the urgency of the real one. But beyond that, we have no litmus test. If you believe liberal democracy is imperiled by elected autocrats who rig the rules, illicitly consolidate power, and thrive on us-versus-them tribalism, then you are one of us, and you are welcome in this fight.

But unlike our opponents, we don’t paper over our internal differences or pretend they don’t exist. Consider the National Conservatives, who have been convening since 2019 around a coalition held together by little more than a shared hatred of liberalism. The contradictions are, frankly, comic: Peter Thiel—billionaire, gay, and an avowed admirer of Curtis Yarvin, the tech-world’s favorite fascist-adjacent provocateur—sharing a banner with integralists like Patrick Deneen, who would like to return to a pre-Enlightenment Catholic confessional state that is unlikely to be all that tolerant of flamboyant gay tech bros.

We, by contrast, air our disagreements and thrash them out—just as the Founders did—because what unites us is not merely opposition to authoritarianism but an affirmative commitment to liberal democracy itself. We aren’t just against something. We are for something.

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So come join us at LibCon2026 on July 16-17 at the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C. If you are feeling depressed, discouraged, and burned out, the conversation, camaraderie, and connections will uplift, motivate, and recharge you. Guaranteed!

With five weeks to go, we are nearing 70% capacity. We have sold out weeks in advance both previous years, so don’t wait.

To check out the full program and register for LibCon2026, go here. If you are a subscriber to The UnPopulist, use code UNPOPULIST-26 for 10% off registration. Paid subscribers can use code UNPOP-SUB-26 for 15% off (to upgrade your subscription, go here.) Students, faculty, and nonprofit workers receive a 50% discount automatically—just input your affiliation during registration.

See you in July!

© The UnPopulist, 2026

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