The UnPopulist Celebrates its Third Birthday

Here is our 'origin story' and our plans to defend and revitalize liberalism no matter what happens this November

The UnPopulist turns three today!

As

Landry Ayres

’ awesome, must-watch birthday video above of what we’d call in fashionable parlance “our origin story” shows, we have come a really, really long way in a rather short time. Our weekly posts have increased; our offerings now include not just print content but also first-rate podcasts and video essays; our presence spans multiple social media platforms, including Gen Z faves TikTok, YouTube shorts, and Instagram reels; our contributor-roster boasts the finest public intellectuals not only from the United States but other countries and continents; and our email readership and social media following has grown in leaps and bounds.

We are a small editorial team but punch far above our weight. You can check out some of the glowing testimonials for The UnPopulist from figures across the political spectrum here. But just to give you a flavor of our growing influence, in just the first two weeks of this month:

• Election expert

  Walter Olson
  ’s sober and thorough analysis debunking the MAGA myth that noncitizens are illegally voting en masse found its way into The New York Times and Rolling Stone.

• Anne Lutz Fernandez
  ’s debut piece, “MAGA’s Ever-Shrinking Definition of Who Counts as a Real American,” was featured by Ali Velshi on his MSNBC show.

• Our post, “Climate Catastrophism Leads to Illiberalism but Doesn’t Solve the Problem,” based on one of the panels at our wildly successful summer liberalism conference, was discussed on

  Matthew Yglesias
  ’ Slow Boring newsletter.

• Writer

  Matt Johnson
  ’s thorough-going intellectual takedown of conservative historian Niall Ferguson’s claim, confidently published in Bari Weiss’ The Free Press, that America is now like the Soviet Union during the Cold War, a hollow and decrepit power that will lose to China, was shared by Frank Fukuyama.

• My piece, “Why Populism and Authoritarianism Go Hand in Hand,” was included in the roundup on populism by the thoughtful podcast, Wisdom of Crowds.

• My brilliant colleague

  Berny Belvedere
  ’s post-debate analysis—and the accompanying viral thread—was favorably cited by The Dispatch’s Nick Catoggio.

And just this morning, I was on MSNBC discussing my own post-debate reflection, published alongside Berny’s insightful one.

There are three main reasons why we are a rising force in the public discourse:

1. We don’t compromise on quality: Shortly after launch,

   Thomas Shull
   , our survey research director and editor-at-large, counseled me to avoid the temptation of becoming an op-ed mill, firing off shallow pieces just to hit a breaking news cycle. We have followed that advice and take pride in publishing in-depth essays that are often so thorough that if you read nothing else on the topic, you’ll still be well informed. As examples, check out our recent pieces on El Salvador, Bangladesh, and JD Vance’s wacko and dangerous plan to allow parents to vote on behalf of their minor children, the last one by our whip-smart regular columnist,
   Andy Craig
   .

2. The clarity of our editorial vision: We are devoted to defending free and open liberal-democratic societies from the forces of modern authoritarianism that are swirling on the populist right. We are not oblivious to the murderous sprees that the left is capable of in the name of helping the underdogs in society. But, currently, the right is in a different league altogether and we are not afraid of saying so—instead of falling for the trap of a morally corrupting both-sideism.

3. The ambitiousness of our mission: The UnPopulist, along with its parent organization, Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, seeks nothing short of jettisoning the old and stale left/right divisions and forging a new liberal/illiberal alignment, not only in the United States but in the world. The point is to offer a new identity for all those interested in defending a revitalized liberalism capable of tackling the challenges of this century. The UnPopulist’s liberalism seeks to fuse the right’s (historic but now vanishing) commitment to economic liberalism with the left’s commitment to social justice liberalism using the glue of procedural liberalism that insists that each side advance its causes through peaceful parliamentary means rather than executive authority and/or violence. That means doing the hard work of reforming and strengthening our liberal institutions to make them more representative, not tearing them down if they don’t deliver our preferred policy outcome. (Landry’s fascinating video essay exploring Ireland’s use of its newly-created citizens’ assemblies to resolve difficult culture war issues is a perfect illustration of how we think reformers in liberal democracies ought to conduct themselves.)

What can readers expect from The UnPopulist’s post-election work?

Should Donald Trump and JD Vance win, America’s authoritarian moment may turn into an authoritarian era. And we will resist it with all our might. Trump has grandiose plans of targeting vulnerable minorities (witness his nasty and dehumanizing attacks against Haitian immigrants) and using the state to punish his enemies and reward his friends in his second term. Should he make good on his promises, we will unflinchingly call him out regardless of the risk or consequences.

But if the demagogic duo loses, a fight for the soul of the Republican Party will ensue. Trump has already remade the GOP in his own image. He has all but erased every trace of the decent, old guard from the Reagan era. All the current thought leaders within the party, including Vance and his fellow Ivy League senatorial colleagues—Arkansas’ Tom Cotton, Missouri’s Josh Hawley, and Texas’ Ted Cruz—are different shades of awful who have expressed no aversion to using illiberal means to advance their reactionary agenda. Yet America can’t really survive as a liberal country when one of the two major parties is determined not to engage in transactional politics or has no use for parliamentary means. So we will continue to try and defeat the GOP’s illiberal strain and identify and nurture any liberal green shoots that emerge from the wreckage that Trump leaves in his wake.

Although Harris and Walz so far are framing this election as a fight between democracy and authoritarianism, that does not mean they will be immune to the authoritarian temptation once in office. The progressive left has its own urgent agenda that it is impatient to advance. It will be tempted to use illiberal, executive means to accomplish it while it has a sympathetic president in office (witness President Biden’s misguided efforts at mass student loan forgiveness through executive means). Far from being sobered by Trump’s lawlessness, the left may be moved to imitate it. We will remain vigilant and be ready to push back.

However, even if the Harris administration behaves well, Trump has stress-tested our system and exposed many of its hitherto invisible weak spots that a future rogue president will have a far easier time exploiting. Our task will be to plug them while pushing America to become the best version of itself, one that is decent, open, dignified, respectful, humane, and all-embracing.

Last thing: We are committed to keeping The UnPopulist totally free. But our parent organization, ISMA, is a donor-supported nonprofit. So please do consider making a tax-deductible donation to it today by going here.

Wish us luck—and also to this great country we all love.

© The UnPopulist, 2024