Over at his Substack “Americana,” historian Jim Cullen explains the difference between republicans, populists, and democrats. Here is a taste: There is, however, a stratum in our political culture between the republican and the populist: the democrat. Democrats in effect […]
populism
“By presenting their expertise as part of a political fight, academics were not only squandering their credibility. They were asking to be treated like political adversaries.”
I am not a regular reader of Megan McArdle’s writing, but her recent piece on academia at The Washington Post has a strong ring of truth to it. Here is a taste: The Trump administration is not just trying to […]
Thomas Frank on “fake populism”
Nathan Robinson, the editor of Current Affairs, starts his interview with author Thomas Frank by quoting from Frank’s 2016 book Listen, Liberal: “Now all political parties are alliances of groups with disparate interests, but the contradictions of the Democratic Party […]
David Brooks: “Trump really seems not to give a crap about the working class”
Here is The New York Times columnist: Over the past 20 years or so many of us social observer types have been writing about the horrific chasms separating the educated class (people with college degrees) from the working class (people […]
A populist inauguration ceremony with no people? Where is the spirit of March 4, 1829 and January 6, 2021?
In case you haven’t heard, Trump’s inauguration tomorrow will be held indoors. Due to the cold weather, Trump will get sworn-in and deliver his inaugural address in the United States Capitol Rotunda. Ronald Reagan was the last president to have […]
On the politics of the average American
Tyler Austin Harper brings the evidence: The politics of the average American are not well represented by either party right now. On economic issues, large majorities of the electorate support progressive positions: They say that making sure everyone has health-care coverage is […]
What is missing from this marker of personal virtue and moral purity?
Thomas Frank answers the question in the title of this post: Back in 2022, Frank said that the Democrats were incapable of defeating the Trumpism. He was right. Frank asks, “what happens to a country when the people of its […]
Can the Democrats reclaim the populist mantle?
Michael Sean Winters has his doubts. Here is a taste of his piece at the National Catholic Reporter: Democratic donors on Wall Street, in Silicon Valley and in Hollywood, and among special interest groups don’t want a party that champions […]
Michael Kazin: Democrats must “revive aggressive populism on the left”
Here is the Georgetown historian at Dissent: Perhaps the only positive consequence of the victory of an utterly despicable nominee and his down-ballot faithful is that progressives inside and outside the Democratic Party are groping their way toward a common […]
Democrats need to “ditch” DEI thinking and “get back to fighting for the poor, the working class, and the middle class”
Writer Rand Richard Cooper asks whether the Democrats have “lost the country.” Here is a taste of his piece at Commonweal: The wealthy, worldly, and highly educated parts of this nation are Democratic, while the struggling, provincial, and undereducated parts […]
The Author’s Corner with Zachary Michael Jack
Zachary Michael Jack is Professor of English at North Central College. This interview is based on his new book, The Strange Genius of Ignatius Donnelly: The Populist Who Debunked Shakespeare and Found Atlantis (Northern Illinois University Press, 2024). JF: What […]
How Harris is transcending Trump
E.J. Dionne is right: The sudden and radical shift in the trajectory of the 2024 campaign owes to more than the replacement of President Joe Biden with Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate. To a degree that’s still not fully appreciated, Harris […]
Damon Linker on the post-liberal Catholics driving J.D. Vance and the Trump campaign
Linker compares today’s anti-liberal Catholic conservatives to the liberal Catholic conservatives who gathered around Richard John Neuhaus’s First Things twenty years ago. Linker is well-suited to make such comparisons. He was editor of First Things from 2004 to 2005. After […]
J.D. Vance “turns the shame of drinking Mountain Dew into a source of class and race resentment”
Mountain Dew is in the news these days, thanks to vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance. Watch: Over at The Atlantic, Ian Bogost gives us a fascinating history lesson on the drink that got me through a lot of late night […]
The mind of J.D. Vance
Ian Ward unpacks the intellectual influences that shape the mind of J.D. Vance, Trump’s vice-president pick. They are Notre Dame professor Patrick Deneen, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, blogger Curtis Yarvin, deceased philosopher RenĂ© Girard, writer Sohrab Ahmari, the group of […]
Jonah Goldberg: “I wish the Teamsters president would call for Tesla to be unionized, just to see what happens.”
Commentator Jonah Goldberg had the line of the night: Here is some context. Donald Trump gave the keynote address on night one of the GOP convention to Sean O’Brien, the president of the Teamsters. O’Brien was not there to endorse […]
J.D. Vance and the end of “Reagan’s view of America’s role in the world”
This picture is revealing. Two “America First” populists shaking hands while a classic Reagan Republican watches them and claps from a distance. Here is The Washington Post‘s editorial board: Former president Donald Trump’s selection of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) as his running […]
Song of the Day
What is Project 2025?
In Steve Bannon’s recent interview with David Brooks, Bannon referenced something called Project 2025. What is Project 2025? James Goodwin explains at Boston Review. Here is a taste: The week after taking office in 2017, Donald Trump announced his administration’s […]
David Brooks interviews Steve Bannon
MAGA activist Steve Bannon went to prison yesterday. The New York Times columnist David Brooks interviewed Bannon a few days before he reported for his sentence. Here are a few snippets of their conversation: You said something I’ve got to […]