populism

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

The right-wing populist got his start with puerile antics at the ‘Dartmouth Review.’ American politics has finally caught up.

Gary Saul Morson on the rise and fall of the first Russian populists.

The president's latest moves—and Steve Bannon’s lastest comments—raise the question.

A political establishment of long standing always suffers from a kind of mental illness. No matter how unambiguously it is repudiated or how joyously it is driven from office, its members will continue to remember the episode as accidental, temporary, and unjust. This week in Italy such arrogance…

In Connecticut, a populist pitbull battles a preppy plutocrat.

In March, Italian voters decided they had more to fear from corruption than from incompetence. Despite the warnings of experts, they voted overwhelmingly for two parties that want Italy to reclaim its sovereignty from the overweening European Union. One of those parties, the League, is on the…

Give her credit: Ann Coulter is a woman of strong convictions. Those convictions may be wrongheaded, bizarre, and even bigoted, but she knows what she believes and is willing to hold Donald Trump accountable. Unless he builds the wall (and not just some candy-ass fence) she's done with him—ready to…

Maybe not since the proto-Protestant radical Girolamo Savonarola was hanged and set on fire with two of his clerical accomplices in 1498 has Florence seen a weekend so filled with terrifying surprises and reversals of fortune. On Sunday morning, March 4, the city awoke to discover that Davide…

The end of the Chief Wahoo era. Given my lifelong Cleveland Indians fandom, Chief Wahoo has long been part of my sports wardrobe. The New York Times reports that Wahoo's reign as team logo ends in 2019, the year Cleveland will again host the MLB All-Star Game. The trademarks will still be owned by…

Capping his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, President Trump on Friday declared America “open for business and competitive once again” in a speech that trumpeted the country’s economic strength under his administration.

Steve Bannon, the bomb-throwing media figure and nationalist mascot who was once one of Donald Trump’s most trusted advisers, stepped down on Tuesday from his post as executive chairman of Breitbart.

If Americans think our nation is painfully divided, two statistics from across the Atlantic might put their minds at ease. The first is the percentage of British voters who chose, in a binding referendum last year, to abandon the European Union: just slightly under 52 percent. The other is the…

The (really good) website FiveThirtyEight is tracking how often members of Congress vote with the positions favored by President Trump. A “Trump Score” of 100 percent indicates that a senator or representative has matched the White House’s stance on every bill to have been weighed up or down. The…

Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, Daniel Krauthammer discusses his cover story "What Makes America Great?"

The election of 2016 was terrible because it wasn’t an election, it was a rebellion. America is having a civil war, or, to be more accurate, a War of Incivility. The war is not between Republicans and Democrats or between conservatives and progressives. The war is between the frightened and what…

Perhaps there are a few relevant historical touchstones, but President Donald J. Trump—typing those words still feels surreal—delivered an inaugural address unlike any any other. Inaugural speeches are typically vehicles for unity and uplift. Even Abraham Lincoln, on the verge of civil war,…

President Donald J. Trump gave an aggressive, combative inaugural speech today, heavy on the populism and economic nationalism that energized his campaign, and virtually devoid of the themes and principles that have defined the Republican party and the conservative movement at its heart.

A historian can be wise after the fact, but a political analyst must be wise before it. Most commentators failed to detect the signs of Donald Trump’s presidential victory, despite their received wisdom and psephological sensitivity. (The exception seems to have been those relying on that most…

A historian can be wise after the fact, but a political analyst must be wise before it. Most commentators failed to detect the signs of Donald Trump’s presidential victory, despite their received wisdom and psephological sensitivity. (The exception seems to have been those relying on that most…

They meant it. There have been five national elections in the past decade. In four of them—2006, 2008, 2010, and 2014—voters gave notice to the politicians who are supposed to lead them. They were different elections and different times, and the results invested power in different political…

Editor William Kristol's weekly Kristol Clear podcast, on why you should root for the Cleveland Indians, his recent editorial on conservatism and populism and nationalism, and the future of the post-Trump GOP.

Patrick J. Buchanan, a fervent Donald Trump supporter, wrote recently and approvingly that Trump’s campaign embodies "the populist-nationalist right that is moving beyond the niceties of liberal democracy."

In a recent essay for Bloomberg entitled "Why Populists Lose Elections," Pankaj Mishra reviews John Judis's new book The Populist Explosion, identifying Donald Trump as a right-wing populist who has riled up disaffected, working class whites. This is reminiscent of a summer essay for the Wall…

Ferris Bueller famously quipped "A person should not believe in an ism, he should believe in himself." But people do believe in isms—and a few of them are at odds with the isms prized by the ruling political classes.

The president was irritated, and it showed. This was back in June, and he was answering questions from the press, something he normally does with near-insouciance. So why was he peeved on this occasion? Well, there was all this talk of “populism."

Ideas travel, both the bad and the good. One is shared by two life-long members of the ruling class, Hillary Clinton, standard-bearer of the Democratic party, and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, two politicians who feel threatened by the new revolt of the masses.

In the latest installment of Conversations with Bill Kristol, author and American Enterprise Institute scholar Charles Murray discusses how changes in American society help explain the political environment in 2016. Issues include the decline of communities, immigration, and anti-trade sentiment,…

Matthew Continetti, writing at the Washington Free Beacon, examines the fate of traditional conservatives in state- and congressional-level primaries—as well as the long-term implications for the Republican party and conservative movement.

Cleveland

President Obama wanted to get something off his chest Wednesday and went off on what he later conceded was "a rant" about just who is—and is not—a populist.

Now that Donald Trump is the Republican party’s presumptive nominee, there is pressure on conservatives to support him. The people have rendered their verdict, and elitist Republicans should respect the will of the voters, or so goes the much-repeated refrain. But have the people really spoken?…

Many intellectuals misunderstand Donald Trump. Intellectuals often forget that Americans vote for a man, not a white paper, and that Trump passed the very first test for Republican candidates in 2016 while the rest of the field flunked. He was angry and seemed capable of acting on his anger. Trump…

Populism has upended the Republican presidential race, and a populist outcry against a globalist, corporatist elite echoes throughout the Western world. It’s possible for conservatives to channel some of the populist energies currently disrupting the American political scene. Conservatism and…

It has become common to liken Donald Trump to Bernie Sanders. They’re both “outsiders” who have seemingly bucked the system and have struck a nerve with the base of their respective parties. For Sanders, a self-described social democrat from the most liberal state in the union, his anti-Wall…

Former Ronald Reagan speechwriter Jeff Bell found a lot to like in Donald Trump's tax plan. 

In 1935, Sinclair Lewis published what would go on to be his most famous novel, It Can’t Happen Here. The novel describes the rise of Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip, a populist politician who resembling Louisiana’s Huey Long or, for modern readers, Caracas’ Hugo Chavez. He is described thusly:

Rick Santorum is keeping expectations low for his second presidential campaign. Asked if he would need to win the Iowa caucuses to stay in the race, the former senator said it “depends.”

In a 41-second video that's set to be released later this morning, the Republican National Committee is using a populist message to hit Hillary Clinton for "hypocrisy."  

Hillary Clinton has not been especially aggressive on ideas and policy.  On money, however, it is a different story.

Amsterdam 

A taste of the boss's newsletter (which is sent out every Monday):

A brilliant essay by James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal on why Santorum might well be electable, on populist conservatism, and on a "clarifying sentence" by Clive Crook with commentary by Mickey Kaus and Jeffrey Bell. Here's a taste—but read the whole thing:

John Merline: "The Richest 1% Get $10 Billion A Year From Uncle Sam"