Jan-Werner Mueller

Opinion | The Shields Are Down, Mr. President

"In Trump’s first term, sacrificing cabinet members meant firing them, or pushing them to resign. In the second term, it means keeping them in the job for as long as those shields retain even marginal power."

STANDARD: Sie fordern in Ihrem Buch, man solle auf die Wählerinnen und Wähler populistischer Parteien zuzugehen. Sie als autoritäre Deppen abzukanzeln, sei der falsche Weg. Baberowski: Es führt kein Weg daran vorbei, mit jenen zu streiten, die sich abwenden, weil man sie sonst dauerhaft aus dem politischen Prozess drängt. Die meisten Bürger wählen populistische Parteien nicht, weil ihnen die politischen Programme dieser Gruppen gefallen, oder weil sie sich von ihnen versprechen, die gute alte Zeit zurückzubringen. Die gute alte Zeit ist unwiederbringlich verloren. Es geht den Wählerinnen und Wählern der Populisten vielmehr darum, gehört zu werden, eine Stimme zu haben, die zählt und etwas bewirkt. Manchen würde es wahrscheinlich schon genügen, wenn man Ihnen zuhörte, wenn man sich für ihre Nöte interessierte. Letztlich geht es um Anerkennung, um Respekt und Würde.

Baberowski: Ja, es ist die Aussichtslosigkeit, die Perspektivlosigkeit, die Menschen wütend macht. Von den traditionellen Parteien, vor allem von den einst mächtigen Sozialdemokraten, fühlen sie sich nicht mehr vertreten. Die Eliten geben ihnen das Gefühl, dass es unerheblich ist, was sie denken, dass ihre Meinung nicht zählt. Man mag sich vielleicht von seinesgleichen belehren und maßregeln lassen, aber nicht von jenen, die vom Leben der kleinen Leute nichts verstehen.

STANDARD: Populistische Bewegungen, behaupten Sie in Ihrem Buch, tauchen immer wieder auf im Laufe der Demokratiegeschichte. Ist Populismus so etwas wie der Schatten der Demokratie? Baberowski: Ja. Immer dann, wenn die Repräsentanten nicht leisten, was sie versprochen haben, bricht die Stunde der Populisten an. Aus der Sicht des Historikers ist das nun nichts, worüber man sich wundern muss: In guten Jahren haben Populisten wenig Zulauf, in schlechteren Jahren mehr. Solche Konjunkturen hat es immer schon gegeben, man sollte ihnen mit Gelassenheit begegnen.

Baberowski: In der Demokratie wurde immer schon gepöbelt und geschimpft. Demokratie ist immer auch Protest, der laut und schrill ist, von links wie von rechts. Demokratie lebt nicht allein vom Argument, sondern auch von den Leidenschaften, die Demagogen zu entfachen versuchen. In historischer Perspektive ist das, was jetzt geschieht, nichts Neues. Populistische Erregungsbewegungen hat es immer schon gegeben. Deshalb sollte man den Empörungswellen, die Europa gerade heimsuchen, mit Gelassenheit begegnen. Sie werden auch wieder verebben.

Schwindelerregendes "Populisten-Versteher"-Interview, in dem Rechtsextremismus und Populismus synonym verwendet werden, rechtsextreme Politik verharmlost wird, und kein Wort über Rassismus, der rechte Parteien antreibt, stattdessen viele Statements basierend auf Meinung statt empirischer Forschung.

Celebration, Florida.

The architecture of buildings with directly political functions: dignified, but not glorified?
#StreetPalaceSquare

Reform and Tories report ‘family voting’ allegations to watchdog Nigel Farage says his party was victim of ‘cheating’ in Gorton and Denton byelection, although Manchester council says no issues reported

The predictable response by far-right candidates losing at the polls:

People other than "the real people" voted; someone cheated; we were robbed; etc. etc.

The High Cost of Trump’s Amateur Diplomats Jan-Werner Mueller surveys the damage from the Trump administration’s gutting of US diplomatic capacity and expertise.

Another victory for these savvy negotiators.

Reform and Tories report ‘family voting’ allegations to watchdog Nigel Farage says his party was victim of ‘cheating’ in Gorton and Denton byelection, although Manchester council says no issues reported

The predictable response by far-right candidates losing at the polls:

People other than "the real people" voted; someone cheated; we were robbed; etc. etc.

The architecture of buildings with directly political functions: dignified, but not glorified?
#StreetPalaceSquare

'"These sections on the walls in the stairwell hold the voices of that night - and we will not let them be erased, silenced, or this tragedy be sanitised," said Karim Khalloufi, who lost his sister in the fire.'

Australians roll down lawns of Parliament House to protest against fence Australians gather to roll down the lawns of Parliament House in protest against a security fence.

'"This simple fun action embodies a very simple yet powerful symbol of democracy. That the citizens can walk up and over their elected government."'

Rod Dreher Thinks the Enlightenment Was a Mistake The influential author derides secularism and the modern world. Conservatives—including the vice president—are joining him on a march back to the Middle Ages.

'“The politics came to him more than the other way around,” Sullivan said, suggesting that Dreher was radicalized by his opposition to the trans-rights movement, Black Lives Matter, and other progressive causes.'

The poor folks on the far right never have political agency.

When Isaiah Berlin wrote “what is interesting is to read the enemy, because the enemy penetrates the defences,” he meant studying Maistre and Sorel, not that every racist blogger had to be debated in the Sheldonian.

When Isaiah Berlin wrote “what is interesting is to read the enemy, because the enemy penetrates the defences,” he meant studying Maistre and Sorel, not that every racist blogger had to be debated in the Sheldonian.

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Dreams from the Third Reich by Charlotte Beradt March 14, 2025 – "I dreamed that the milkman, the gas man, the newspaper vendor, the baker, and the plumber were all standing in a circle around me, holding out bills I owed. I was perfectly calm unti...

"The fact that the factory owner crumbled without resistance, but also without his downfall having any purpose or meaning, makes his dream a perfect parable for the creation of the submissive totalitarian subject."

Close Attention - Dissent Magazine An interview with Frederick Wiseman.

Documentarian Frederick Wiseman died today at age 96. "At a moment when many of the institutions he documented are being decimated and our attention is divided," Natasha Lewis wrote last year, "Wiseman’s films are out of time and completely timely." dissentmagazine.org/online_artic...

"Reversing the decline of media freedom will require not only legal reform, but also political will, independent institutions, and the effective enforcement of European standards."

New Report on Suppression of Independent Media in Hungary since 2010.

The First Amendment "may indeed best serve its high purpose when it induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger."

Terminiello v. Chicago, 337 U.S. 1 (1949)

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Was war der Cold War Liberalism? Zur historischen Eigenart, inneren Spannung und aktuellen Relevanz eines skeptischen Liberalismus

What WAS "Cold War liberalism," you ask? If you read German -- or have Google translate -- you can read my thoughts here:
www.kas.de/de/web/gesch...
(with references to @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social and @lkatfield.bsky.social, among others)

Whose Hemisphere? | Fintan O’Toole The US capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro reinforces the Trump administration’s capacity to invent any pretext to justify the use of armed force.

"But to own a property, as Trump knows very well, you have to be able to occupy it."

Or you demonstrate that you own it by destroying it.

With impunity.

Beware of ‘anti-woke’ liberals: they attacked the left and helped Trump win | Jan-Werner Müller So-called ‘reactionary centrist’ pundits proclaimed that there was a global ‘vibe shift’ in favor of the right. They were wrong

Great intervention by @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social on reactionary centrism, anti-wokeness, and the tendency to interpret the success of the right as backlash instead of as its own political project

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The vicious cycle of far-right success in Europe Publikationen der Stiftung. The vicious cycle of far-right success in Europe / Tarik Abou-Chadi ; Issuing Department Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung | Democracy of the Future, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung | Eur...

Here's the link: collections.fes.de/publikatione...

See this interesting blog post by Emilia Belknap and Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte, presenting evidence that doesn't really support such narratives.

ukandeu.ac.uk/most-british...

Beware of ‘anti-woke’ liberals: they attacked the left and helped Trump win | Jan-Werner Müller So-called ‘reactionary centrist’ pundits proclaimed that there was a global ‘vibe shift’ in favor of the right. They were wrong

"The point is not that what progressives do must never be criticized; the point is that the relentless drive to find fault with both sides equally results in a sense of (false) equivalence among those taking cues from supposedly trustworthy centrists."

The Catholic Church is getting swept away by ICE outrage Cardinal Joseph Tobin called for the defunding of ICE by lawmakers during an interfaith prayer livestream on Sunday

'...it is naive to think that supporting the Minnesota protests or interfering with ICE arrests is simply and indisputably “the Christian thing to do.”'

The Spectator instructing American bishops on the meaning of Catholicism.

"We find that the default feed of X showed more content from far-right AfD than from other political parties."