“Post-liberalism landed on the mainstream’s radar in 2018 with the publication of Patrick Deneen’s Why Liberalism Failed — though its roots go back decades, with Alasdair MacIntyre considered a foundational figure. The most virulent form of the ideology is itself a rebranding of integralism, a counter-revolutionary movement with totalitarian historical associations. Despite this, since 2018, the movement has gained significant traction, to the point where it has a substantial intellectual network and high-profile politicians showing at least an openness to some post-liberal ideas. Conservatives and liberals alike ought to recognize the danger of this new right-wing ideology, and confront it head-on, even if it may seem to some that the post-liberals’ goals align with theirs.” (03/18/26)
“I’m something of a rarity: a liberal who is worried about declining birth rates across the West. I look at a rapidly aging and longer-living population with smaller and smaller birth cohorts, and see a future in which social spending buckles under top-heavy entitlement programs; workers struggle in sluggish economies; schools and libraries are forced to close or decay in the face of shrinking tax bases; and the national soul is harmed as more and more individuals fail to realize their desired family size. In recent years, concerns about declining family formation and fertility have spread to some respectable center-Left quarters. Yet liberals like me still find ourselves marooned on a small opinion island. One big reason for that is the work of the biologist Paul R. Ehrlich, who died over the weekend, aged 93. Ehrlich’s anti-birth, anti-human ideology continues to shadow every conversation about demographic change.” (03/18/26)
“Susan Rice, who played leading roles in the Obama and Biden administrations, has broken a Washington code of silence by threatening that anyone who plays ball with the Trump administration will suffer payback the next time Democrats take control. ‘When it comes to the elites, you know, the corporate interests, the law firms, the universities, the media, it’s not going to end well for them,’ she said on a podcast. ‘They’re going to be held accountable by those who come in opposition to Trump and win at the ballot box,’ she added. She is no stranger to dirty tricks, having been involved in the Obama administration’s spying on Trump’s 2016 White House campaign. And she was in the top ranks of the Biden White House when its Justice Department broke with two centuries of history by indicting and trying to convict Trump …” (03/17/26)
“Paul Ehrlich has died at the old age of 93. I am grateful he lived long enough to witness how many of his doomsday predictions were wrong. But he does not seem to have recognized his faults. As late as 2018, Ehrlich predicted (once again) that the collapse of civilization would happen in decades. How could a person who is consistently wrong about everything maintain his status as a public intellectual? I think the short answer is that Ehrlich told progressives what they wanted to hear and reaffirmed their world view. … There is much to say on Ehrlich’s death, but it may be most useful to connect his writings on population control with Roe v. Wade.” (03/17/26)
“Donald Trump does not think strategically. Nor does he think historically, geographically, or even rationally. He does not connect actions he takes on one day to events that occur weeks later. He does not think about how his behavior in one place will change the behavior of other people in other places. He does not consider the wider implications of his decisions. He does not take responsibility when these decisions go wrong. Instead, he acts on whim and impulse, and when he changes his mind—when he feels new whims and new impulses — he simply lies about whatever he said or did before. For the past 14 months, few foreign leaders have been able to acknowledge that someone without any strategy can actually be president of the United States.” (03/17/26)
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Sarah McLaughlin
“Spain is no longer just talking about regulating online ‘hate.’ Now it’s building an AI system to track it. Fresh off an announcement that he intends to pursue an under-16 social media ban, as well as regulations holding tech owners personally liable for hateful content on their platforms and algorithms that share that material, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is promoting the launch of an AI program to track online hate. … It’s valuable for governments to know and understand how prejudice operates and affects the citizens they govern, but this system risks expanding government pressure on platforms to censor lawful political expression.” (03/17/26)
Source: Niskanen Center
by Rachel Levine & Michael Goggin
“Initial results from Niskanen Center and Grid Strategies’ Winter Storm Fern report underscore the need for more interregional transmission capacity and new grid resources of all forms to meet rising demand for electricity while keeping prices low. In particular, generator performance varied by region and by fuel type while gas supply constraints and transmission congestion increased costs to consumers.” (03/17/26)
“Irish history is lost in the infamous mists of time (so Irish) and buried under the bright green of the island’s sod (again, so Irish). Popular history speaks of Celts as being the ‘indigenous’ people of an Eire (Ireland) who were colonized and disinherited by evil Norman and English invaders (aided by their minion warriors and settlers of Scotland). It is much more complicated, of course. The history of Eire is indeed very much like that of North America (Turtle Island): a constant series of invasions, occupation, colonization, and war.” (03/17/26)
“The SAVE Act is coming up for a Senate vote soon, having passed the House back in February. On Tuesday, it cleared its first hurdle, advancing a motion to begin debate on a 51-48 vote that fell mostly along party lines; that’s well short of the 60 votes needed to clear a filibuster and ultimately pass. This bill is probably the most sweeping abrogation of voting rights since Jim Crow. As the Brennan Center explains, it would require both voter ID and proof of citizenship to vote, as well as force the states to send their voter files to the Department of Homeland Security. Tens of millions [sic] of U.S. citizens do not have ready proof of their citizenship, and tens of millions more [sic] don’t match with the documents they do have (for instance, married women who have changed their last name).” (03/18/26)
