| The following are some relevant segments adapted from a talk delivered by Kevin D. Roberts in Christ Chapel at Hillsdale College (https://www.hillsdale.edu/) on October 23, 2024, as part of the Drummond Lectures in Christ Chapel series. |
Although I will focus on the U.S., the rise of populism is widespread. From Argentina to Italy to France to the United Kingdom to Hungary, there are similarities. The new populism tends to be economically and politically nationalistic. It tends to be culturally patriotic and socially conservative. It tends to sympathize with workers over corporations. It is also self-consciously, defiantly—often mockingly—anti-establishment.
It is not a coincidence that so many of the West’s populist leaders —Javier Milei, Jair Bolsonaro, Viktor Orbán, Giorgia Meloni, and Donald Trump— have, shall we say, colorful personalities. Their political swagger may threaten elite politicians almost as much as their policy agendas do, because it punctures the bubble of credentialed, institutional authority insulating elite power from public scrutiny.
With few exceptions, the Left as we know it today has rejected populism out of hand, embracing instead Big Government, Big Business, Big Banks, Big Tech, Big Pharma, Big Labor, Big Ag, Big Media, and Big Entertainment. For the most part, today’s Left is hard at work fortifying the power these institutions wield against the rigors of democratic accountability.
Thus the only hope for a sustainable, democratically legitimate populist reform movement today is on the Right. The question is whether the leaders of the movement can harness the highly negative energy from which the populism emerges and channel it toward a coherent, positive politics of national renewal and reform.
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To see what today’s populists are reacting against, think back to 1991. The end of the Cold War appeared to be a great victory for the Washington establishment—never mind that most leaders of that establishment opposed Reaganism, which was instrumental in bringing down the Soviet Union. Regardless, this victory earned Western institutions a high level of public trust unimaginable today. In November 1989, for instance, when the Berlin Wall fell, President George H.W. Bush’s public approval rating hit 70 percent and would climb to 80 and even 90 percent in subsequent years.
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En la bóveda principal del Panteón de París, suspendido en la altura, oscila el péndulo construido por León Foucault en el siglo XIX para demostrar el movimiento de rotación de la Tierra. La ley del péndulo determina, no solo esa acción mecánica (que corresponde a la reacción contraria de fuerza equivalente) en el péndulo, sino en objetos como el columpio. 
prensa fuerte y crítica, y ciudadanos que no teman ponerse de pie y decir que el emperador está desnudo. O, por el contrario, defender a las víctimas de la propaganda y la mentira. Es este un momento en que escritores y periodistas deben estar más claros y saber distinguir la verdad de la falsedad, la noticia de la farsa y la difamación política, y aliarse con la verdad. Aquel que teme hacerlo no es un pensador libre.
Estamos al borde de una guerra civil en Estados Unidos. No creo que sea armada pero sí en los tribunales y en los medios de prensa. Una nación profundamente dividida en la que cualquiera que piense distinto es un "enemigo". Lo estamos percibiendo en las elecciones que se avecinan en el país. No importa qué lado gane, el otro lado se mostrará amarga y tal vez violentamente infeliz. Las elecciones de noviembre este año 2024 serán impugnadas de varias maneras por el perdedor, cualquiera que sea. Es probable que sea una situación caótica y muy fea. Cierto que parece algo escandaloso de decir, pero ya lo estamos viendo en la campaña electoral y no podemos seguir ignorándolo con una actitud de indefensión.