Tag: elections

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The British political landscape has shifted more in the past five years than it did over the preceding century. By the mid-19th century, the Whig Party had disbanded (as the American Whigs also did at around the same time) or transformed into the Liberal Party. The turn of the 20th century saw the creation of the Labour Party, and a political binary that would last for over 100 years. (more…)

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“It records the sorry chronicle of Majority reverses on all the important battlegrounds—cultural, religious, political, economic, and diplomatic. Since the liberal-minority coalition has emerged victorious on all fronts, it is not an overstatement to describe the losers as the Dispossessed Majority.”

—Wilmot Robertson, The Dispossessed Majority

“We have no real democracy at the present time, because again and again the people have voted for decisive action, yet again and again their will has been thwarted by obstruction in the talking shop at Westminster. Democracy only begins when the will of the people is carried out.”

—Oswald Mosley (more…)

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In this short essay I will discuss the role of the president in the Polish political system, the background and context of the 2025 elections, the main actors, and finally, the outcome of the elections with some predictions for the future. (more…)

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Perhaps you know the saying: Pessimists always claim to be realists. Well, in my experience, pessimism more often than not is realism. (more…)

Endicott & Swett, Nullification . . . Despotism (1833). Courtesy of The New York Public Library.

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Part 1 of 2

Classical liberalism tends to get a bad rap in our circles. There are reasons for that, of course. Although it didn’t turn out to be the final word in political theory, or a be-all end-all ideology, there are some valid principles from it which should be salvaged. More to the point, is democracy — or representative government, to be specific — washed up? (more…)

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Jim Goad has produced a short film to accompany his latest essay, “Straining to Care About This Year’s Election,” on why he’s going to be sitting out this year’s presidential election. (more…)

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Now that we’ve taken off our holiday party masks and furtively tiptoed into 2024, the presidential election looms only ten months away.

I find myself violently uninterested in the whole sorry affair. I can’t recall a time in my life when I cared less about the candidates or the outcome.

It wasn’t always this way.

I was barely out of diapers when Lyndon Johnson thrashed Barry Goldwater in 1964, so I can’t be faulted for not doing my civic duty and paying attention to that election. (more…)

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The 2020 film Irresistible, written and directed by the well-known former Daily Show host Jon Stewart, is a much-underrated political comedy in which a small-town mayoral campaign becomes a partisan battleground. At first I thought it might cover the same ground as The Candidate. (As I remember from when I watched it around 1979, a young greenhorn campaigns for a Senate seat, has to tone down his far-Left politics for optics purposes, and is furious because he wins after compromising himself.) Instead, it went in some surprising directions. (more…)

Guido Taietti

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Guest host Pox Populi (Telegram, YouTube) welcomed the Italian author, political strategist, and CasaPound Italia activist Guido Taietti to Counter-Currents Radio last weekend to discuss politics in Italy, the CasaPound Italia social movement, Mr. Taietti’s book Political Witchcraft, and to take questions from the audience. It is now available for download and online listening. (more…)

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Part 4 of 4 (Part 1 here, Part 3 here)

And even if all financial incentives were totally eradicated from politics, this would not — and could not — exclude non-monetary forms of lobbying and influence, where private entities influence politicians in ways that do not involve any form of financial compensation. In the words of Rep. Maggie Wood Hassan, “When you are in the legislature, it can be hard to distinguish the loud from the many.” The distant nature of political representation ensures that even the most well-meaning politician’s perspective can be biased and distorted by dozens of external influences. (more…)

Hunter Biden sells his own paintings for up to $500,000 apiece, and the buyers’ names are a closely-guarded secret.

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Part 3 of 4 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 4 here)

Aside from campaign contributions, wealthy donors and special interest groups can also be gateways to extremely lucrative career opportunities after a politician’s time in office. These special interest groups often lace their campaign contributions with extremely tempting and lucrative private-sector opportunities such as book tours, speaking tours, and privileged consulting positions and careers at the apex of the corporate world, which have allowed many politicians to monetize their political careers and become extraordinarily wealthy. (more…)

AIPAC is one example of a lobby that has outsized influence over US elections.

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Part 2 of 4 (Part 1 here, Part 3 here)

“The dollar votes more times than the man,” goes the century-old political proverb. Before voters enter the equation, political parties need donors to finance their campaign. This means that political parties will not necessarily adopt the preferences of voters, because “no party can afford to take up the median position that represents the views of the vast majority if investors disagree.” (more…)

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Part 1 of 4 (Part 2 here)

Under our constitution it is We The People who are sovereign. The people have the final say. The legislators are their spokesmen. The people determine through their votes the destiny of the nation. — Citizens United v. FEC (more…)