Tuesday, March 31, 2026

Willmoore Kendall II: How a Conservative Populist Became a Majoritarian in Name Only

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  Since writing my previous piece on Willmoore Kendall, I have read Christopher Owen's recent biography   of that conservative iconocla...
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Sunday, March 8, 2026

What Comes First in My Democratic Theory

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  Theological discussions have long been riddled with arguments between those who think God created humans and those who think humans create...
Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Should Democracy Backers Now Love "States' Rights"?

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  "Progressives" have long been wary of "states' rights." That take is unsurprising, since "constitutional argu...
Wednesday, February 4, 2026

Willmoore Kendall, Irascible Drunken McCarthyite, YES; Brilliant Scholar, NO. Part I. Socrates, Mill, and Free Speech

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  I've spilled considerable ink to date on Carl Schmitt, having reviewed several books on the Nazi jurist/theorist and mused about his l...
Tuesday, January 20, 2026

What is "Direct Democracy"? What is "More Democracy"? What is Less?

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  The dawn of the 21st Century in the U.S. resembled the opening of the 20th in producing an explosion of interest in participatory democrac...
Saturday, December 20, 2025

Ah, Why Can't All Self-Proclaimed Democracy Advocates Just Get Along?

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  I mean, Prof. Charles Beitz of Princeton wants more and better democracy, and I want more and better democracy. He says our system is badl...
Thursday, November 20, 2025

Matthew Kramer's Book on H.L.A. Hart

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Once you get the Austin/Kelsen/Schmitt/Hart/Fuller/Finnis/Dworkin bug, it's pretty hard to get over it. Where do laws come from? Why sho...
Friday, November 14, 2025

A Distressing Realization for a Democratic Theorist

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It's not particularly fun to get old. But for those of us lucky enough to have a comfortable home, sweet, patient partner, awesome doggi...