Virginia is considering a truly horrendous congressional map. I can’t wait to vote for it. Below, I explain why.

Can anyone articulate to me the benefits, if any, to the UK of a Labour government such as it currently has? From the outside looking in, it is hard to decipher.

Even as we speak…

By placing the dignity of all human beings front and center, liberalism provides a strong incentive to find alternatives to violent conflict. We recognize that peace is not achieved through violence, but through creativity, innovation, and the best aspects of our human character.

A quick-hit this week, but I think an important one. The online radicalization of young men may have contributed to MAGA’s success, but it’s a problem that preceded Trump’s rise, and one we’ll have to solve regardless of his decline.

Presidents Day is a perfect time to reflect on the liberal values our founders sought to instill in a young America — openness, liberty, pluralism, equality under the law.

I think, if you’re anything like me in wanting a deep understanding of the present, you should read more fiction. I share some recommendations in my latest substack.

I do *want* to return to a normalized, boring sort of national politics where opponents may be wrong without being an accomplice to evil. I’m not willing to pretend compromising moral clarity is the path back there.

“Good politics cannot be built on a foundation that doesn't recognize the essential value of every human being” — @shawnhuckabay.info

Pam Bondi’s performance before Congress reminds me of the sort of unhinged lashing out some narcissistic defendants do at the judge when being handed down a long sentence for a crime they definitely committed.

RE: a certain article making the rounds today.

Alabama’s past is America’s future. Ever met anyone who brags they voted for George Wallace?

Why is the DOJ protecting the names of adult criminals as though they’re underage victims?

Sic transit gloria mundi. Trump’s shuttering of the Kennedy Center for effectively the remainder of his term is an admission of defeat. Both performers and audiences had fled the venue in droves after the addition of his cursed name to the fascade by his sycophantic, self-chosen board.

“To acknowledge a real dichotomy, even where one exists, presents too great a risk for most libertarians, tactically (strategic voting is a great bugbear of third parties), philosophically, and psychologically.” My latest on substack: open.substack.com/pub/tylerjoh...

Welcome to the era where democracy is a kitchen-table issue. Source: www.whsv.com/2026/01/29/w...

When I was a young conservative, there was a very slippery pipeline for young people to fall down to be activated into the conservative movement. It was mostly harmless — a fast track to a BBQ with your congressman, shaking hands with Steve Forbes, or five minutes with Ben Stein. 1/🧵

I’ve been thinking a lot about the intersection of culture and politics, and the ways in which our culture acts on us. I start here by exploring one particular way our culture acts on us that has been, to paraphrase Hirohito, not necessarily to our advantage.

We need a revolution in this country, not of class, or race, or national identity, but of decency.

“Anyone with an audience… is in constant dialogue with that audience, obviously in the sense that they are communicating to the people who choose to listen to them, but also in the sense that the choice to listen in itself communicates something back in return.”

Like many, I’ve had a hard time the past few days, not the least of which because of the grotesque reactions of so many to this horror. I try to unpack some of that below.

There are now 20,000 ICE agents in the US. That is 20,000 too many, but not nearly enough to oppress, harass, kidnap, and kill 300 million of us without our assistance, aid, comfort, and compliance. Do not offer it. Stand together as a community, united for peace and safety. This must end.

Treating birthrate as a matter of national public policy is, among many other far worse things, very creepy.

Somehow, appreciation for the endearingly scrappy aspect of the American character has been twisted into a crass celebration of provincialism and yoked to a ruinous and corrupt political movement. I do sincerely hope that the former survives the collapse of the latter two.

The ongoing desecration of the White House is a potent symbol of our national shame.

Remember when “character matters” was a rallying cry for the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition?

Someone has to have already pointed to the old phrase, “all hat, no cattle.”

America prospers from engagement with the world. We do best when we approach global partners with a spirit of openness and a recognition of common dignity and human experience. We suffer when we either retract meekly upon ourselves or stride forth alone with domineering arrogance.

Is bluesky an echo chamber? I think it is for some, which is telling given that we all have the tools to shape and contour our individual experiences here. My experience is not of an echo chamber, but it is that it’s a little quiet here. That’s also likely driven a lot by my choices, no doubt.

War has agreed upon rules, as preposterous as that sounds, not because abiding by them allows one to kill and remain on the side of the angels, but because violating them places one amongst the worst devils of history.

You can secure a border against smuggling by engaging in free trade, secure it against drugs with decrim and rehab-focused infrastructure to erode demand, and secure it from illegal crossings by embracing freer movement with expansive visa programs and Schengen-like agreements with trusted nations.

The Trump ballroom is planned to dwarf the iconic residence itself.

At @theunpopulist.net, I'm launching a new project about how our institutions failed so completely and what a constitutional reconstruction should look like. Because the aftermath of this catastrophe will be here sooner rather than later. 1/

“No Kings” is the core message of the American founding. Be safe today, but be bold and be proud.

The Nobel prize has been awarded to a pro-democracy dissident and stalwart opposition figure to one of the most autocratic regimes on Earth. The committee did well, not just to award Machado, but to honor the struggle for democracy against tyranny she both represents and tirelessly advances.

“The era of small government — more precisely of people caring about the size of government — is over.”

I care about only one question in the upcoming Virginia elections: When Trump tries to federalize the Virginia National Guard and turn them against our own citizens, who will fight like hell to live up to the commonwealth’s motto and who will knuckle under and truncate it to “semper tyrannis?”

Imagine looking out onto this crowd and telling them they aren’t uniform enough.

“Beards are icky and hurt my feelings. I’m creepy around women and I don’t like fat people. I demand the entire US military revolve around my failings and reflect my weaknesses.”

It doesn’t come up very often, but it feels important to go on record that I’m a third amendment absolutist.

One of these photos is a war-ravaged city. The other is Portland. Anyone who can’t tell the difference isn’t fit to lead. Don’t be snowed, the deployment of troops against US citizens is a criminal act.

With his declaration of Antifa as a terrorist organization, Trump is preparing to wage, and very likely lose, a war against an organization that doesn’t exist.

The fight to censor Kimmel will be remembered as a total victory for defenders of free speech in the face of an openly authoritarian regime and cowardly corporate interests. Whether it is remembered as a last gasp or a turning of the tide yet rests with us.

Trump can dump as many classified files on the public as he likes. Every headline’s still going to read like this.

If truth is an incitement to violence, it’s not those speaking it who are at fault, but those making the world so.

Nothing that’s radicalized me is half as meaningful as the things that moderate me.

At least one or two MAGA supporters listening to Stephen Miller directly quoting Goebbels speaches, I’d hope…

Democracy may imperfectly vouchsafe against corruption, but everywhere democratic institutions and norms recede corruption takes root and grows.

I guess when it’s your own poll, you kinda have to tell people the results.