Fred Bauer
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Writing a book on reimagining freedom for @PolityBooks. @NRO, @CityJournal, @Commonplc, @UnHerd, @TheAtlantic, etc. | fredbauerblog at gmail dot com
Articles by Fred Bauer
The Civic Stakes of the Maine Senate Race | National Review
Susan Collins's Maine Senate race against Troy Jackson highlights competing approaches to political governance. Collins has built her career around moderation, bipartisanship, institutional independence, and compromise, offering a test of whether voters still reward lawmakers willing to break with their own parties.
‘Common Good’ Capitalism Preserves Freedom
The “common good” war has erupted again. Americans are increasingly isolated and distrustful, while revolutionary socialism has gained a new political foothold, shining a new light on debates about communal solidarity and individual autonomy. There’s certainly a tension between a politics prioritizing freedom and one that stresses a sense of communal solidarity.
‘Common Good’ Capitalism Preserves Freedom
The “common good” war has erupted again. Americans are increasingly isolated and distrustful, while revolutionary socialism has gained a new political foothold, shining a new light on debates about communal solidarity and individual autonomy. There’s certainly a tension between a politics prioritizing freedom and one that stresses a sense of communal solidarity.
After Transcendental Homelessness
A century ago, the philosopher Georg Lukacs diagnosed the modern age as afflicted with a “transcendental homelessness.” A similar critique has been mounted against liberal modernity in our own time: that it dislocates us from tradition and community, leaving us as individual specks floating in the void.
A Secular Epic
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey now sits atop the box office, and—like millions across the country—I saw it on Friday night. Prior to watching the film, I went out of my way to read nothing about it, trying especially to avoid the culture war about whether it was “woke” or not. In retrospect, I think that latest cultural battle missed much of what was interesting (including interesting to argue about) in the film.
Celebrate American Vastness, in All Its Glory | National Review
Ours is a nation of whirling colors and flashing fireworks.
The Plan To Split The World Into Spheres And What It Means For America
In current foreign-policy debates on the Right, some have pushed for dividing the world into “spheres of influence.” The United States would get the Americas, the People’s Republic of China would be granted sway over Asia, and Vladimir Putin would have carte blanche to intervene in European affairs. Far from being steely-eyed “realism,” splitting up the world in that way might actually not take the national interest seriously enough. The “spheres of influence” gambit has a superficial logic.
The 'Donroe Doctrine' in Action
President Trump’s 2025 National Security Strategy proclaimed that the United States would restore its “preeminence in the Western Hemisphere,” and the Trump administration has wasted no time implementing that vision. In toppling Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, the Trump administration underlined that goal less than two months after the document’s release. The strike not only illustrated the prowess of the U.S. military but exposed deeper changes in U.S. foreign policy going forward.
The 'Donroe Doctrine' in Action
President Trump’s 2025 National Security Strategy proclaimed that the United States would restore its “preeminence in the Western Hemisphere,” and the Trump administration has wasted no time implementing that vision. In toppling Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, the Trump administration underlined that goal less than two months after the document’s release. The strike not only illustrated the prowess of the U.S. military but exposed deeper changes in U.S. foreign policy going forward.
Charlie Kirk and Preserving the Political
The assassination of Charlie Kirk stole a son from parents, a husband from a wife, and a father from children. It is an incalculable human loss. But it is also a civic injury, a great spasm of nihilism. In firing at Kirk, the assassin aimed a bullet at the political enterprise itself. The horror in Utah helps clarify both the virtues of politics rightly understood and the errors of a false model of politics.
Eating McDonald's at NatCon
On Wednesday night, I grabbed dinner at the McDonald’s on the corner of New York Avenue and 13th Street in Washington, DC. I was in town for the National Conservatism conference and owed that particular McDonald’s a pilgrimage. Yes, the golden arches seem an apt aegis for our own gold-plated populism, but that franchise location—only a few blocks from the White House—is the McDonald’s of presidents.
Understanding Trump's Political Resilience
Two graphs reveal how much American politics has changed. Here’s a graph of President Trump’s RCP average so far. Compare that to his first term, when his net approval rating was almost 20 points underwater by this point in time. While his approval rating has slipped from the highs of his inauguration, it has not fallen nearly as sharply during his second term. Perhaps even more strikingly, his raw approval rating of 45% is higher than his approval rating almost ever was during his first term.
There’s a way to end Texas’s redistricting war where everyone wins
There’s a way to end Texas’s redistricting war where everyone wins (washingtonpost.com) There’s a way to end Texas’s redistricting war where everyone wins By Fred Bauer 2025081110305800 The escalating redistricting war is the logical extension of the take-no-prisoners struggle for power in American politics.
The Unbearable Triteness of Being Online
In Ulysses, Stephen Dedalus describes Irish art as “the cracked looking-glass of a servant,” and offers a cracked looking-glass for the mindscape of the terminally online in his recent novel The Sleepers. Gasda first broke through a few years ago in his chronicles of the Dimes Square milieu in post-covid New York City.
The Aesthetics of Tension
Two recent endings—the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s Late Show and the death of Hulk Hogan—reveal the aesthetic stakes of tension. More than a few commentators have contrasted Colbert’s performance in his Comedy Central program, The Colbert Report, with the relative flatness of The Late Show. Unlike Colbert’s current gig, The Colbert Report had a dramatic tension at its core. Stephen Colbert assumed the mask of the blow-hard, right-wing cable news pundit...Stephen Colbert.
Affordability, not Epstein, is Trump’s biggest problem
affordabilityDonald TrumpGOPHealthcareInflationJosh HawleyPoliticsRepublicansUS The Jeffrey Epstein saga continues to roil the Trump presidency. But another, more pernicious, crisis may be brewing. Just as it devours savings, inflation can also eat into a governing coalition’s political capital, and a recent poll from YouGov might be an early warning to Republicans.
A Revealing Clash of Worldviews at Harvard
An argument between a member of Harvard’s faculty and a neo-reactionary blogger suggests it would be a grave error to throw out our almost-250-year-old republic. Source link
Trump's order on sanctuary cities is a trap for Democrats
Original Article Posted By: gaboy, 5/1/2025 3:13:48 PM In a new executive order published yesterday, President Donald Trump placed a target on sanctuary cities and created yet another trap for his political foes. This new proposal requires the federal government to create a list of "sanctuary" jurisdictions which refuse to cooperate with federal authorities on immigration law.
Hegseth Leaks Expose Deepening Iran Divide in Trump Cabinet
In contemporary Washington, leaks are political warfare by other means
The Smoking Dawn
Every year in April, the Boston suburb of Lexington reenacts the 1775 Battle of Lexington. Crowds of people start gathering early in the morning (well before 5 a.m.) to watch this— After a few volleys, smoke devours the battlefield. It’s the smoke that haunts me. I imagine the colonists being fired on by the Redcoats through the smoke on Lexington Common—the musket balls whizzing like comets through the clouds.
Liberation Day
Over the next few days, you’re likely to read a number of takes about President Trump’s new tariff schedule. Confidence in prediction will often far exceed the evidence. These tariffs will inaugurate a new golden age. No, they’ll ignite a global depression. We'll be building flying cars to the moon with union labor in Georgia—or we’ll be crawling through the economic wreckage.
Deus apud Machinas
In a feisty jeremiad, responds to a recent viral essay by . Lyons argues that Donald Trump and populism signal the return of the “strong gods” of faith and solidarity neglected at the end of history. As Lyons puts it, This masculine-inflected spirit of thumotic vitalism was suppressed throughout the Long Twentieth Century, but now it’s back….Instead of producing a utopian world of peace and progress, the open society consensus and its soft, weak gods led to civilizational dissolution and despair.
How Congress Can Deliver on Trump’s Immigration Promises
With Republicans in control of Congress and Donald Trump back in the White House, many in the GOP see immigrationas a top priority. Focusing on the issue would help them consolidate a wavering House GOP caucus, while delivering on some core Republican campaign promises. Their chance to do so will come with a big event on the congressional calendar: passage of a reconciliation bill.
Ideology v. Art
For the cover of the new National Review, I dig into the phenomenon of climate protestors targeting works of art. Climate apocalypticists regularly cite the alleged failure of politics generally in order to indict the current political order.
Donald Trump Inauguration Speech Highlights
As he assumed the presidency again, Donald Trump proclaimed a “revolution of common sense” in his second Inaugural Address at the U.S. Capitol. Surrounded by the political elite and the captains of Silicon Valley, the new president pledged to restore faith in American institutions and championed a “manifest destiny into the stars,” with the United States expanding its territory and even planting a flag on Mars.
The Resistance at Midnight
Giving his farewell address to the nation on Wednesday night, Joe Biden also delivered a requiem for the fantasies of the “resistance.” At its commanding heights, the anti-Trump “resistance” relied upon a partnership between two factions: the embattled establishment and progressive accelerationists. The conditions of the partnership were relatively clear.
The Mess Justin Trudeau Leaves Behind
When Justin Trudeau announced his plans to resign yesterday, he was not only marking an end to his time as prime minister of Canada. He was also tolling a bell for the project of social-justice progressivism in the Great White North. The past ten years have presented a sharp political contrast between Canada and its southern neighbor. While American politics has been roiled by a resurgent populism, personified by Donald Trump, the Canadian Left has been able to rebuff populist challenges.
Republicans Should Prepare for More Spending Wars
Late in the evening of December 20, the House of Representatives broke a legislative deadlock to pass a continuing resolution that would fund the federal government for the next three months. Earlier that week, the first two gambits to avert a government shutdown—a 1,500-page continuing resolution, followed by a slimmer version that would have raised the debt ceiling for the next two years—failed.
How Trump Can Help America Celebrate 250 Years
In just over 18 months, the United States will turn 250 years old. Current turmoil only adds to the importance of the impending public pageant. In recent years, American political battles have grown toxic, with a widening divide between ordinary citizens and cultural elites.
Populism and the Future of America's Establishment
December 10, 2024 By Fred Bauer On the morning of October 28, 2024, a prankster announced the death of the distinguished political scientist Francis Fukuyama—only for Fukuyama himself to explain to the world that he was still quite alive. In a recent Financial Times column reflecting on Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 election, Fukuyama himself proclaims an ideological death.
A Resilience Paradigm for Trade
After several decades during which tariffs were discarded by the bipartisan establishment, trade protectionism is back at the center of American politics. Donald Trump ran and won on tariffs in 2016, put them at the heart of his triumphant 2024 campaign, and is already using them as a bargaining tool for negotiations with countries such as Canada, Mexico, and China. But it isn’t just Trump. After taking office in 2021, President Biden took up and expanded his rival’s trade measures against China.
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How the Left Doomed Itself
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The Power of Gratitude and History
In some respects, Thanksgiving is a countercultural holiday in 2024. Especially in elite cultural circles, grievance—not gratitude—is the quintessential source of legitimization. James Davison Hunter explored in his recent book Democracy and Solidarity how toxic this process of legitimacy-through-grievance can be. It encourages a cultivation of resentment and a suspicion of other people.
Striking the Grand New Bargain
Toward the end of the 2024 election campaign, I started using the term “Grand New Bargain” to describe the new Republican coalition (the term is a blend of “Grand Old Party” and the “New Deal,” with a twist of the Grand New Party). This Grand New Bargain is a fusion of working-class interests and tech disruptors. In my latest for City Journal, I build out the Grand New Bargain framework to explore what this new coalition means in terms of policy.
Industrial Policy Today
I’ve been looking forward to this newsletter for weeks but wanted to hold back until after the election—and now the election results make it even more relevant. It’s a Q and A with the authors of a giant new forthcoming book on industrial policy: Industrial Policy for the United States, by Ian Fletcher and Marc Fasteau. “Industrial policy” is one of the buzzwords in policy right now, but what does it mean, and how does “industrial policy” even work?
Changing Political Tides for the Bay State
Since I’m based in Massachusetts, someone asked that I write on the election results in the Bay State. I had some free time this weekend, so why not? (To non-Massachusetts readers: Don’t worry, there are some national implications here, too.) Thanks for reading Rounding Up! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Times have been tough for Massachusetts Republicans, especially at the federal level.
Trump’s Big Win
Fred Bauer joins Brian Anderson to discuss the lessons of the 2024 presidential election. Brian Anderson: Welcome back to the 10 Blocks podcast. This is Brian Anderson, the editor of City Journal. Joining me on today’s show is Fred Bauer. Fred writes regularly for City Journal on politics, political campaigns, other issues. His writing has also appeared in National Review, UnHerd, and The Atlantic.
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