The Anti-Populist
The article examines Richard Hanania's critique of populism, arguing that populist movements often lead to 'kakistocracy' or rule by the worst. It highlights the author's view that rejecting elite expertise undermines democratic institutions and effective governance.
Why it matters
This analysis explores the tension between populist political movements and the role of institutional expertise in modern governance.
The writer and former white supremacist Richard Hanania was once the toast of MAGA-curious tech barons and reactionary intellectuals. Now he thinks Trumpism has broken their brains.
Illustration by Alicia Tatone. Source: Richard Hanania / Wikipedia. July 19, 2026, 7 AM ET Share Save I n 1876, as corruption scandals shook the Ulysses S. Grant administration, the poet, diplomat, and founding Atlantic editor James Russell Lowell wondered where the American experiment was headed. “Is ours a ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people,’” he wrote, “or a Kakistocracy rather, for the benefit of knaves at the cost of fools?”
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