Another one for the American Caudillismo files.
Marco Rubio hanging out with Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio at the "Shield of the Americas" event, in case you were still thinking it had some sort of legitimate purpose
March 8, 2026 at 6:10 PM
Another one for the American Caudillismo files.
Latin American caudillismo is much closer to the mark for describing MAGA than interwar continental Europe, but even that doens't *quite* fit.
August 24, 2026 at 11:30 AM
Latin American caudillismo is much closer to the mark for describing MAGA than interwar continental Europe, but even that doens't *quite* fit.
The Trump administration is a melting pot in the sense that it will be a blend of worldviews rooted in the confederacy, apartheid, and caudillismo.
There is a long history in the US of white supremacists accepting the trade-off of having less economic dynamism if it means restoring racial hierarchies. Musk, as a privileged child of South African apartheid, also operates within this mentality.
“Musk and his partners’ overall stake has shed $24 billion in value — a vaporization of wealth that has little parallel outside the realm of economic or industry-specific crashes, or devastating corporate scandals.”
Gift link: wapo.st/3Mt1EIg
Gift link: wapo.st/3Mt1EIg
December 20, 2024 at 4:46 PM
The Trump administration is a melting pot in the sense that it will be a blend of worldviews rooted in the confederacy, apartheid, and caudillismo.
they're calling it caudillismo hyperpolitics, people, more and more are saying caudillismo hyperpolitics, only weak and wrong want technocratic antipolitics, we're having, we're having the strongest and healthiest strongstman
The winning formula is really clear and simple: Give the voter someone to hate and fear, preferably a minority. Tell them your opponent is an agent of those minorities.
Lie as brazenly as possible, as often as possible. And then pretend you will be able to defeat these minorities and create utopia.
Lie as brazenly as possible, as often as possible. And then pretend you will be able to defeat these minorities and create utopia.
June 24, 2026 at 2:44 AM
they're calling it caudillismo hyperpolitics, people, more and more are saying caudillismo hyperpolitics, only weak and wrong want technocratic antipolitics, we're having, we're having the strongest and healthiest strongstman
Caudillismo, but make it stupid
My read, for what it is worth, is the United States, as a country, remains a democracy, but the *republican party* is now a personalist autocracy and brings that nature with it when it is voted into power.
Trump is President of the United States and King-Archbishop Lord Protector of Republicans.
Trump is President of the United States and King-Archbishop Lord Protector of Republicans.
August 20, 2026 at 2:17 AM
Caudillismo, but make it stupid
what I'm actually struck most by is the insistence on framing everything in terms of the "incredible knack" of the President to navigate situations he is almost certainly barely involved in if at all. Caudillismo, USA style
Hegseth: "The only ones who need to be worried right now are Iranians who think they're going to live"
March 7, 2026 at 1:47 PM
what I'm actually struck most by is the insistence on framing everything in terms of the "incredible knack" of the President to navigate situations he is almost certainly barely involved in if at all. Caudillismo, USA style
Definitely looking like it'll be Court Full of Competing Wormtongues rather than full caudillismo.
Wiles coming in probably means that we probably don't get the full groyper experience
still probably get mass deportations though
hmm
November 7, 2024 at 11:57 PM
Definitely looking like it'll be Court Full of Competing Wormtongues rather than full caudillismo.
LATAM ESTÁ ENFERMA DE CAUDILLISMO. LES ESTORBAN LOS PROCEDIMIENTOS PARLAMENTARIOS. SÓLO QUIEREN UN MESÍAS QUE LES LLEVE A LA (PRESUNTA) ABUNDANCIA USA.
July 29, 2024 at 8:12 AM
LATAM ESTÁ ENFERMA DE CAUDILLISMO. LES ESTORBAN LOS PROCEDIMIENTOS PARLAMENTARIOS. SÓLO QUIEREN UN MESÍAS QUE LES LLEVE A LA (PRESUNTA) ABUNDANCIA USA.
People of the left & right both must realize that, whatever its stated goals & allegiances, autocracy/caudillismo is its own ideology.
November 20, 2024 at 3:21 PM
People of the left & right both must realize that, whatever its stated goals & allegiances, autocracy/caudillismo is its own ideology.
There is no Right Populism. It's either direct fascism or caudillismo, but there is no Right Populism, that's a contradiction in terms.
December 2, 2024 at 8:25 PM
There is no Right Populism. It's either direct fascism or caudillismo, but there is no Right Populism, that's a contradiction in terms.
Yup, caudillismo basically.
September 29, 2024 at 8:59 PM
Yup, caudillismo basically.
🤯 Javier Aroca @javierarocaa.bsky.social analiza desde @malaslenguastve.bsky.social: "Feijóo habla de caudillismo. Mire: si alguien puede hablar de caudillismo en España es el PP. Fundado por un grupo de franquistas, adoradores de Franco. En portada de Diario 16 al grito de 'Franco, Franco, Franco'"
June 28, 2026 at 10:09 AM
🤯 Javier Aroca @javierarocaa.bsky.social analiza desde @malaslenguastve.bsky.social: "Feijóo habla de caudillismo. Mire: si alguien puede hablar de caudillismo en España es el PP. Fundado por un grupo de franquistas, adoradores de Franco. En portada de Diario 16 al grito de 'Franco, Franco, Franco'"
it's not really the number of parties that's the problem. but you want to design a system where most politicians, most of the time, are competing to get the most votes from the whole electorate.
October 1, 2026 at 2:56 PM
it's not really the number of parties that's the problem. but you want to design a system where most politicians, most of the time, are competing to get the most votes from the whole electorate.
Yes! Trump is caudillismo estadounidense
April 29, 2024 at 2:41 AM
Yes! Trump is caudillismo estadounidense
we need reform in many areas, but i genuinely think there's been a breakdown in the transmission mechanism from the people to policy, and this is behind many of the dysfunctions we feel today
Reject the Poison: Towards an Honest Mass Politics
An honest mass politics sets the center of gravity of self-governance in legislatures, not in technocratic antipolitics or caudillismo hyperpolitics.
www.liberalcurrents.com
September 27, 2026 at 2:46 PM
we need reform in many areas, but i genuinely think there's been a breakdown in the transmission mechanism from the people to policy, and this is behind many of the dysfunctions we feel today
Abascal deriva hacia una "hitlerización"(permítase el término) de su persona y de su partido,hacia un mesianismo populista y dirigido a los paletazos de siempre,gente sin cultura acostumbrada a la obediencia debida al líder cósmico y jefe supremo,caudillismo puro antidemocrático
August 11, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Abascal deriva hacia una "hitlerización"(permítase el término) de su persona y de su partido,hacia un mesianismo populista y dirigido a los paletazos de siempre,gente sin cultura acostumbrada a la obediencia debida al líder cósmico y jefe supremo,caudillismo puro antidemocrático
❗ Feijóo acusa a Pedro Sánchez de un "caudillismo" que no se veía en España "desde hace 50 años"
🗣️ "Alguien que se postula a presidente del Gobierno, debería de conocer, por ejemplo, el reglamento de la Cámara", expresa @javierarocaa.bsky.social en #MalasLenguas
🗣️ "Alguien que se postula a presidente del Gobierno, debería de conocer, por ejemplo, el reglamento de la Cámara", expresa @javierarocaa.bsky.social en #MalasLenguas
June 29, 2026 at 4:06 PM
❗ Feijóo acusa a Pedro Sánchez de un "caudillismo" que no se veía en España "desde hace 50 años"
🗣️ "Alguien que se postula a presidente del Gobierno, debería de conocer, por ejemplo, el reglamento de la Cámara", expresa @javierarocaa.bsky.social en #MalasLenguas
🗣️ "Alguien que se postula a presidente del Gobierno, debería de conocer, por ejemplo, el reglamento de la Cámara", expresa @javierarocaa.bsky.social en #MalasLenguas
Yeah, Trump is very much in the vein of charismatic Caudillismo, not Fascism.
July 5, 2026 at 7:55 AM
Yeah, Trump is very much in the vein of charismatic Caudillismo, not Fascism.
Chris Newman is the lawyer who was stopped by heavily armed soldiers along with Senator Chris Van Hollen. In our discussion, he recounts this story and reflects on what it means that the US is trending toward Caudillismo. Really recommend his thoughts here. Powerful:
Remarkable stuff from @cnewman.bsky.social, a lawyer for the Abrego Garcia family, about how he witnessed El Salvador's "descent into fascism" and is now distressed to see Trump trying to import this Bukele-style strongman rule into the US.
Transcript here:
newrepublic.com/article/1944...
Transcript here:
newrepublic.com/article/1944...
April 28, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Chris Newman is the lawyer who was stopped by heavily armed soldiers along with Senator Chris Van Hollen. In our discussion, he recounts this story and reflects on what it means that the US is trending toward Caudillismo. Really recommend his thoughts here. Powerful:
(NB: caudillismo is still Very Bad.)
August 26, 2025 at 8:32 PM
(NB: caudillismo is still Very Bad.)
one of the things i tried to drive home in this essay is that technocratic antipolitics is just always going to lose to caudillismo hyperpolitics. it has neither the political legitimacy nor, frankly, the ideological heft. it is empty of both clout and ideas
www.liberalcurrents.com/reconstructi...
www.liberalcurrents.com/reconstructi...
Reject the Poison: Towards an Honest Mass Politics
An honest mass politics sets the center of gravity of self-governance in legislatures, not in technocratic antipolitics or caudillismo hyperpolitics.
www.liberalcurrents.com
July 8, 2026 at 5:35 PM
one of the things i tried to drive home in this essay is that technocratic antipolitics is just always going to lose to caudillismo hyperpolitics. it has neither the political legitimacy nor, frankly, the ideological heft. it is empty of both clout and ideas
www.liberalcurrents.com/reconstructi...
www.liberalcurrents.com/reconstructi...
The Hitler comparisons are typically thoroughly overwrought but reading Kershaw’s bio gives a clear exhibit of a despot, w/ a personality cult & a state whose institutions have been sidelined in favor of dialing the caudillismo up to 13/10, going ever more disconnected from reality & batshit insane.
You know, I mostly avoid these 'look what crazy thing he said' posts but...legitimately this is a deranged rant.
he seems to be confusing credit ratings with bond yields with the federal funds rate and thus imagining the fed can unilaterally lower the (yield) 'rate' the US borrows at (it can't).
he seems to be confusing credit ratings with bond yields with the federal funds rate and thus imagining the fed can unilaterally lower the (yield) 'rate' the US borrows at (it can't).
If I'm reading this correctly, the President is threatening the Fed with tariffs.
September 4, 2026 at 8:39 PM
The Hitler comparisons are typically thoroughly overwrought but reading Kershaw’s bio gives a clear exhibit of a despot, w/ a personality cult & a state whose institutions have been sidelined in favor of dialing the caudillismo up to 13/10, going ever more disconnected from reality & batshit insane.
another thing i address directly in "towards an honest mass politics": the alternatives to restoring a functional party system is shit like "constitutional guardian council" and "caudillismo hyperpolitics," neither of which is possibly conducive to the project of self-governance
Not to keep repeating myself, but the problem with the Court is not merely that their decisions are bad, but that their entire self-conception of themselves as the Guardian Council of the USA, with sweeping and arbitrary power to maintain the mos maiorum, is utterly incompatible with a free society
A century of congressional laws, passed by both parties, about the shape and functions of executive agencies need to be done away with because independent agencies offend Gorsuch’s simplistic ideal of what the government should be.
June 29, 2026 at 8:06 PM
another thing i address directly in "towards an honest mass politics": the alternatives to restoring a functional party system is shit like "constitutional guardian council" and "caudillismo hyperpolitics," neither of which is possibly conducive to the project of self-governance
Canada except for Quebec. Duplessis and the Union Nationale are definitely in the mold of caudillismo.
August 17, 2026 at 6:42 PM
Canada except for Quebec. Duplessis and the Union Nationale are definitely in the mold of caudillismo.