the president, by contrast, is free to operate without constraint by statute or court, and free to usurp any Article I power he sees fit.
August 19, 2025 at 6:48 PM
the president, by contrast, is free to operate without constraint by statute or court, and free to usurp any Article I power he sees fit.
Oligarchs know politics is about power, and they know strong unions don’t just deliver better wages and benefits for their members ... Unions also build the kind of real democratic power—for all of us, not just union members—that keeps oligarchs in check.
open.substack.com/pub/contrari...
open.substack.com/pub/contrari...
The one single, proven constraint on oligarchy and autocracy
By Michael Podhorzer
open.substack.com
February 6, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Oligarchs know politics is about power, and they know strong unions don’t just deliver better wages and benefits for their members ... Unions also build the kind of real democratic power—for all of us, not just union members—that keeps oligarchs in check.
open.substack.com/pub/contrari...
open.substack.com/pub/contrari...
I'm working on a book outline that argues democracies rely on the constraint of power through functional verification, deliberation and accountability and how thats been hollowed out and captured in the US, and he just tweets it out.
March 14, 2026 at 9:07 PM
I'm working on a book outline that argues democracies rely on the constraint of power through functional verification, deliberation and accountability and how thats been hollowed out and captured in the US, and he just tweets it out.
Reform UK 'using racism in bid for power without constraint'
Reform UK 'using racism in bid for power without constraint', expert warns
REFORM UK are aiming to win “power without constraint” by appealing to “racism or aggressive nationalism” and ideas "left behind…
www.thenational.scot
February 24, 2026 at 2:33 PM
Reform UK 'using racism in bid for power without constraint'
Fuck this. Fuck everything about this. Trump has broken every constraint and revealed them as nonexistent or rotten. This is repulsive and, I swear to god, anyone who doesn’t stand against this doesn’t deserve an ounce of power or influence.
June 22, 2025 at 12:49 AM
Fuck this. Fuck everything about this. Trump has broken every constraint and revealed them as nonexistent or rotten. This is repulsive and, I swear to god, anyone who doesn’t stand against this doesn’t deserve an ounce of power or influence.
such a marvelous piece: Unions are the only major civil society institution in this country that give ordinary working Americans reliable access to collective political power. open.substack.com/pub/contrari...
The One Single, Proven Constraint on Oligarchy and Autocracy
By Michael Podhorzer
open.substack.com
August 28, 2025 at 6:02 PM
such a marvelous piece: Unions are the only major civil society institution in this country that give ordinary working Americans reliable access to collective political power. open.substack.com/pub/contrari...
I return a lot to de Romilly’s observation in her book on Thucydides, where the end-state of imperial politics is inability to coexist because that requires constraint, and disaffected imperial citizens wed their ego to the state’s imperial power and experience its constraint as a loss of freedom.
Wrote about how MAGA is a rebellion against the reality of interdependence, and how that led the Trump administration to completely ignore the potential fallout of going to war with Iran. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
March 19, 2026 at 12:11 PM
I return a lot to de Romilly’s observation in her book on Thucydides, where the end-state of imperial politics is inability to coexist because that requires constraint, and disaffected imperial citizens wed their ego to the state’s imperial power and experience its constraint as a loss of freedom.
"Unions are the only major civil society institution in this country that give ordinary working Americans reliable access to collective political power."
The One Single, Proven Constraint on Oligarchy and Autocracy
By Michael Podhorzer
contrarian.substack.com
August 29, 2025 at 6:00 PM
"Unions are the only major civil society institution in this country that give ordinary working Americans reliable access to collective political power."
Positive liberty requires constraint on power, Farage sees that as a constraint on the freedom of him and his pals to exploit other people for their own benefit.
March 14, 2026 at 1:44 PM
Positive liberty requires constraint on power, Farage sees that as a constraint on the freedom of him and his pals to exploit other people for their own benefit.
I think the “leave the ECHR” political impetus is 10% politicians genuinely wanting to remove any lingering constraint on power and 90% hoping for another Brexit-style populism sugar rush.
October 4, 2025 at 11:57 AM
I think the “leave the ECHR” political impetus is 10% politicians genuinely wanting to remove any lingering constraint on power and 90% hoping for another Brexit-style populism sugar rush.
Facts don’t matter.
Hypocrisy is not a constraint to their behavior.
Shamelessness is a superpower.
This moment requires leaders who are unbought, unafraid of Trump and willing to speak truth to power.
P.S. A House majority comes with subpoena power.
Hypocrisy is not a constraint to their behavior.
Shamelessness is a superpower.
This moment requires leaders who are unbought, unafraid of Trump and willing to speak truth to power.
P.S. A House majority comes with subpoena power.
August 15, 2026 at 6:00 PM
Facts don’t matter.
Hypocrisy is not a constraint to their behavior.
Shamelessness is a superpower.
This moment requires leaders who are unbought, unafraid of Trump and willing to speak truth to power.
P.S. A House majority comes with subpoena power.
Hypocrisy is not a constraint to their behavior.
Shamelessness is a superpower.
This moment requires leaders who are unbought, unafraid of Trump and willing to speak truth to power.
P.S. A House majority comes with subpoena power.
Hot take: the AI boom is a specifically post-ZIRP phenomenon. Free money led to competition for finite talent being the binding constraint, and the experience of workers having some bargaining power was so traumatic that SV execs will throw billions at anything that promises to prevent a recurrence.
February 29, 2024 at 11:50 PM
Hot take: the AI boom is a specifically post-ZIRP phenomenon. Free money led to competition for finite talent being the binding constraint, and the experience of workers having some bargaining power was so traumatic that SV execs will throw billions at anything that promises to prevent a recurrence.
Reform UK are aiming to win “power without constraint” by appealing to “racism or aggressive nationalism” and ideas "left behind generations ago", a leading human rights organisation has warned
Reform UK 'using racism in bid for power without constraint', expert warns
www.thenational.scot
February 23, 2026 at 9:22 PM
Reform UK are aiming to win “power without constraint” by appealing to “racism or aggressive nationalism” and ideas "left behind generations ago", a leading human rights organisation has warned
Every delay is a choice, not a constraint. When entire nations can run on clean power, excuses from larger economies start to look like protection of old interests, not realism. Climate action is no longer about feasibility, but accountability and urgency.
April 12, 2026 at 3:29 AM
Every delay is a choice, not a constraint. When entire nations can run on clean power, excuses from larger economies start to look like protection of old interests, not realism. Climate action is no longer about feasibility, but accountability and urgency.
Due process should be a universal constraint on power. Withholding it from immigrants removes that constraint and normalizes arbitrary state action.
December 31, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Due process should be a universal constraint on power. Withholding it from immigrants removes that constraint and normalizes arbitrary state action.
Power is like a gun and Congress has built the executive power in such a way that the only practical constraint on a person exercising executive power pointing that gun at the country and the world is a pinky promise that he won’t. Which, surprisingly, has constrained many, to some extent!
August 13, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Power is like a gun and Congress has built the executive power in such a way that the only practical constraint on a person exercising executive power pointing that gun at the country and the world is a pinky promise that he won’t. Which, surprisingly, has constrained many, to some extent!
Exactly right. SCOTUS immunity decision dealt a death blow to constraint on presidential power. But it was post-9/11 war powers that really turbocharged the imperial presidency. And now we have the foreign (and domestic?) policy of a personalist dictatorship. www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
June 23, 2025 at 9:54 PM
Exactly right. SCOTUS immunity decision dealt a death blow to constraint on presidential power. But it was post-9/11 war powers that really turbocharged the imperial presidency. And now we have the foreign (and domestic?) policy of a personalist dictatorship. www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
‘I don’t need international law’: Trump says power constrained only by ‘my own morality’
‘I don’t need international law’: Trump says power constrained only by ‘my own morality’
President says morality ‘the only thing that can stop me’ in New York Times interview on limits to his authority
Donald Trump has said ‘I don’t need international law” and that his power is limited only by his “own morality”.
In a new interview with the New York Times, Trump said the only constraint to his power as president of the US is “my own morality, my own mind”. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
January 9, 2026 at 8:10 AM
‘I don’t need international law’: Trump says power constrained only by ‘my own morality’
What a weak stance.
IF THE LEGISLATORS STOOD TOGETHER, UNIFIED, AND DID THEIR JOB, THEY COULD REIGN IN TRUMP ---
THEY'VE ENPOWERED TRUMP!!!
THEY GIVE TRUMP HIS POWER - WITHOUT CONSTRAINT.
IF THE LEGISLATORS STOOD TOGETHER, UNIFIED, AND DID THEIR JOB, THEY COULD REIGN IN TRUMP ---
THEY'VE ENPOWERED TRUMP!!!
THEY GIVE TRUMP HIS POWER - WITHOUT CONSTRAINT.
April 17, 2025 at 4:08 PM
What a weak stance.
IF THE LEGISLATORS STOOD TOGETHER, UNIFIED, AND DID THEIR JOB, THEY COULD REIGN IN TRUMP ---
THEY'VE ENPOWERED TRUMP!!!
THEY GIVE TRUMP HIS POWER - WITHOUT CONSTRAINT.
IF THE LEGISLATORS STOOD TOGETHER, UNIFIED, AND DID THEIR JOB, THEY COULD REIGN IN TRUMP ---
THEY'VE ENPOWERED TRUMP!!!
THEY GIVE TRUMP HIS POWER - WITHOUT CONSTRAINT.
Take the time to read the whole article.
Excerpt:
"It was dangerous…because it demonstrated how easily the language of “law enforcement,” “necessity,” and “temporary control” can be stitched together to justify unilateral power…without meaningful constraint…and…without a clear off-ramp."
Excerpt:
"It was dangerous…because it demonstrated how easily the language of “law enforcement,” “necessity,” and “temporary control” can be stitched together to justify unilateral power…without meaningful constraint…and…without a clear off-ramp."
January 5, 2026 at 4:01 AM
Take the time to read the whole article.
Excerpt:
"It was dangerous…because it demonstrated how easily the language of “law enforcement,” “necessity,” and “temporary control” can be stitched together to justify unilateral power…without meaningful constraint…and…without a clear off-ramp."
Excerpt:
"It was dangerous…because it demonstrated how easily the language of “law enforcement,” “necessity,” and “temporary control” can be stitched together to justify unilateral power…without meaningful constraint…and…without a clear off-ramp."
On multiplexes: "Olivia Chow had the power. She had the tools. She had the mandate. She had all the votes she needed. And she had the funding. Every variable was in her favour. The constraint was not political arithmetic. The constraint was her."
venat.substack.com/p...
venat.substack.com/p...
Olivia Chow Doesn't Care About the Housing Crisis
The stars aligned, but Mayor Chow chose inaction.
venat.substack.com
June 27, 2025 at 5:17 PM
On multiplexes: "Olivia Chow had the power. She had the tools. She had the mandate. She had all the votes she needed. And she had the funding. Every variable was in her favour. The constraint was not political arithmetic. The constraint was her."
venat.substack.com/p...
venat.substack.com/p...
Britain is wasting clean energy.
Huge amounts of renewable power are being switched off while consumers foot the bill for millions in constraint payments.
ADE is working to make flexible demand electricity a reality, helping to balance supply and harness the full potential of renewable energy.
Huge amounts of renewable power are being switched off while consumers foot the bill for millions in constraint payments.
ADE is working to make flexible demand electricity a reality, helping to balance supply and harness the full potential of renewable energy.
September 28, 2026 at 11:32 AM
Britain is wasting clean energy.
Huge amounts of renewable power are being switched off while consumers foot the bill for millions in constraint payments.
ADE is working to make flexible demand electricity a reality, helping to balance supply and harness the full potential of renewable energy.
Huge amounts of renewable power are being switched off while consumers foot the bill for millions in constraint payments.
ADE is working to make flexible demand electricity a reality, helping to balance supply and harness the full potential of renewable energy.
the entire career of John Roberts is one long project to deconstruct the VRA, make sure what happened to Nixon could never happen again, and remove any constraint on conservative power
his only real disagreement with Alito and Thomas on that goal is on optics
his only real disagreement with Alito and Thomas on that goal is on optics
July 1, 2024 at 6:26 PM
the entire career of John Roberts is one long project to deconstruct the VRA, make sure what happened to Nixon could never happen again, and remove any constraint on conservative power
his only real disagreement with Alito and Thomas on that goal is on optics
his only real disagreement with Alito and Thomas on that goal is on optics
This isn’t about borders. It’s about power.
Brexit removed checks from Brussels.
Leaving the ECHR removes checks from Strasbourg.
And what’s left? An executive that rules without constraint.
Brexit removed checks from Brussels.
Leaving the ECHR removes checks from Strasbourg.
And what’s left? An executive that rules without constraint.
July 11, 2025 at 10:14 AM
This isn’t about borders. It’s about power.
Brexit removed checks from Brussels.
Leaving the ECHR removes checks from Strasbourg.
And what’s left? An executive that rules without constraint.
Brexit removed checks from Brussels.
Leaving the ECHR removes checks from Strasbourg.
And what’s left? An executive that rules without constraint.
Republicans are planning to remove all constraints on their own power, and they’ve never been better prepared. People aren’t taking this threat seriously enough.
Beware the Great Unbinding
Republicans want to remove all constraint on the executive branch, and we ought to be terrified.
open.substack.com
May 17, 2024 at 5:15 PM
Republicans are planning to remove all constraints on their own power, and they’ve never been better prepared. People aren’t taking this threat seriously enough.