CSPI Live Webinar, January 8

Hi, and welcome to the CSPI mailing list.

As most of you know, we recently launched with our first report on American populism, which has gotten a great deal of media attention. George Hawley and Richard Hanania wrote an article summarizing their findings for National Review, and Hanania appeared on Rising on The Hill TV and the Realignment Podcast to discuss the paper. Saagar Enjeti, one of the most important public figures among those who have been promoting the idea that the GOP can rebrand itself as a working-class party, said that the report had fundamentally changed his mind on some of his most deeply held beliefs. We hope to continue influencing the debate in positive ways in the coming year.

Our paper was also covered in the Trumpist publication American Greatness, and tweeted out by Jane Coaston of Vox, along with scholars associated with the libertarian Cato Institute. This success shows the broad appeal that data driven analysis can have across the political spectrum.

Our launch month also produced two blog posts, the first covering Richard Hanania’s article on what drives support for immigration, and the second by Eric Kaufmann on young African-Americans shifting away from the Democratic Party.

We have several more reports and papers that are going to be released in the coming months, and are excited to be able to tell you about them soon.

This year will also be filled with live seminars with our research fellows.

We’d like to announce the first of these, on Friday, January 8th at 7PM eastern. It will be a discussion between Richard Hanania and George Hawley on their paper, in which the authors will talk about the problems with national populism, larger issues surrounding polarization and how it influences government quality, and the future of the two major American parties.

They will also discuss Hawley’s 2017 book Making Sense of the Alt Right, and what has happened to the movement since its peak a few years ago. What was motivating it? Does it have a future, and is it likely to be relevant to our politics in the coming years?

This is an invitation-only event, open to donors. If you would like to become a monthly contributor, visit our Patreon or do so through Stripe. You can also make a one-time donation through Paypal. We anticipate about a one hour chat, after which we will engage in a Q&A. A recording will be made available immediately to all donors, before being released to the public later down the line.

All money we raise will go directly to research. In 2021, we hope to work with some of the most promising young scholars who are interested in important issues relating to American politics, free speech issues, political bias and other topics that are underexplored in academia and the wider intellectual culture. Many with unorthodox views or approaches to important questions my not be perfectly suited for academia, and CSPI hopes to provide them support so they can nonetheless contribute to debates of public importance. We believe that we are doing important work, and greatly appreciate all who can make any contribution they can to the mission.

We wish all our supporters and readers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.