Are We All Authoritarians at Heart?

Matter of Opinion

New York Times Opinion

Society & Culture, Ross Douthat, News, New York Times, Journalism

4.2 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 1 December 2023

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Strongmen are making a comeback. The hyperlibertarian Javier Milei in Argentina and the anti-immigration Geert Wilders in the Netherlands are among a growing group of recently elected leaders who promise to break a few rules, shake up democratic institutions and spread a populist message. Is it a reaction against the failures of liberal democracies? Or is there something else behind the appeal of these misbehaving men with wild hair? This week on “Matter of Opinion,” the hosts debate where the urge to turn to strongmen is coming from and whether it’s such a bad thing after all. Plus, young listeners share their formative political moments, even in the middle of class.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Oh my God Ross when was your birthday yesterday? Oh happy birthday.
0:04.0	Happy birthday. Thank you. Thank you. Sagittarius.
0:07.0	How old are you Ross? I am you know my soul is eternal but I'm 44. I think I've reached the age that I I always was I think I'm gonna just stay here
0:17.0	there you yeah I think this is my true my true age I believe that
0:21.5	you're an old soul.
0:25.0	From New York Times opinion, I'm Michelle Kottle.
0:28.0	I'm Ross Dauthett. I'm Carlos Lousada.
0:30.0	And I'm Lydia Paul Green.
0:32.0	And this is matter of opinion.
0:33.0	All right, today I really.
0:37.0	All right, today I really want us to talk about strong men, not so much of the physical
0:46.2	variety, but of the political kind.
0:48.3	Because of late, I've been thinking about this a lot as the Republican presidential primary heats up and we're looking at Donald Trump trying to make
0:57.8	his return with an increasingly disturbing dark authoritarian authoritarian rhetoric.
1:05.2	But we also have looking at this globally
1:09.2	Argentina's new president,
1:10.9	the far-right libertarian Javier Milay, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, and both
1:17.6	have been compared to Trump.
1:19.6	So what I want to talk about is, for those of you who think about this more globally, why are we seeing this trend toward these kinds of leaders?
1:28.0	What's changed and then later on we can get into what's going to happen next or what we see down the pike especially
1:35.4	if Trump is reelected in 2024.
1:38.6	But first let's clarify who are we even talking about?
	...

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