Geoff Kabaservice

Host at The Vital Center

Director of political studies at @NiskanenCenter. On Twitter, I speak for myself.

Articles

Populism and working-class nostalgia for the 1950s, with Alan Ehrenhalt

2 weeks ago | niskanencenter.org | Geoff Kabaservice

Donald Trump’s most resonant political slogan has always been the one he borrowed from Ronald Reagan: “Make America Great Again.” Trump rarely has been pushed to define when exactly he believes America experienced the greatness he promises to recapture. But many of his followers believe that America’s golden age — particularly for its working class — was the 1950s.
Exploring the secrets of political charisma, with Molly Worthen

1 month ago | niskanencenter.org | Geoff Kabaservice

We all have an opinion about charismatic leaders — but do we really know what “charisma” means? Molly Worthen, in her new book Spellbound: How Charisma Shaped American History from the Puritans to Donald Trump, points out that charismatic leaders historically haven’t always been distinguished for their charm or compelling oratory.
The old, weird history of libertarianism, with Matt Zwolinski

2 months ago | niskanencenter.org | Geoff Kabaservice

When U.S. President Donald Trump announced the imposition of his “Liberation Day” tariffs against most of America’s global trading partners in April 2025, he seemed to harken back to a centuries-old form of economic nationalism known as mercantilism, which sought prosperity through restrictive trade practices. Opponents of mercantilism from the eighteenth century onward, such as Adam Smith and John-Baptiste Say, became known as classical liberals.
Understanding the diploma divide, with Matt Grossmann and Dave Hopkins

2 months ago | niskanencenter.org | Geoff Kabaservice

The most important U.S. political trend of the 21st century, according to most observers, is the increasing tendency of college-educated voters to support the Democratic Party and for non-college-educated voters to support the Republican Party. In many ways, the two parties have swapped their historic bases. When John F. Kennedy won the presidency in 1960, Democrats still considered themselves to be a working-class party.
Our contentious universities, with Neil L. Rudenstine

Mar 20, 2025 | niskanencenter.org | Geoff Kabaservice

In the first few months of the second Trump administration, the White House in effect declared war on the nation’s colleges and universities, and particularly the most selective and prestigious among them. Vice President JD Vance had famously declared in 2021 that “the universities are the enemy,” but conservative antipathy against higher education for its alleged role as the breeding ground of progressive ideology goes back at least to the 1960s.
Reevaluating Christianity’s bargain with democracy, with Jonathan Rauch

Mar 4, 2025 | niskanencenter.org | Geoff Kabaservice

Jonathan Rauch would seem to be an unlikely defender of American Christianity. The eminent author, Brookings senior fellow, and Atlantic magazine contributing editor is a gay Jewish atheist — “I won the marginalized trifecta,” he observes — who grew up deeply suspicious of Christianity and its potential for (and past history of) oppression.
Why nothing works, with Marc Dunkelman

Feb 20, 2025 | niskanencenter.org | Geoff Kabaservice

Why can’t America do big things anymore? Marc Dunkelman, a fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, addresses this question in his new book, Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress and How to Get It Back. The book’s inspiration came from his thinking about the now-vanished Pennsylvania Station, formerly New York City’s majestic gateway, which was one of the most beautiful buildings in the country and a monument to metropolitan greatness.
Why Britain (and the US?) face a governance crisis, with Sam Freedman

Dec 3, 2024 | niskanencenter.org | Geoff Kabaservice

The 2024 U.S. election was to a large extent driven by voter frustrations with what seems to many to be a sluggish economy and dysfunctional government that no longer delivers for its citizens as it used to. But similar frustrations are felt in developed countries all around the world, and perhaps nowhere more acutely than in Great Britain.
Exploring Norman Holmes Pearson’s legacy, with Greg Barnhisel

Oct 17, 2024 | niskanencenter.org | Geoff Kabaservice

Norman Holmes Pearson, who in the middle years of the twentieth century was a professor of English and American Studies at Yale University, is now a largely forgotten figure — and someone who was never that well known during his lifetime. But Duquesne University professor Greg Barnhisel, in his intriguing new biography of Pearson, sees him as a critical figure in several important areas of American life and culture.
Hollow political parties, with Sam Rosenfeld and Daniel Schlozman

Sep 24, 2024 | niskanencenter.org | Geoff Kabaservice

America’s founders deeply mistrusted political parties. James Madison decried “the mischief of faction” while George Washington, in his farewell address, warned that “the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension” might lead to despotism. But the disunity that Washington warned that parties would bring has always been present in America, and still is.