The galaxy brain version of popularism would say liberalism's biggest challenge is that it's no longer especially democratic in a deeper, Dewey-ian sort of way
https://twitter.com/zackbeauchamp/status/1488187306313928711?s=20&t=CwqwuRfXsMryl9V8f9ywhw
For all the talk about illiberal democracy, there's a lot to be said for 'undemocratic liberalism' as a challenge in America today--from both the left and the right's point of view.
The left's fear of undemocratic liberalism is fairly obvious, since it's about democratic institutions: they worry about minority rule, subversion, suppression and so on somewhat more than they worry about an end to the First Amendment or something
The right's fear of undemocratic liberalism is less obvious--it's not minority rule in elections, but a different sort of minority rule where a technocratic and cultural liberal elite decides what can be said online, what kinds learn in school, whether you need a vaccine etc.
(This is entirely leaving aside the Trumpist version of undemocratic liberalism, where democracy is dead and the election was stolen)
Where popularists and the non-Trumpist conservatives wind up agreeing, tho, is that liberalism has lost its connection to mass politics, thanks to growing educational polarization, the decline of unions/urban machines and class conflict and elite interest group power
And you can occasionally see it my Twitter replies over the last month; a striking number of replies say some version of 'who cares about what the public thinks' we must do x,y,z. Fair enough, but that kind of undemocratic governing instinct does pose risks!
Popularists posit themselves as a partial solution to this problem, by adding a poll-driven filter to progressive politics. But it's ultimately still a politics by and for college educated progressives--just one that tries not to offend the rest so often.
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