A compact retrospective claim: simultaneous policy overreach (foreign wars and security theater), visible disaster mismanagement (Katrina), and perceived elite protectionism (bank bailouts) created a cross‑partisan story that seeded voter resentment and the populist insurgencies of the 2010s and 2020s. The piece treats these disparate events as connected causes rather than isolated scandals.
— If true, this framing changes how we assign responsibility for contemporary populism — not to one party or leader, but to cumulative institutional performance across administrations.
Ilya Shapiro
2026.03.05
100% relevant
Ilya Shapiro’s on‑the‑record examples: post‑9/11 security expansion, Hurricane Katrina’s coordination failure, and the 2008 Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) as formative events.
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