Cas Ⓜ️udde
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casmudde.bsky.social
Cas Ⓜ️udde
@casmudde.bsky.social

Dutchman 🇳🇱 in the South 🇺🇸 | Politicoloog 👨‍🎓 | European politics 🇪🇺 | far-right parties ✋ | soccer & politics ⚽ | groundhopping ⚽️🏉🏒 | punkrock 🎸 | movies 🎥 | columnist ✍️ | straight edge XXX | he/him/his 🚹 | all opinions are mine and not of my employers 🗣️ .. more

Cas Mudde is a Dutch political scientist who focuses on political extremism and populism in Europe and the United States. His research includes the areas of political parties, extremism, democracy, civil society, and European politics. Mudde identifies himself as a political leftist. .. more

Political science 82%
Sociology 13%
Pinned
Back on popular (?) demand: my International Office Hours.

Open to everyone, academic and non-academic, even though it was started in particular to give junior scholars (incl grad students) an opportunity to discuss their work with me.

Please sign up… and show up! ✍️
Office Hours Sign-Up Sheet
SIGN-UP SHEET FOR “INTERNATIONAL OFFICE HOURS” WITH CAS MUDDE IN FALL 2025, I WILL AGAIN HOLD “INTERNATIONAL OFFICE HOURS” FOR COLLEAGUES/STUDENTS/OTHERS WHO WANT TO TALK TO ME ABOUT THEIR RESEARC...
docs.google.com

I hope you went to The Grill. Their chocolate shake is the best shake in town.

Reposted by Jan W. Mueller

Replace “Dems” for “mainstream parties” and “GOP” for “far right” and you have West European politics.
American politics makes a lot more sense when you realize that the GOP is afraid of pissing off the GOP base, and the Dems are afraid of pissing off the GOP base, but neither party is afraid of pissing off the Dem base.

Het was de eerste keer dat ik omgeven was door Gen Z op een concert, maar inderdaad, zo’n positieve sfeer en top band!

Hopelijk is het geluid veel beter dan toen ik ze in Asheville zag. Met goed geluid zijn ze echt een geweldige live band, denk ik.

By preemptively pardoning them, he tells the people who are now and in the future called upon to perform illegal acts for him that he has their back. This is not about Giuliani & Co, this is about the thousands of current and future ICE agents, the soldiers who execute people in the Caribbean, etc.
Trump Pardons Giuliani and Others Involved in Effort to Overturn 2020 Election
www.nytimes.com

Definitely screams “toxic” masculinity.

Even though so many of them look as if they were bullied in school…
Some of the most powerful and well-paid people in the world don't understand a lesson that every schoolchild knows: if you surrender to bullies, they will only bully you more

Congrats Billy! Looks fascinating.

See this disturbing piece:
D.C. plastic surgeons see surge in "Mar‑a‑Lago face" requests from Trump insiders
"[They] want to look like they had something done."
www.axios.com

Cynthia @milleridriss.bsky.social pioneered the study of the aesthetics of the far right in this important book but so much has changed and expanded (particularly the colors and symbols), including now even the inclusion of plastic surgery.

So much innovative work remains to be done on this!

Depends on what they want. Whether it is an objectively better democracy, I doubt it.

In fact, I am very skeptical they will be more satisfied once the new system is in place for a few elections.

We have exactly the same debates about democratic malaise in all different political and electoral systems. In the UK and U.S. people want more proportional, in the Netherlands more majoritarian. 🤷‍♂️

And the two parties already suffer very low support and satisfaction for a long time… in most recent presidential elections a plurality, if not a majority, voted primarily against someone (rather than for someone).

People describe far too much power to electoral systems.

Parties cave regularly in coalition talks in “functional” party systems. Often they are punished, at least somewhat, sometimes not at all.

The current caving of Democratic Senators will also have no systemic consequences.
In a functional party system, this kind of capitulation in the face of authoritarianism could mean the end of the Democratic Party.

In our system, it could mean the end of the two party system. Neither party can represent the pro-democracy majority. It's time for something new.

I love the German term for it “Arschgewei” 😂

Or a tramp stamp

Goed nieuws. Gefelicicteerd @nadiabouras.bsky.social

This is stunning... on the physical aesthetics of Trumpism
D.C. plastic surgeons see surge in "Mar‑a‑Lago face" requests from Trump insiders
"[They] want to look like they had something done."
www.axios.com
Some of the most powerful and well-paid people in the world don't understand a lesson that every schoolchild knows: if you surrender to bullies, they will only bully you more

Genocidal rhetoric leads to genocidal behavior
Israeli soldiers speak out on killings of Gaza civilians
IDF soldiers tell documentary of opening fire unprovoked and arbitrary designations of who was an enemy
www.theguardian.com

So, Mamdani is a radical socialist Islamist?

I did not see this coming and I'll take it... happily! 🏳️‍🌈
US supreme court rejects call to overturn decision legalizing same-sex marriage
Justices turn away appeal from former Kentucky court clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples
www.theguardian.com

You know who also argues that New York does not look like America? The far right!

Nice!

Oh, WOW, I had missed this peak piece by The Economist.

So much to unpack here...

Let's keep hope (for Die Linke).

While I was right on the future of BSW, I was wrong on the future of Die Linke. Turns out Wagenknecht was a huge albatross around the neck of the German Left and once she was removed/removed herself, Die Linke started flourishing again.
Can Europe’s new ‘conservative left’ persuade voters to abandon the far right? | Cas Mudde
Sahra Wagenknecht’s new party aims to transform German politics – but like its peers across western Europe, it may struggle, says Cas Mudde of the University of Georgia
www.theguardian.com

LOL! Seems the power of the media is limited after all… or maybe it is just harder to propel the radical right to prominence than the radical left? They spent so many hours of television and so many pages of print media on her…
Sarah Wagenknecht withdraws as BSW leader
Sarah Wagenknecht is stepping down as chair of the BSW, which she founded. The party missed out on entering the Bundestag in the last election.
www.bluewin.ch

This further strengthens my impression that this was a strategic cave, sanctioned by the Dekocratic leadership.
MSNBC reported Schumer's office felt that the longer that shutdown went on, the more likely it was that people would start to blame the Dems.

My kingdom for Democrats that don't govern out of fear. I've said it before and I'll say it again: The American people are far braver than their reps.
In a functional party system, this kind of capitulation in the face of authoritarianism could mean the end of the Democratic Party.

In our system, it could mean the end of the two party system. Neither party can represent the pro-democracy majority. It's time for something new.