CNL In The Washington post

If you’ve heard the word “neoliberal” in American political discourse in recent years, it probably hasn’t sounded like a compliment. Left-wing populists say neoliberals in the Democratic Party sold out to Wall Street. Right-wing populists say neoliberals in the conservative establishment abetted the rise of so-called woke capitalism. Political scientists talk about neoliberalism in yet another way — as a bipartisan political consensus around free markets, which has been blamed for inequality, the escalating climate crisis and other social ills.

But one night last month, over Blue Moons at a downtown D.C. pub, I talked with a group of millennial and Gen Z political wonks who are proud to call themselves neoliberals — embracing the term as a rebuke to populists of the left and right. Two dozen of these guys — and they were almost all guys on this occasion — had just attended a meeting of the DC New Liberals at the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), a moderate-left think tank whose Center for New Liberalism has established more than 80 chapters claiming over 10,000 members around the world. (The D.C. chapter has nearly 500 members.) With its “Neoliberal Podcast,” which has more than a million downloads, and a Twitter account (@ne0liberal) that has more than 79,000 followers, the institute is on a quest to bring market-friendly moderation into the age of internet-meme politics — making a new appeal to young Americans who’ve largely rallied behind an invigorated progressive left.