Few contemporary American political commentators have ridden an ideological rollercoaster as wild and convoluted as Sohrab Ahmari’s. Born in theocratic Iran, Ahmari was a Marxist atheist in his twenties before becoming a conservative Christian in his thirties. And not just your garden-variety conservative Christian: Ahmari went full Roman Catholic, and for a time gained fame (or infamy) as a maximalist culture warrior willing to take shots at center-right pundits like David French for being too soft on matters like using the state to advance militantly social conservative cultural policies. I became aware of Ahmari around the time of that debate, and penned several articles and reviews taking issue with pretty much all of his talking points.

But mercurial to his core, Ahmari has pivoted yet again. Since 2020 he has become more critical of the conservative movement for ignoring the economic travails of the American working class. Ahmari helped found Compact magazine, an ideologically syncretic outlet in the spirit of Christopher Lasch. Compact’s ambition is to argue for a strong social democratic state that also resists libertine ideologies and upholds local, national, familial, and religious communities, often with a reactionary bent.

In keeping with that vision, Ahmari’s latest book, Tyranny, Inc.: How Private Power Crushed American Liberty — and What to Do About It, hearkens back to his Marxist days. Ahmari deserves credit for not following in the footsteps of other right-wing commentators and pols: in the book, he’s not going the route of Ron DeSantis, who believes that homophobic diatribes about getting gay characters out of Disney films plus lowering the minimum wage somehow makes him an anti-corporate warrior. Ahmari argues that the “populist conservatism heralded by Trump’s election in 2016 has so far proved illusory. It’s largely a cultural phenomenon, with Republican lawmakers, for example, loudly griping about businesses that discriminate against conservative employees and customers — without lifting a finger to alter the fundamental balance of power between corporations and the rest of us.”