Compact
Online political magazine; founded March 2022; co-founded by Sohrab Ahmari, Matthew Schmitz (First Things), and Edwin Aponte (a leftist); platform for unorthodox left-right postliberal thinking; published “Away from the Abyss” Ukraine skepticism letter; associated with the Postliberal faction’s departure from the broader NatCon coalition
What It Is
Compact is a political magazine founded in March 2022, when Sohrab Ahmari left the New York Post. Its co-founders — Ahmari (Catholic postliberal right), Matthew Schmitz (First Things, Catholic nationalist), and Edwin Aponte (a leftist) — deliberately spanned ideological lines, positioning Compact as a forum for unorthodox thinking that the mainstream press wouldn’t publish and that neither NatCon nor the conventional left would welcome.
Significance
Compact’s founding marked the moment the Postliberal faction formally differentiated itself from the broader National Conservative movement. Rather than operating within the NatCon tent, Ahmari, Schmitz, and Aponte created their own platform for the specific brand of anti-liberal, anti-managerial, economically heterodox politics that united certain Catholic right figures with dissident leftists.
The magazine’s early Ukraine coverage — skeptical of US involvement, exploring the “ideological reconciliation” the war might enable — put Compact at odds with the Hazony-led NatCon wing that supported Ukraine. The “Away from the Abyss” letter against US war involvement was published in Compact and signed by a cross-ideological roster that included Deneen, Pappin, Vermeule, Rufo, Anton, Ryan Williams, Freddie deBoer, Glenn Greenwald, and Samuel Moyn.
Cross-References
- Sohrab Ahmari — co-founder
- First Things — Matthew Schmitz, co-founder, was a First Things editor
- Postliberalism — the ideological tendency Compact most closely represents
- National Conservatism — the movement Compact partially departed from
- Patrick Deneen — frequent contributor and signatory to “Away from the Abyss”