Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. A Serious Foreign Policy and an Unserious President President Trump celebrated the 18th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks a few days early this year by announcing that he had planned to hold personal negotiations with the top leadership of the Taliban–and to do so at […]
Tag Archives | conservatism
Sohrab Ahmari-ism, Courtesy of David French
The battle between the “liberal” conservatives—that is, those who still believe in free markets and civil liberties—and the illiberal nationalist conservatives has been out in the open ever since Sohrab Ahmari launched a broadside against “David French-ism,” naming the National Review writer as his avatar for the supposed cultural weakness of “classical liberalism.” So a […]
Conservatives Lose Their Word
Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. The Death of the Tea Party The Tea Party movement of ten years ago is now comprehensively dead. How do we know that? Because Republicans and Democrats in Congress just got together on a budget deal that approves deficits in excess of $1 trillion forever—at a time […]
Declaring Independence from Independence
The big question about the impact of Donald Trump on the Republican Party is: will he be an aberration, a temporary departure from the normal rhetorical style and ideological composite of late-20th-Century conservatism—or will he usher in a “new normal,” a new baseline for what the party stands for and what it will tolerate? We’re […]
The Futile Rage of the Illiberal Conservatives
The right-of-center Internet has been lit up for the last few days by an assault by Sohrab Ahmari on David French and something Ahmari improbably calls “David French-ism.” Supposedly, this is about French, a lawyer and contributor to National Review, being too weak-kneed and polite because he is interested in using persuasion to try to […]
The War on the Brains of the Right
Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. The War on the Brains of the Right At the very beginning of the Trump phenomenon, I warned about a war on the brains of the right. Along with many friends and colleagues, I have found it grimly amusing to find myself dismissed as an “establishment” “elitist” […]
The Psycho-Epistemology of Pathological Altruism
Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. The Psycho-Epistemology of Pathological Altruism By now, we all know what to expect on college campuses, right? Here’s the latest: an Indian-American comedian and former Saturday Night Live writer was shooed off the stage at Columbia University—they literally cut off his microphone—for telling jokes that were offensive […]
Salon of the Refused, Episode 2
The second episode of my video and podcast series, Salon of the Refused, is now available. Rob Tracinski talks with Charles C.W. Cooke, editor of NationalReview.com, on what it’s like to be an atheist on the right. The conversation includes: the secular basis for morality and liberty, how atheism is good for the right, Ayn […]
Making the “Miracle”
Several recent books on the Enlightenment have sought to celebrate its legacy but have been strangely cursory in their examination of actual Enlightenment thinkers, their ideas, and their influence, sometimes treating the embrace of reason, individual rights, and political freedom as a “miracle” that seemingly came out of nowhere. If you’re interested in the question […]
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A Reader’s Guide to Atlas Shrugged
- Salon of the Refused, Episode 16 December 11, 2019
- What If the World Isn’t Ending? December 9, 2019
- The Call Is Coming from Inside the House December 4, 2019
- Ayn Rand Is for Adolescents November 30, 2019
- The Triumph of the Will November 26, 2019
- The Parasite That Kills Its Hostess November 18, 2012
- Radical New York City Democrats December 31, 2013
- Confessions of a Reluctant Culture Warrior December 20, 2014
- Pathological Altruism July 3, 2013
- The 25 Craziest Things Said at the Democratic Debate October 14, 2015
Impeachment Is Over
Impeachment Roundup The public impeachment hearings are finished in the House, and what have we learned from them? The Dispatch, Jonah Goldberg’s new outfit, has a good overview of the testimony from the past week, while Michael McFaul, former US Ambassador to Russia, provides a summary of the wider story. Here are the outlines. President […]