A Return to Tradition: Creating a Post-Trump Conservatism
Men cannot improve a society by setting fire to it: they must seek out its old virtues, and bring them back into the light. ~Russell Kirk The conservative movement is in crisis. During the storm and stress of the Trump years, critics in the media and elsewhere have painted its
In Defense of 'Reactionary Liberalism'—A Reply to Osita Nwanevu
I am a liberal conservative, or as the New Republic‘s Osita Nwanevu would have it, a “reactionary liberal.” I lean right-of-center and, as I have argued before, I believe that many of the West’s most cherished values—individualism, due process, free speech and inquiry, and the rule of
I've Been Fired. If You Value Academic Freedom, That Should Worry You
Orthodoxy whether of the right or of the left is the graveyard of creativity. ~Chinua Achebe Until a week ago, I was a tenure-track assistant professor at a small college. Then I was fired. And although I am but one professor at one small college in one small town, I
Progressivism and the West
The biggest threat to Western civilization is posed not by other civilizations, but by our own pusillanimity—and by the historical ignorance that feeds it. ~Niall Ferguson I was wrong. For a long time, I considered the loose collection of ideas and assumptions I will call “progressivism” to be a
"Equalitarianism" and Progressive Bias
“In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs, it is the rule.” ~Friedrich Nietzsche “I want to understand how a normal brain becomes conservative,” my professor said. “That is the thing that most puzzles me.” At the time (I was in my early twenties) I completely
The Spirit of Centrism
“The far-right and far-left can be equally insane.” ~John P. Avlon Centrism is a decidedly wimpy word, but it is a powerful political idea. Over the last few weeks, many commentators and critics have compelled me to contemplate centrism more carefully. Is centrism a kind of “average” of extremes: They
Centrism: A Moderate Manifesto
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; ~W. B. Yeats Centrism. It’s a decidedly wimpy and unexciting word and it often inspires derision as a kind of pallid purgatory for those afraid to take bold action
