Hoo boy! It’s bonus podcast week. This week’s fiery Three Whisky Happy Hour episode takes up the argument left over from last week about whether conservatism—and especially the new “national” variety that is sparking so much energy and enthusiasm right now—should conceive of its mission as Burkean in character—as “restorationist” or revolutionary. We cover a lot of ground, with Lucretia beating up on me for my suspicious Burkean sympathies, while John Yoo sat back and enjoyed an extra McRibb paired with his American bourbon.
We cover recent articles bearing on the subject from Michael Anton, Peter Berkowitz, and a forthcoming article from Chris DeMuth, with me unable to convince Lucretia (since when is this news?) that one needn’t be a Burkean historicist to argue that the permanent principles of natural right are vindicated as a practical matter in history (which is not the same as of history—in other words, Hegel is excluded from our whisky bar).
By degrees we turn the discussion to a practical matter immediately in front of us—the controversy at Berkeley Law over student groups seeking to exclude Jewish speakers from campus. Both John Yoo and I are getting a lot of emails from readers and friends wondering what is going on. Is there a case that the right of free speech extends to groups that seek to deny the right of fee speech to others, or do the principles of natural right draw an intelligible boundary here? There’s a surprising split among us on this question. (I’ll have a separate post with more on this issue up later today or tomorrow.)
Finally, we take a brief look at the latest tidings of the upcoming election, and end with our usual “Kamalaism of the Week.”
And while Lucretia thinks she beat down on me again, I gets my revenge with this week’s exit music, which features the brilliant Italian harpist Micol Picchioni covering the prog rock Genesis classic, “Firth of Fifth.” Heh.
So listen here, or exercise your natural right to take in the episode from our hosts over at Ricochet.
But wait! There’s more! Yesterday I filled in for Peter Robinson on the flagship Ricochet podcast, where we hosted Toby Young on the implosion of Liz Truss and the British Tory Party, and Jim Geraghty on how the midterm election is unfolding, as well as mocking the climatistas who keep gluing themselves to things with petroleum-based superglue. Here’s the file if you want to listen here:
And here’s the custom artwork that the Ricochet people came up with:
Outtake:
We're looking towards the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November with @jimgeraghty of @NRO. @lileks, @rcbl preside as usual with @stevenfhayward sitting in the guest host chair. https://t.co/ss5WWUvDyp pic.twitter.com/7FwSXnq2xh
— Ricochet (@Ricochet) October 22, 2022
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