Conservatism
August 27, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Scott has been writing about the race for Governor of Minnesota that is now in progress. Incumbent left-wing Governor Tim Walz is running scared, for obvious reasons. Challenger Scott Jensen, a doctor rather than a professional politician, is working hard and resonating with voters. The latest polling has the race tied. We spent the day today at the Minnesota State Fair, one of the world’s extraordinary events. The two candidates’
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August 25, 2022 — John Hinderaker
I think it was John Edwards who popularized the “two Americas” theme. But Edwards had the categories wrong. There really are two Americas, and we can divide them in a number of ways. For example: one America consists of those who can cope, while the other America consists of wine moms, 25-year-olds who can’t tell what sex they are, and people who can’t manage personal finances. This reflection is prompted
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July 31, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Whenever I want to get “Lucretia” spun up, I say something like, “Pssst. . . I’ll need to check with Bill Kristol on that!” And then I sit back and open up a new bottle of peaty single-malt. But I did relent when she pointed out that Bill had lately embraced the idea that Democrats are best-suited to fix the country’s problems. Maybe he was just trolling again? Lucretia won’t
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July 26, 2022 — John Hinderaker
An election is coming up in Italy in September, and the Brothers of Italy party, led by co-founder Giorgia Meloni, is currently leading the polls. There has been scant attention to the election in the U.S., but European news coverage is interesting for what it tells us about the state of politics on that continent, which in some ways mirrors conditions here in America. France 24 headlines: “Brothers of Italy,
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July 22, 2022 — Steven Hayward
“Lucretia” joins in the fun of my absence with a dunk on the latest instance of soi-disant conservatives pining for the “strange new respect” award from liberals for abandoning a conservative position. My biography of M. Stanton Evans recounts that Stan disliked George Will starting back in the 1970s because “George is always coming up with ‘conservative’ reasons to do some liberal thing.” As usual, Stan was ahead of his time.
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July 14, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Liberals have been illegally demonstrating in front of Supreme Court justices’ homes and harassing them in public places, like restaurants. This isn’t a new thing–liberals carried out similar campaigns of harassment against officials in the Trump administration. Nor are these outrages being perpetrated solely by fringe characters on the Left. On the contrary, they are encouraged by liberals from the White House on down. A Harvard Law instructor is among
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July 2, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Is America in the process of breaking up? I don’t know. It might be. These poll data from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics are sobering, to say the least. Start with this: …28 percent of voters, including 37 percent who have guns in their homes, agree that “it may be necessary at some point soon for citizens to take up arms against the government.” That view is held
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June 30, 2022 — Scott Johnson
A few essays have taken their place in the great tradition as masterpieces of intellectual demolition. Among such classics stands Samuel Johnson’s Review of Soame Jenyns’ A Free Enquiry Into the Nature and Origin of Evil. Jenyns’s “glib optimism” in the face of human suffering (as Walter Jackson Bate called it), and his complacency over the problem that suffering poses to religious belief, struck a nerve. If Johnson knew anything
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June 27, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I spent three hours with Drew Lee on Friday morning together with my friend Howard Root. We were Drew’s guests on KTLK AM 1130’s Justice & Drew news show. Unbelievably, it proved to be Drew’s last show. He passed away Saturday afternoon, way before his time. I am heartbroken. Recovering from open-heart surgery at the University of Minnesota Hospital, Jon Justice just made the devastating announcement on the air from
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June 24, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Kari Lake is a Republican candidate for Governor of Arizona. While I haven’t followed that race closely, I understand she may be the front-runner. This despite having a checkered record as a conservative, having supported Barack Obama, among other Democrats. But when a CNN reporter tried to ambush her, she gave a 30-second master class in how to talk to the liberal press: WATCH what happens when @CNN ambushes @KariLake
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June 19, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Listeners to the 3WHH podcast will know that “Lucretia” and I have long divided on the question of Edmund Burke. To paraphrase something William F. Buckley once said about Harry Jaffa, if you think it is difficult to argue with Lucretia, just try agreeing with her—it’s nearly impossible. Back in our grad school days we liked to make fun of the leftist pop psychology popular at the time that everything
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June 8, 2022 — John Hinderaker
The Ruthless podcast is one of America’s most popular political outlets. It features Josh Holmes (a Minnesota native), Michael Duncan, Twitter icon Comfortably Smug, and John Ashbrook. The Ruthless hosts wield the most potent weapon in politics–humor–against the bad guys of the Left, and are wildly popular among young conservatives. They remind us that it sucks to be a liberal, but it is fun to be a conservative. Last year,
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May 20, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The Bradley Foundation held its annual Bradley Prizes award ceremony this week in Washington on May 17. Moderated by the Wall Street Journal’s own former Bradley Prize-winning Kim Strassel, the event honored 2022 recipients Wilfred McClay, Glenn Loury, and Chen Guangcheng. Having been sent a link to view the ceremony via live stream, my wife and I watched at our kitchen table. When the great Bill McClay finished speaking, my
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May 16, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The new (Spring) issue of the Claremont Review of Books has just been posted online this morning. I asked the editors if they would make their interview with the great Norman Podhoretz accessible for our readers. Here it is: “Present at the creation.” Subhead: “Norman Podhoretz on the rise of the anti-American left.” The interview opens with a reference to the 2019 CRB interview of Mr. Podhoretz by CRB editor
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May 10, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Wilfred McClay is the formidable historian and a leading light of our intellectual life. On May 17 he is to be recognized with one of this year’s Bradley Prizes — this one — along with Glenn Loury and Chen Guangcheng. Bill wrote me last night: “That is such sad news about Midge. I loved that woman She had more soul in her little finger than any seven other people. I
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May 9, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I am deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Midge Decter via Ruthie Blum’s post on Facebook: “My mother, Midge Decter Podhoretz, died today, two months shy of her 95th birthday. Thankfully, I managed to arrive in New York just in time to say goodbye to the greatest woman I’ve ever known. As soon as we figure it all out, we will provide info about the funeral and shiva.”
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May 7, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Last night, Center of the American Experiment held our Annual Dinner. It was a great event, attended by 900 conservatives. Former CIA Director and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was our keynote speaker. He did a terrific job, and I had the privilege of beginning the question and answer session with a series of questions about current global trouble spots. I knew that Pompeo is a brilliant and exceptionally effective
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