The arena of contemporary American politics is a confused place. And so-called conservatives—Republican politicians, yes, but, particularly, those in the mainstream “conservative media” or Big Conservatism—are especially confused. Historically, within the West, there can be discerned two rival ideal political types between which discourse and practice have oscillated. On the one hand, politics has been
We are a self-contradictory people. In our private lives, we affirm, or at least speak as if we affirm, the virtues of personal responsibility, self-reliance, self-discipline, wisdom, humility, generosity, and justice. These are the virtues that we strive to instill in our children. With an eye to this end, we appropriate measures to
In the wake of the Alabama state legislature’s decision to pass what its opponents call an “extreme” or “virtual abortion ban,” the topic of “abortion” is once more in the public eye—where it belongs. This time, though, the self-proclaimed enemies of this hideous practice would do their cause a good turn by being
Darren Beattie received his Ph. D. from Duke University in 2016. Almost immediately upon completion of his degree, he signed a one-year contract to be an instructor in Duke’s political science department. That same year, I met Beattie at a conference in Baltimore, Maryland sponsored by the H. L. Mencken Club. We had
Now that Donald Trump has had what is, by many accounts, an astonishingly successful first year—according to the Heritage Foundation, at any rate, an even more successful year than the one enjoyed by sainted Ronald Reagan—it is worth looking back on just how spectacularly wrong were some of the president’s “conservative” critics. This
The #MeToo campaign has far-reaching implications for both feminism and the so-called sexual revolution to which feminism gave rise. First, today’s feminist affirms a model of womanhood that is, or is supposed to be, radically at odds with what she takes to be the traditional, patriarchal stereotype from which feminists have (allegedly) liberated
Time has bestowed its “Person of the Year Award” to “the silence breakers”—those who, according to USA Today, “triggered a #MeToo national outcry over sexual harassment.” This #MeToo campaign is a peculiar thing to behold. First, so many of the men who have been accused of sexual improprieties are left-leaning men, while their
From what we know about the allegations of sexual misconduct in the news recently, there is no reason to doubt that some are legitimate, or that others are likely to turn out to be false. Leaving this question of truth and falsity aside, however, the commentary on this latest manifestation of the phenomenon
As long ago as April 2011, I argued Donald Trump would stand a good chance of winning if he decided to make a serious run for the White House. My “excitement over the prospects of a Trump presidency” was “mounting” back then. Yet from that time and throughout Trump’s 2016 campaign, I have
