The Scrapbook has had occasion to complain from time to time about the way in which journalists in the mainstream news media use the terms “conservatives” and “Republicans.” “Conservatives” hold this loathsome opinion, they might write, or “Republicans” are doing that bizarre thing, but when you…
Conservatives play an essential role as gatekeepers. Vetting some of the left's perspectives and ideas, even in this polarized environment, could resonate with their base.
Personal politics don't work against a movement.
The ferocious incivility Americans have witnessed for decades has arisen largely from the left—and for good reason
It's not accurate or helpful to imply that conservatism has always been racist, authoritarian, and morally bankrupt.
Hosted by Charlie Sykes.
Hosted by Charlie Sykes.
Old center-right policies get caught in the web of opposition to something new.
The congressman turned radio host has criticized the president’s behavior, but he supports much of the agenda.
There were a handful of primary elections last week in Ohio, Indiana, and West Virginia, and while the results from Middle America were more or less predictable—“establishment” Republicans prevailed against some Trumpier-than-thou candidates—the headlines were revealing in their way: “Parties’…
Hosted by Charlie Sykes.
When I first wandered into The Weekly Standard I worked at the front desk and answered the phones. It gave me a window into who was genuinely kind (they do not make human beings nicer than Gary Bauer) and who was not (no reason to name names). Because I'd grown up as a political junkie, I…
Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, editor at large Bill Kristol discusses President Trump's CPAC speech, how the President has fared so far, and the future of the conservative movement.
In a short, powerful piece in National Review, Rick Brookhiser concludes that "the conservative movement is no more. Its destroyers are Donald Trump and his admirers."
On January 12 the Wall Street Journal reported that Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s attorney, paid a pornographic actress with the nom de scène of Stormy Daniels the sum of $130,000 in exchange for her signature on a nondisclosure agreement. The thing she was not to disclose was an “alleged sexual…
In The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism (1976) Daniel Bell argued that modern capitalism abetted two conflicting tendencies: It encouraged hedonistic self-gratification in the cultural sphere while needing sober hard-working adults in the economic sphere. A defect in the thesis is that there…
A friend sent me an article, accompanied by several photographs, from the July 5 Daily Mail about the celebration of the playwright Tom Stoppard’s 80th birthday. The photographs, chiefly of English actors whom I’ve watched with much admiration on PBS and in the movies over the years, confirmed my…
A friend sent me an article, accompanied by several photographs, from the July 5 Daily Mail about the celebration of the playwright Tom Stoppard’s 80th birthday. The photographs, chiefly of English actors whom I’ve watched with much admiration on PBS and in the movies over the years, confirmed my…
It would be nice, in a way, to be a progressive. You’d be confident you know the direction History is moving. And you’d have faith that the direction in which History is moving is the direction in which History should be moving.
It would be nice, in a way, to be a progressive. You’d be confident you know the direction History is moving. And you’d have faith that the direction in which History is moving is the direction in which History should be moving.
Data is the best. Or data are the best. Whatever. Everyone agrees that in politics, as in baseball, you can’t trust your own lying eyes. You have to look at the data.
The (really good) website FiveThirtyEight is tracking how often members of Congress vote with the positions favored by President Trump. A “Trump Score” of 100 percent indicates that a senator or representative has matched the White House’s stance on every bill to have been weighed up or down. The…
In a provocative excerpt of his new book, Arizona Republican Jeff Flake identifies hazards of the Trump aura that conservatives have abetted and must challenge today. They include: “the most egregious and sustained attacks on [President] Obama’s legitimacy” ... “the strange specter of an American…
As somebody who makes a living, in part, by writing history, I have a confession against interest: I am not a big fan of biographies. My main problem is the constant interruption of narrative flow. Real life moves along multiple tracks simultaneously, but a biographer can only discuss one item at a…
As somebody who makes a living, in part, by writing history, I have a confession against interest: I am not a big fan of biographies. My main problem is the constant interruption of narrative flow. Real life moves along multiple tracks simultaneously, but a biographer can only discuss one item at a…
Ottawa
Ottawa
In the heart of Wall Street, a new statue is causing quite a kerfuffle. Sponsored by State Street Global Advisors, one of the world’s largest asset-management firms, the "Fearless Girl" was installed earlier this year to stand in front of the famous "Charging Bull" in Bowling Green Park, just a…
In the heart of Wall Street, a new statue is causing quite a kerfuffle. Sponsored by State Street Global Advisors, one of the world's largest asset-management firms, the "Fearless Girl" was installed earlier this year to stand in front of the famous "Charging Bull" in Bowling Green Park, just a…
Today on the Daily Standard podcast, senior editor Mark Hemingway on his story taking apart historian Rick Perlstein's shoddy attack on conservatism, and offers his take on the Sean Spicer "Holocaust Centers" controversy: You don't have to be a Holocaust denier to say something really, really dumb.
Rick Perlstein is a respected historian, and not without reason. Though he is an outspoken man of the left, his first book, Before The Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, earned praise from the right for being a well-researched and relatively nuanced account of a…
In hindsight, much of the coverage of Donald Trump’s candidacy could have run under the same headline: "Unexpected bull poised to enter china shop." But commentators spent virtually all of their energy expounding on the first half of that metaphor. Our campaign ethologists incessantly analyzed the…
In hindsight, much of the coverage of Donald Trump’s candidacy could have run under the same headline: "Unexpected bull poised to enter china shop." But commentators spent virtually all of their energy expounding on the first half of that metaphor. Our campaign ethologists incessantly analyzed the…
Conservatives are generally interested in conserving. Defenders of liberal democracy are busy defending. Guardians of the postwar liberal world order spend their time guarding. As they all should.
The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with senior writer Michael Warren on Donald Trump, CPAC, and the conservative movement.
Political correctness holds too strong a grip on too much of American life these days. Religious citizens who politely and conscientiously object to working gay weddings may be crushed by the state and driven into bankruptcy. In academia, the very place where the life of the mind is supposed to…
Political correctness holds too strong a grip on too much of American life these days. Religious citizens who politely and conscientiously object to working gay weddings may be crushed by the state and driven into bankruptcy. In academia, the very place where the life of the mind is supposed to…
President Donald J. Trump gave an aggressive, combative inaugural speech today, heavy on the populism and economic nationalism that energized his campaign, and virtually devoid of the themes and principles that have defined the Republican party and the conservative movement at its heart.
The following is an excerpt from the Kristol Clear newsletter. Sign up for the weekly newsletter here.
At the New York Post, Daniel Halper reports on the launch of a new quarterly journal, American Affairs:
WEEKLY STANDARD senior editor Andrew Ferguson and Washington Free Beacon editor-in-chief Matthew Continetti discuss conservatism in the era of Donald Trump with Peter Robinson of the Hoover Institution in this edition of the Uncommon Knowledge video series.
Irving Kristol famously wrote in 1978 that we might offer "two cheers for capitalism"—an insight borrowed from E.M. Forster's similar suggestion about democracy. The phrase is a call for restraint among supporters of free-market economics. Kristol himself said he and his fellow neoconservative…
Readers of THE WEEKLY STANDARD had a clear advantage during Tuesday night's episode of Jeopardy! when the category of "Leaning Conservative" came up.
In 1789, the young Frenchman Charles-Jean-Francois Depont wrote to Edmund Burke and asked for his impression of the nascent French Revolution. Enthusiastic about the revolution, Depont hoped that the British statesman and philosopher would affirm its success. An endorsement, however, was not…
From the Foundation For Constitutional Government:
Editor William Kristol's weekly Kristol Clear podcast, on why you should root for the Cleveland Indians, his recent editorial on conservatism and populism and nationalism, and the future of the post-Trump GOP.
In his weekly column at the Washington Free Beacon, Matthew Continetti takes note of Clarence Thomas's 25 years on the Supreme Court. Taciturn on and off the bench, Thomas has in recent days spoken at the Heritage Foundation as well as to WEEKLY STANDARD editor Bill Kristol on Conversations.…
Bill Kristol, editor of THE WEEKLY STANDARD, joined Jay Caruso and Neal Dewing of the Fifth Estate podcast to discuss the future of conservatism after the 2016 election, among other topics:
There are going to be lots of different ways to examine Donald Trump's impending loss. But I want to point to a very basic one that's so simple that it might escape notice: On election night, you should keep an eye on the raw vote totals.
In his column at the Washington Free Beacon, Matthew Continetti writes about the crisis of intellectual conservatism in the Age of Trump. Here's an excerpt:
"But free government would be an absurdity did it require citizens all like Abraham Lincoln; yet it would be an impossibility if it could not from time to time find leaders with something of his understanding." —Harry V. Jaffa, Crisis of the House Divided For months it has been clear that in one…
Ignoring the besieged, carefully coiffed elephant in the room, House speaker Paul Ryan delivered remarks over the course of 45 minutes Friday in a starkly worded critique of Hillary Clinton and progressivism. It set the table for a Clinton presidency, the stakes of it—and the significance of a…
So you've got this buddy, Bob. You aren't as close as you used to be, but you grew up together and have a bunch of friends in common. And even though you're both busy with your lives, you get together every couple years to catch up.
When you collect comics, there are all sorts of factors that determine the value of the book. Certain important comics (they're referred to as "key" issues) are high-value. So, for instance, Detective Comics #358 isn't worth all that much, but issue #359 is, because it's the first appearance…
Birmingham, England
At the beginning of the baseball season, we announced in the Kristol Clear newsletter a contest in which you had a chance to pick the teams that would make the World Series, and the winner. We've got the entries, are dutifully keeping track as promised, and the payoff will be YUUGE.
One of many unfortunate effects of watching these two appalling candidates every day is that their awfulness can obscure the fact that our current president has done so much damage in his two terms in office. Digging out of that hole would be tough enough; digging out of a 12-year Obama-Clinton or…
Matthew Continetti, writing at the Washington Free Beacon, examines the fate of traditional conservatives in state- and congressional-level primaries—as well as the long-term implications for the Republican party and conservative movement.
Just as the hippies made peace with material prosperity, the Democratic party has increasingly reached out to corporate America. The potential alliance between progressivism and big business could have major implications for American politics. If Republicans fail to offer an optimistic alternative…
Picking up where President Obama left off at the Democratic convention, Hillary Clinton praised the way Republicans used to do things during a speech Thursday, effectively distinguishing the GOP of the last two decades with the one currently led by Donald Trump.
At times of intense controversy, it can be a valuable exercise to turn to the works of the past not to escape the present but instead to gain a truer view of it. It is in this spirit that Edmund Burke's "Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol" offers a rewarding rereading.
I received an email this morning from Michael Lieber, the former GOP city captain for Bay Village, Ohio, who resigned that post last month to protest Donald Trump's nomination as the presidential candidate for the Republican party. Because Lieber says concisely and eloquently what so many others…
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is "discrediting conservatism." That's what Bill Kristol said Friday on CNN about the New York businessman and reality-TV star.
Depressed? We feel your pain. It’s not great to be living through the worst presidential matchup ever. And it's not a cheerful thought that one of these two horrendous candidates is very likely to be our next president.
Cleveland
Cleveland
Trumpism is a many splendored thing. It encompasses both support for the Iraq war and opposition to it. On a meta-level, it condemns supporters of the Iraq war and also forgives them.
House speaker Paul Ryan said Donald Trump is "not my kind of conservative" Monday, as he tried to explain the ideology of the presumptive GOP nominee for president.
Over on his personal site, frequent contributor Quin Hillyer writes on the need for a third-party candidate:
Donald Trump has shown a mastery of bravado, spin, and radical changes of direction thus far in the 2016 bid for the GOP nomination. Along the way, he's managed to build up a loyal base of supporters.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Brookings scholar William Galston observes that there is still a path for a third-party conservative challenger to Donald Trump, should he win the GOP nomination. Getting on most state ballots, writes Galston, is not the hardest part:
Populism has upended the Republican presidential race, and a populist outcry against a globalist, corporatist elite echoes throughout the Western world. It’s possible for conservatives to channel some of the populist energies currently disrupting the American political scene. Conservatism and…
On the surface it seems clear why Donald Trump’s campaign is effective. His fame, bluster, wit, and intuitive sense for one-liners can be easily converted into media currency and are symbiotic with the mechanisms and values of the digital era. But none of this would avail were it not for a…
In 1990’s classic The Matrix, the lead character realizes that the world he thought he knew was false, and that the truth about his society was being hidden by a hostile power. Many conservatives have a similarly Matrix-like moment in their intellectual development, that moment when they realize…
Eric Cohen writes about Jewish conservatism for Mosaic magazine:
To begin to convey a sense of what an extraordinary and compelling figure Harry V. Jaffa was, I offer a confession: The only class notes I have kept from college or graduate school are contained in the dog-eared, green notebook from my courses with Jaffa, and I keep it in my top desk drawer. In…
Populism, that ever-lurking and always problematic phenomenon in American politics, is especially galling to liberals when it breaks from the right, as it has done during the last few years in the form of the Tea Party. Conservative populism disorients and frightens liberals (almost as much as the…
A lively panel and discussion on Ronald Reagan and today's conservatism, held yesterday at the Heritage Foundation with remarks from the boss, Jonah Goldberg, and Jim Antle:
"Everything reminds Milton of the money supply," Robert Solow once said of his fellow Nobel-winning economist Milton Friedman at a symposium. "Well, everything reminds me of sex, but I keep it out of the paper."
Matthew Continetti, writing for the Washington Free Beacon:
Canberra has joined Tokyo and other U.S. allies in Asia by electing a conservative government vowing less tax on business, robust defense, support for the United States, and guarded cooperation with China. A big victory in Australia’s national election on September 7 for Tony Abbott’s…
Former senator and Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole had some harsh words for his political party recently. In a Fox News Sunday interview, Chris Wallace asked, “You describe the GOP of your generation as Eisenhower Republicans, moderate Republicans. Could people like Bob Dole, even Ronald…
THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with William Kristol on the rise of Margaret Thatcher and the lessons for today's GOP.
THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Michael Warren, live from CPAC. Will conservatives find a new way forward? Hosted by Michael Graham.
Four of the most lamentably omitted words in American politics are the following: "in this present crisis." Conventional references to Ronald Reagan's first inaugural address note his declaration that "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." Reagan actually said,…
At the Washington Post, Jen Rubin writes of a renewed interest in compassionate conservatism, citing Arthur Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute, Republican Paul Ryan, and Gertrude Himmelfarb, writing in THE WEEKLY STANDARD. Here's Rubin:
Viewers of the 2012 debates have witnessed an extraordinary turnaround. John Stuart Mill famously spoke of “a party of order and stability, and a party of progress or reform.” Once upon a time, Barack Obama and Joe Biden could claim the mantle of change and progress. But the televised exchanges…
Naturally, there has been plenty of talk this week about who won the debate. As I mentioned in my own recap, I thought that though Obama won more “points,” Romney did a better job advancing his argument for election.
When Republican strategists like Karl Rove cite 1980 as a model for this year’s election, they usually have in mind two main elements: Ronald Reagan’s question in the late October presidential debate about whether voters felt better off than four years earlier, when they elected Jimmy Carter, and…
Charlotte, N.C.
We have Occupy Wall Street to thank for the already grating tendency among pundits to sort the American people by percentages. The possibilities for such categorization are endless. There are, of course, the 1 percent of Americans who make more than $516,000 a year and the 99 percent who do not.…
In an interesting portion of last night’s Republican presidential debate, moderator Brian Williams asked, “Governor Romney…what have you done to further the cause of conservatism as a Republican leader?” Romney replied,
The first master’s thesis defense committee on which I served, more years ago than I care to count, evaluated an effort titled “Liberal Deviations of Robert A. Taft, 1945-1953.” As a young assistant professor still intoxicated by a heady academic liberal consensus, I was prone to dismiss the…
One of my favorite Bill Rusher stories is from the 1984 presidential campaign, when he and Jeane Kirkpatrick faced off against Christopher Dodd and Barney Frank on the question of Reagan vs. Mondale. Poor Senator Dodd had to contend with this impossible query from Bill Rusher: “On the invasion of…
Frank Cannon, in the Los Angeles Times, on conservatism:
Must viewing this weekend: On C-Span's "After Words" series, Bill Kristol, who wrote the foreword to The Neoconservative Persuasion, the new collection of his late father's essays, discusses those essays and Irving Kristol's thought in general with David Brooks.
On Oct. 22, Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne, among our most knowledgeable progressive political commentators, published a courteous rebuttal, “Debating the Tea Party: A Reply to Peter Berkowitz,” to my recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, “Why Liberals don’t get the Tea Party Movement.” The…
If Americans know anything about the presidential election of 1924, they know that it was won by the incumbent Calvin Coolidge in a landslide over the Democratic nominee, John W. Davis of West Virginia, a prominent lawyer and diplomat who was a compromise candidate after 103 ballots at a convention…