The Fleming Foundation Cultural Commentary

14

All Paid Subscribers / Andrei Navrozov / Wednesday's Child

9 Nov, 2016

Wednesday’s Child: America vs. America

By

The verdict in the case of America vs. America, heard yesterday in the divorce court of public opinion, had not yet been handed down when I filed my column.  Besides, my views on the feuding spouses have been voiced sufficiently in this space to remove any suspicion in the reader’s mind that I’m partial to one or the other.  The man is a vulgarian, a brute, an oaf; the woman, a shrew, a liar, a hypocrite; and, indeed, for a while it looked to me like they were made for one another, a perfect couple, but then suddenly, bang!  Divorce....

4

All Paid Subscribers / Feature / Seiler

9 Nov, 2016

The Sweet Smell of Victory

By

To quote the late Jackie Gleason: How sweet it is! How for months did I correctly predict a Trump victory, including right here on this site? Because, although I now live in California, I grew up near Detroit. I keep in touch with friends and relatives back there. They’re what Trump called the “forgotten Americans.” The bum trade deals – which aren’t “free” trade, but “managed” trade – hurt them, especially NAFTA and TPP. Meanwhile, just about everybody else was getting special government benefits paid for by the real producers. Not just Elon Musk’s Tesla, which wouldn’t exist without massive subsidies,...

37

Free Content

8 Nov, 2016

Election Night and the Day After

By

My wife and I went to the Eastons at 6, to eat American chili, drink wine, and watch  to the election returns.  Betsy Easton is absolutely confident of a Trump victory, Gail Fleming refuses to believe that anything so wonderful could happen, Jim and I agree that it is possible, if rumors of a big turn-out among old-fashioned Americans prove true.  I take heart from the wacky conservative websites I have looked at, where people are bragging not only about voting for the first time in years but also claim to have dragged  friends and family to the polls. So far at...

1

Feature / Fleming

8 Nov, 2016

Jerks 1: Land of the Free, Home of the Jerk, Part E

By

The rot goes deeper than weakness and social dependency.  These same anti-socialist refugees still wore blue jeans—the official uniform of the proletariat—and professed egalitarian contempt for all those fripperies of dress and manners some relics of bourgeois society still clung to in the West.  I am speaking of the America of two decades ago.  Today, if I had to produce a single word to express the salient quality of modern Americans, it would be something like “shamelessness” or “impudence.”  Even elderly people no longer refrain from talking in Church, and their kids never quit screaming during the services.  Afterwards, at...

10

Feature / Phillips Red

7 Nov, 2016

The TAC Presidential Symposium – It’s a Muddled Mess

By

I recently wrote an article suggesting that The American Conservative (TAC) magazine, for better or worse the closest thing to a policy journal paleoconservatism has, should be more visibly on board the Trump Train. I realize that TAC is a non-profit and is not able to officially endorse a candidate. What I had in mind was that the magazine and its stable of writers should make it clearer that Trump is actually running on and advancing, to a greater or lesser degree, our cluster of issues – immigration restriction, rejection of free trade ideology and a more restrained America first...

2

Fleming

7 Nov, 2016

The Political Lessons of Polybius for 2016, Part I

By

Before going further in Polybius’ analysis of the “Libyan War,”  what lessons have we learned so far? First there is the lesson that Machiavelli tried in vain to teach the Italians of his day:  Mercenaries–people who serve in the military for pay and benefits and not out of loyalty to their own people–cannot be trusted.  They are working for their own benefit and not for their country’s.  A few years ago, my sons and I were assaulted by a group of angry black soldiers just back from the Middle East.  “We fightin’ fo you freedom, MFers!”  Of course we have many...

4

Feature / Fleming / From Under The Rubble

7 Nov, 2016

Some Ugly Truths

By

Conservatives who are content to run against Hillary, without opposing the regime itself,  are working for the other side.  Ask James Comey, Alex Jones, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, George Will….and any lackey of the regime you run into. If Comey knows Hillary is guilty and is hiding the evidence, he should be forced to resign and stand trial.  If Comey did not learn anything knew from Huma and Anthony’s computers but reopened the investigation, he should be forced to resign and stand trial. Anyone advocating abortion for other people should be forced, retroactively, to submit to one.  Retroactive abortion stops...

21

Feature / Fleming / From Under The Rubble

5 Nov, 2016

Working Men of All Countries, Unite!

By

I shall keep this simple, stupid, and brief.  Our rulers have drawn the line in the sand.  The Bushes have voted for Hillary, “fiscal conservative” John Kasich has voted for the worst Republican candidate in the history of the GOP (John McCain), and the neoconservatives–from Bill Kristol to David Brooks to George Will–have told us that the American hegemony and the American way of life hang in the balance. For a change, the neocons are right.  While they pretend to hate Trump because he is too fond of women, wears a comical rug, and plays the bully when he is challenged, those are not...

0

FF / Podcasts

5 Nov, 2016

Christianity and Classical Culture, Episode 8: Oresteia Part I

By

In this episode of Christianity and Classical Culture, Dr. Fleming examines one of the masterpieces of Greek tragedy: the Oresteia. Before taking a close look at all three plays, Dr. Fleming begins by discussing Aeschylus himself, the historical and political circumstances in which this play was written and delivered, the idea of these plays as “liturgical,” and the position that this is perhaps the best of what the classical world could offer in terms of pre-Christian morality. This is part 1 of a 2 part mini series and offers an introduction and a discussion of the first play, Agamemnon. Original...

0

Autodidact

4 Nov, 2016

Political Lessons from Polybius: Introduction

By

Dull-witted and lethargic from a touch of gastroenteritis courtesy of the fine food we consumed last week in Dayton, Ohio–we couldn’t make it to Greece but did we really have to spend time in a Dayton Holiday Inn?–I got tired of reading early 20th century espionage novels and poorly written Welsh history.  I happened to open up my little leather travel bag from Florence and found the first  volume of the Loeb edition of Polybius. I have never been a fan of Polybius–his Greek is wooden and repetitious–but he was a wise historian.  I picked up where I had left...