Three recent pieces, two from America and one Italian, cite the work of the humble president of this little organization, in other words me. The first American–in the geographical sense–piece is by Peter Brimelow on his highly esteemed website VDare: http://www.vdare.com/articles/the-american-conservative-movement-has-ended-the-american-right-goes-on ...
In this reaction to Trump’s election, Dr. Fleming reflects on Election Night, what this means for Trump voters and for the country, whether Hilary will (or should) be pardoned, whether this is the beginning of a counter-revolution, and whether Mr. Kurtz has been replaced by Long John Silver. Because of the special circumstances of this election, this podcast is being made free to the general public. Show Sponsor: Members Who Support Our Work Original Air Date: November 10, 2016 Show Run Time: 35 minutes Show Guest(s): Dr. Thomas Fleming Show Host(s): Stephen Heiner The Fleming Foundation · FF Podcast, Special...
We’ve only just begun to live White lace and promises A kiss for luck and we’re on our way (We’ve only begun) Before the risin’ sun we fly So many roads to choose We’ll start out walkin’ and learn to run (And yes, we’ve just begun) —The Carpenters, “We’ve Only Just Begun” Making America great again is not something to be looked forward to. In fact, although America has had some great people and some great moments, it has never really been Great. And spare me and my descendants from living in a “great country.” Rather a good and comfortable...
When my wife woke me up this morning, I recognized the mixture of excitement and satisfaction I felt. I had felt it before on the morning after Election Day, 1980. The sensation was not the taste of Proust’s petite madeleine. It was the smell of victory. My wife and I did not talk much. We didn’t have to. We did not share the emotions of the American election of 1980, but we had been in Italy together for the election of 2008. The Communist Party had changed its name for the second time in two decades, this time to the...
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....
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
