Even though I vociferously opposed his neoconservative foreign policy projects, Michael Ledeen and I became friends later in life. I came to appreciate him as a gentleman, scholar, and patriot of the first order.
Tag: Ronald Reagan
Post
Art, Religion, and Culture in the ’80s
A new book examines the impact of the decade with engaging prose but less than honest assessments of the moral costs.
Post
Voodoo Trumponomics
Ironically, by following the world instead of leading it, America may replace the prevailing free trade orthodoxy and spur an industrial renaissance.
Post
Trump’s Life’s Work Culminates in Confronting Communist China
Trump has not just been outspoken on the issue of trade with China—he has been proven correct.
Post
The Dismal Science and the Trumpian Tariff Hullabaloo
Americans don’t elect economists to pursue the most “efficient” policies but leaders to pursue the common good.
Post
Let It Burn: CIA Revelations Unclassified
Former CIA Chief James Angleton was right: The best prescription for the agency is to let it burn, “let it all come out and let people take the consequences.”
Post
Can Donald Trump Win a Trade War?
Good economic policy calls for a cool head, and Wall Street fears the president is letting his passions set the nation on a dangerous course.
Post
Henry Hyde’s Monuments
The decision to remove the late congressman’s name from a judicial building in his home state can’t touch Hyde’s most lasting legacy.
Post
Farewell to the Ideology of ‘Development’?
Can Trump finally succeed in the 60-plus year struggle to overcome the failed and misguided ideology of “Developmentalism” at USAID?
Post
Up in Smoke
As so much of California lies in ruin many wonder whether the Golden State has finally had enough of the ideological incontinence that has brought it so low. Anything is possible in the Trump era!
Post
The Cold Civil War Is Over. We Won.
Trump is taking a sledgehammer to the entire Obama-Biden agenda.
Post
We Were Right About the Managerial State
In the '80s, Chronicles emerged as the sole voice within the conservative movement questioning the ever-growing managerial state.
Post
When Enough Isn’t Enough: Carter’s True Legacy
The embarrassing fawning over Carter’s legacy from establishment conservatives reveals their abiding desire for social respectability at the expense of truth.
Post
Remembering Lee Edwards: Chronicler of Conservatism
Lee Edwards was present at the creation of the conservative movement.
Post
Democrats Are at a Dead End, Unless They Learn From Trump
Democrats who hope to revitalize their party need to accept that wokeism is a dead end and learn from Trump in the same way they once learned from Reagan.
Post
The Swan Song of the Arch Neocon
Condoleezza Rice presents a dangerous mixture of militarism and liberal universalism. She is the last Bush-era neocon enjoying relevancy, which makes her even more dangerous.
Post
New Reagan Biopic Falls Short
The film does very little to resolve Ronald Reagan’s disputed legacy and may, unwittingly, reinforce many of the left’s false caricatures.
Post
Nursing the Nation’s Population Replacement
America has a real nursing shortage but it’s not due to a shortage of immigrant healthcare workers or any of the other reasons routinely given by the oracles of respectable opinion.
Post
A Tale of Two Assassination Attempts
Reagan had many Democratic detractors but the hatred for Donald Trump is on a different level.
Post
Donald Trump Is Reagan’s Heir
The future of all Reagan secured for the country now hinges on what happens in this election.
Post
NeverVancers Are the New NeverTrumpers
The usual suspects are out in force to undermine J. D. Vance as antithetical to Reagan’s realism merely because he repudiates George W. Bush’s disasters.
Post
Limits and Hope: Against the Anti-Tragedy Agenda of the Left
Once the right allowed the left to frame politics as the avoidance of tragedy, they lost the game. We’d do well to reconsider what Christopher Lasch called the “limits and hope” of politics.
Post
What Trump Sees in Doug Burgum
Trump’s VP contest isn’t really about the contestants; it’s about investing the audience in the drama of choosing and the man making the choice. Burgum is just plausible enough to extend that drama.
Post
Kayfabe U.S.A.
Donald Trump continues an American political tradition that appears tough and adversarial, but is strictly theatrical. Wrestlers call it "kayfabe."
Post
PBS Misremembers William F. Buckley Jr.
In failing to mention Communism, the makers of a PBS documentary about William F. Buckley unintentionally remind viewers of why Buckley was needed in the first place—and why he still is.
Post
Who Wants to Be House Speaker?
Weakening House committees had the paradoxical effect of concentrating power in leadership and making the speaker more important in setting the majority’s policy direction—which only turned the speaker into the focus of every member’s discontent and created stronger opposition to him within the party.
Post
Archie Bunker Back Stories
Carl Reiner’s son, Rob, takes part in a grand tradition on the left of demonizing normal, religious people after being advanced, personally, by powerful relationships. On the left, it’s all relative and “all in the family.”
Post
Great American Musical Artists in their Roaring Nineties
Great musical artists approach the coda, without the recognition they deserve. As the year closes, we’d do well to remember (or discover) their work.
Post
What Happened to Ron DeSantis?
When a politician stakes his campaign on a demonstration of how thorough, consistent and philosophically pure he is, he might impress conservative journalists and policy wonks, but they don't pick the nominee.
Post
Konstantin Chernenko Lives Here
The last thing Middle America needs is an American Chernenko. America cannot afford a dying leader at this time.
Post
The Missed GOP Debate Opportunity
The Republican Party keeps looking back at Reagan without considering what has changed since Reagan. This results in missed opportunities for the GOP.
Post
All the Conspiracy That’s Fit to Print
Conspiracy theories against the right don't need much proof to make it into the pages of The New York Times.
Post
Still Against the ‘Dead Consensus’
A return to the "dead consensus" status quo ante would be a disaster for the American Right and the Republican Party—and thus for the nation as a whole.
Post
Frank Meyer’s Fusionism and the Search for Consensus Among Conservatives
Frank Meyer’s attempt to codify a conservative consensus must be understood in the context of his day, when remnants of the Old Right were marginalized and conservatism was dominated by anti-Communism.
Post
How Can You Befriend a ‘Semi-Fascist’?
President Joe Biden recently accused Trump voters of embracing "semi-fascism." Friendships can be forged across partisan lines, but it's rather difficult to befriend a "semi-fascist," isn't it?
Post
Mikhail Gorbachev: Failed Politician
Mikhail Gorbachev was perhaps the most abject failure among late 20th-century leaders. He let a destructive genie out of the bottle that led to NATO’s eastward expansion and laid the groundwork for the war in Ukraine.
Post
How, When, Do We Come Together Again?
America suffers from a great divide that goes far beyond our clashing views of Jan. 6 and the Mar-a-Lago raid. Americans need to find common ground again.
Post
Is a US-Russia War Becoming Inevitable?
America is now in a military alliance with Finland—the newest member of NATO. No Cold War president would have risked the survival of our nation to defend a distant country that has never been a U.S. vital interest.
Post
The Roots of America’s Mentally Ill Homelessness Crisis
The deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill has intensified the homelessness crisis across American cities.