A Conflict of Visions within Conservatism 

Sometimes you need to take a step back to see the big picture.

Writing in Law & Liberty, James Patterson questions what the future holds for a divided conservatism.

Readers of Intercollegiate Review will recognize the tensions between old guard libertarians and national conservatives who want to use the power of administrative state.

Reading the tea-leaves at an ISI conference.

As Patterson surveys the debates he saw at ISI’s conference on conservative political economy, he argues that you can’t understand today without first considering how the past two decades brought us to Trump and the nat-cons.

And we won’t know how this debate will shake out, he argues, until we know who’s running for president in 2024.

But here’s something that might surprise you: Patterson thinks that “Democrats may need Trump more than Republicans do.”

Read here and see if you agree with his analysis.
 

A Different Exercise in Power

Divisions aren’t unique to conservatives, of course: these days they also color our most basic parts of speech.

The editors at The New Criterion have a note on the ongoing war about pronouns—which, they argue, was bred in universities but now embroils our whole culture in idiocy.

You might enjoy some of the absurdities they document. But they make a very serious point: “The real prize in the pronoun wars is not correct grammar but the display of power and exertion of control.”

But you’ll need to click through to see what expert they bring in on this point. He (ze? They?) is, you might say, a good egg.
 

Was There a “Divine Plan” to End the Cold War?

The Weaver Fellowship, January 15, 2022

Thank you for reading. Share with a friend!

Who We Are, What We Do