Founded in 1953, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) has remained on the forefront of the conservative intellectual movement with a particular focus on ensuring college students are equipped with the tools they need to explore the conservative worldview.  During the tumultuous begins of the modern conservative movement in the United States, ISI embraced many of the views and adherents of both the libertarian and traditionalist wings of the movements.  Today, ISI is yet again navigating the divisions on the Right as they seek to maintain a platform where these embattled factions can meet together and debate their differences with civility and passion.   Joining Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis in this episode is James Davenport, Academic Program Officer for ISI, as they discuss indispensable books for the student of conservatism, the plight of young conservatives on college campuses, the importance and relevance of fusionism, cancel culture and civility, and how conservatives might combat the continuous Leftward bent of higher education.   About James Davenport James Davenport is Academic Program Officer for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.  He received his BA in politics, philosophy, and theology from the Templeton Honors College at Eastern University.  As an undergraduate, James was an ISI Honors Scholar and president of his campus ISI Society—The Montaigne Society.  He also participated in seminars with the Elm Institute, was a fellow with the Philadelphia Commons Institute (formerly the Agora Institute), and was a course fellow in religion and politics with the Hertog Foundation.   James’ writing can be found in the Imaginative Conservative, The University Bookman, Philanthropy Daily, Front Porch Republic, the Forma Journal of the Circe Institute, and more.  He also hosts the Conservative Conversations with ISI podcast alongside ISI President Johnny Burtka and National Director of Student Programs Marlo Slayback.  You can find James on Twitter @mrJSDavenport   Listener Mail In the listener mail segment Josh responds to a listener’s request to cover the topics of conservatism in urban areas and the challenge of countering the Left’s hold over elite institutions, particularly in higher education.  

Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values

Episode 93 – Repainting the Fusionist Fence with James Davenport

As the old adage goes, variety is the spice of life.  And the conservative heartily agrees.  Variety, not uniformity, is what gives life its vitality and each life the potential for self-actualization and the opportunity for each of us to develop in our own unique way.  But is variety compatible with equality?  What do we mean by equality, and how might equality be established?  What is the relationship between equality, progress, and justice?   In this solo episode, Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis explores what conservatism has to say about variety and equality and their relationship to progress and justice.  No one disputes inequalities exist.  But there is much disagreement on why they exist, or what qualifies as an “inequality”, let alone what should be done about it.  Perhaps the sharpest question we can ask is who is to blame for inequalities?  Does the mere fact that one person is unequal than another person create an injustice?  And what of the various kinds of inequalities?  We might be able to reach a wide consensus that no injustice is done if John is taller than Bill, or even if John is wealthier than Bill.  But what if John belongs to an ethnic or social group that’s predominantly wealthier than Bill’s ethnic or social group?  Is that an injustice?   To the conservative, true equality—equality before the law and before God—is precisely what gives rise to inequalities.  And enforcing unnatural equality necessarily violates our natural equality.  If people who are born with different abilities and access to opportunities are all set on a level playing field, we would naturally expect radically different outcomes.  If we were to force equal access to opportunities by granting them to those without and depriving them to those who would otherwise have access, we would still see different outcomes because people would still be operating within the abilities they inherited at birth.  If we strove still to eliminate even these inequalities, by demanding or enforcing that all outcomes be the same—such that if one person’s abilities allowed them to produce more or excel in some way beyond that of their peers we would deprive them of their excess production—we might finally achieve absolute equality.  But the price we’d pay would be the death of distinction, variety, and—in a multitude of historical examples where such heavy-handed leveling has been attempted—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Is that justice?  Is that progress?  

Episode 92 – The Spice of Life

Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis is joined by Ian Rowe and Nique Fajors—two black Harvard Business School graduates—who hope to change the narrative and highlight the positive achievements of black men in the United States.  What is wrong with the common narrative surrounding black men?  How much has changed over recent decades and are those changes adequately reflected in the narrative?   Ian and Nique host The Invisible Men, a podcast and video platform interviewing successful black men.  In the aftermath of Rodney King’s assault by police officers in the 90s and his attackers’ subsequent acquittal, Ian Rowe and Nique Fajors grew weary of a public narrative proclaiming that black men in America were doomed to failure under an oppressive system.  A feeling of invisibleness struck both Ian and Nique who were then Harvard Business School classmates as the stories of men like them became increasingly ignored in the public eye.  Today, Ian and Nique have resurrected “The Invisible Men” as a video podcast.  In their inaugural episode, Ian and Nique share their inspiration behind launching “The Invisible Men” documentary in the 90s and discuss why—30 years later—their message of agency and empowerment is needed more than ever.   About Ian Rowe Ian Rowe is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on education and upward mobility, family formation, and adoption.  Mr. Rowe is also the cofounder of Vertex Partnership Academies, a new network of character-based International Baccalaureate high schools opening in the Bronx in 2022; the chairman of the board of Spence-Chapin, a nonprofit adoption services organization; and the cofounder of the National Summer School Initiative.  He concurrently serves as a senior visiting fellow at the Woodson Center and a writer for the 1776 Unites Campaign.   Until July 1, 2020, Mr. Rowe was CEO of Public Prep, a nonprofit network of public charter schools based in the South Bronx and Lower East Side of Manhattan.  Before joining Public Prep, he was deputy director of postsecondary success at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, senior vice president of strategic partnerships and public affairs at MTV, director of strategy and performance measurement at the USA Freedom Corps office in the White House, and cofounder and president of Third Millennium Media.  Mr. Rowe also joined Teach for America in its early days.   Mr. Rowe has an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was the first black editor-in-chief of The Harbus, the Harvard Business School newspaper; a BS in computer science engineering from Cornell University; and a diploma in electrical engineering from Brooklyn Technical High School (Brooklyn Tech), one of New York City’s elite public schools, which specializes in science, technology, and mathematics.   You can follow Mr. Rowe on Twitter @IanVRowe   About Nique Fajors Nique Fajors is a business leader in retail, e-Commerce, software entertainment, and organizational development.  Mr. Fajors has launched over 85 e-Commerce products and services generating over $2.1 billion.  A nationally respected business thought leader, he has been quoted in the New York Times, The Financial Times, and Business Week and been a speaker at TEDx.   You can follow Mr. Fajors on Twitter @NFajors  

Episode 91 – Invisible Men with Ian Rowe and Nique Fajors

America’s history of bigotry and racism have left wounds that fester to this day.  How might the country make amends to those racial minorities who were harmed?  To what extent are white Americans responsible for addressing wrongs perpetrated by their ancestors?  To what extent can the effects of these past sins be measured and known?   These are not easy questions, nor is there much consensus on where we go from here.  But there is one area where both conservatives and liberals may be able to find common ground: addressing historic wrongs committed by the practice of redlining at the local level.  Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis is joined again by Charles Marohn to discuss the history of redlining, its effect on American minorities, and a possible path forward to making restitutions consistent with conservative principles.   About Charles Marohn Charles (or “Chuck” to friends and colleagues) Marohn is the founder and president of Strong Towns, a nonprofit that supports thousands of people across the United States and Canada who are advocating for a radically new way of thinking about the way we build our world. Marohn is a professional engineer and a land use planner with decades of experience. He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning, both from the University of Minnesota.   Marohn is the author of Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity (Wiley, 2019). He hosts the Strong Towns Podcast and is a primary writer for Strong Towns’ web content. He has presented Strong Towns concepts in hundreds of cities and towns across North America. Planetizen named him one of the 10 Most Influential Urbanists of all time. He is a long-time commentator on KAXE Northern Community Radio. He currently co-hosts KAXE’s Dig Deep program, a monthly examination of public policy issues affecting Minnesotans.   Marohn grew up on a small farm in central Minnesota. The oldest of three sons of two elementary school teachers, he joined the Minnesota National Guard on his seventeenth birthday during his junior year of high school and served in the Guard for nine years. In addition to being passionate about building a stronger America, he loves playing music, is an obsessive reader, and religiously follows his favorite team, the Minnesota Twins. Chuck and his wife live with their two daughters in their hometown of Brainerd, Minnesota. You can find him on Twitter @clmarohn   Listener Mail Josh responds to a listener’s message asking if he would encourage his listeners to get the COVID-19 vaccine.  

Episode 90 – Redlining and Reparations with Charles Marohn

Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis joins Dennis Sanders on his podcast En Route to discuss the past, present, and future of the GOP and conservative movements, what younger generations of Americans have to offer the country, and where the #NeverTrump movement went wrong.   About Dennis Sanders Dennis Sanders is a blogger, podcaster, pastor, and media and technology professional.  He hosts En Route, a podcast about the journey focusing on religion, politics and culture and the things we discover on the way.  Dennis was born and raised in Flint, Michigan and currently lives in Minneapolis.  You can find Dennis on Twitter @denminn  

Bonus Episode – En Route with Dennis Sanders

Often the highest praise we can offer a bright, promising student is “you’ll go far”.  Americans have long associated success with striking out on one’s own and heading for greener pastures.  But is this transient attitude conducive to the long-term health of local communities?  What happens to the places we leave behind and what impact does that have on us?   Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis is joined by Gracy Olmstead, author of Uprooted: Recovering the Legacy of the Places We've Left Behind.  Their conversation delves into how Americans have historically thought of leaving or sticking with the communities of their upbringing and how American practices don’t always align with American values.  Gracy offers her thoughts on what wisdom Alexis de Tocqueville and Wendell Berry have to share and how the pains of homesickness might point us towards an understanding of what parts of the past are worth bringing into the future.   About Gracy Olmstead Gracy Olmstead is a writer and journalist located outside Washington, D.C.  Her work has appear in The American Conservative, The Washington Times, the Idaho Press Tribune, The Federalist, The Week, National Review, and Acculturated.    Gracy’s book examines the heartbreaking consequences of uprooting—for both her hometown of Emmett, Idaho, and for the greater heartland of America.  Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Uprooted wrestles with the questions of what we owe the places we come from and what we are willing to sacrifice for profit and progress.    You can follow Gracy on Twitter @GracyOlmstead   Listener Mail At the end of the episode, Josh responds to a listener’s question about the recent debate on the Right regarding whether Viktor Orbán policies in Hungary are worth emulating in the United States to effectively engage in the culture wars.  

Episode 89 – Uprooted with Gracy Olmstead

The opioid overdose crisis is back in the news with recent revelations that the already shocking death toll has increased dramatically since the pandemic.  Drug overdose is now the leading cause of accidental death with opioids accounting for most of the deaths.  This crisis has certainly received a lot of attention from lawmakers, healthcare professionals, and the media.  However, Saving Elephants returning guest Peter Pischke argues that much of the debate over what to do about the growing crisis is overly focused on patients with medical needs who rarely abuse their medication.   About Peter Pischke Peter Pischke is an independent disability and health reporter covering politics, journalism, ethics, and culture.  He is the host of the Happy Warrior Podcast and the creator of The Happy Warrior substack.  His specialty is communicating on the little-discussed side of the opioid crisis, the side from those reliant on opioid pain medication, the prescription opioid crisis.   Peter himself is a disabled pain patient and became deeply impacted in 2018 when his trusted physician force tapered him off his medication.  With an ear to the ground on the different sides of this deeply felt issue, Peter tries to parse out what is happening on the ground and give his readers a clear picture of what the opioid crisis is and how we might get out of this man-made mess.   Peter was a guest on the Saving Elephants podcast in Episode 42 - Media Bias with Peter Pischke.  You can read his recent article in the New York Daily News on the CDC’s mishandling of the opioid crisis here.  You can find Peter on Twitter @HappyWarriorP  

Episode 88 – Opioid Pains with Peter Pischke

What is America and what does it mean to be an American?  We Americans have been debating this question for centuries, yet we seem even less united on a common understanding than Americans of prior generations.   America’s original national motto was E Pluribus Unum: “Out of many, one”.  It contained the notion that this diverse country of ethnicities and religions and ideologies were somehow unified in some sense.  In 1956, our national motto changed to “In God We Trust”.  Yet this was no less of a statement on American unity.  In 1956 the Cold War was raging, and the government of the United States sought to distinguish itself from the atheistic Soviet Union.  Trusting in God was simply what it meant to be an American.   And yet no one can deny that there are plenty of Americans who would not claim to believe, let alone trust, in God.  And the idea that the best way to describe ourselves in light of our current political divides is “Out of many, one” seems downright laughable.   Why is it so hard to come to a common agreement on what it means to be an American?  What ideas have been tried in the past?  Why did they fail and to what extent were they ever successful?  How important is it that we reach some kind of consensus?  Joining Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis to discuss these questions and more is returning guest Avi Woolf.   About Avi Woolf Avi Woolf is a writer, editor, translator, and podcaster whose work has been published in Arc Digital, Commentary, National Review, The Bulwark, and The Dispatch.  He is chief editor of the online Medium publication Conservative Pathways, and he—in his words—"hopes to help forge a path for a conservatism which is relevant for the 21st century while not abandoning the best of past wisdom.”   Avi has been a guest on the show in two previous episodes as well: the first in which he explored the need for conservatism to find a way to appeal to people who live in urban areas in Episode 26 – Urban Conservatism and the second in which he mulled over the love/hate relationship the Right has long had with institutions of higher education in Episode 49 – God and the Speechless at Yale.   Avi hosts his own podcast entitled Avi’s Conversational Corner, a podcast on culture, history, and politics in a broad perspective. You can find Avi on Twitter @AviWoolf  

Episode 87 – E Pluribus Unum with Avi Woolf

Josh takes a break from the guests to cover a little conservatism 101.  Russell Kirk’s pithy list Ten Conservative Principles: begins with what Kirk called an enduring moral order: “The conservative believes that there exists an enduring moral order.  That order is made for man, and man is made for it: human nature is a constant, and moral truths are permanent.”   The full implications of this idea—not to mention the arguments in favor or disapproving of this view or the thorny business of trying to agree upon a working definition of “moral order”, “human nature”, or “permanent truths”—is precisely what makes this so challenging to untangle.  But untangle we must for, if we ever hope to understand conservatism, we must first understand the foundation conservatism rests upon.   It would be difficult to overemphasize the importance of order.  It’s not some idea relegated to trivial conversations amongst people with a lot of time on their hands, it is quite literally the glue that holds reality together.  “Either order in the cosmos is real, or all is chaos,” explained Kirk, “In a vortex of chaos, only force and appetite signify.”  Everything conservatism defends as worth conserving rests on the idea that there exists some standard by which we can truthfully distinguish what things have value from mere popular preferences.  Our ability to make these distinctions is important, but such efforts would be utterly hopeless if order did not exist.  In that case all we could say is that some people prefer some things while other people prefer other things; we couldn’t make actual truth statements about those things.   Edmund Burke put it more succinctly: “Good order is the foundation of all good things.”  The connection between order and foundation is key.  The existence of order—that is, something that is fixed, absolute, immutable, and completely outside of humanity’s ability to create or destroy—is precisely what grounds reality.  Without it, all that’s left is chaos and appetite.  Humans don’t submit to the gods they create; and if we come to believe there is no truth greater than whatever “truth” we create for ourselves we shouldn’t act surprised when a spirit of benevolence and comradery is insufficient to hold barbarism at bay.  Without order, we don’t have a basis for justice or a universal argument for natural rights and liberty from coercion.   If Kirk’s assertion of the existence of an enduring moral order is true, we’re faced with an abundance of questions, such as:   Can we define this moral order, or at least discern it? If so, how? What is the relationship between societal order and the order within each individual in society? Where does this order come from? Is it spiritual in nature? What political and legal implications does a moral order impose? Doesn’t the flirtation with ideas of a moral order quickly descend into authoritarian theocracy? How does the conservative guard against that? What implications does this have for politics or the state? Or is this a matter of faith that should be left out of political considerations altogether? What is the relationship between order and liberty? Are these ideas in conflict or can they be reconciled?   Josh tackles all that and more in this episode  

Episode 86 – Perfect Bedrock

For thousands of years the ways in which cities and towns developed has provided us with a of blueprint for what human habitats need to flourish.  Yet today many of our cities and towns have forsaken these tried-and-true methods and instead imposed rational planning and an overreliance on pricey infrastructure projects to foster growth and further development.  What are the potential downfalls of departing from these practices of the past?   Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis is joined by Chuck Marohn of Strong Towns to traverse the world of urban planning and discuss the need for a return to the ancient models of development, the terrible costs of over-indebted infrastructure projects to younger Americans, whether or not Wal-Mart is a net boon or detriment to local communities, and how conservatism can help us form a more prosperous and enjoyable world.   Podcast Survey Help us make the podcast even better: Take the listener survey for a chance to win a Saving Elephants coffee mug.   About Charles Marohn Charles (or “Chuck” to friends and colleagues) Marohn is the founder and president of Strong Towns, a nonprofit that supports thousands of people across the United States and Canada who are advocating for a radically new way of thinking about the way we build our world.  Marohn is a professional engineer and a land use planner with decades of experience.  He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning, both from the University of Minnesota.   Marohn is the author of Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity (Wiley, 2019).  He hosts the Strong Towns Podcast and is a primary writer for Strong Towns’ web content.  He has presented Strong Towns concepts in hundreds of cities and towns across North America.  Planetizen named him one of the 10 Most Influential Urbanists of all time.  He is a long-time commentator on KAXE Northern Community Radio.  He currently co-hosts KAXE’s Dig Deep program, a monthly examination of public policy issues affecting Minnesotans.   Marohn grew up on a small farm in central Minnesota.  The oldest of three sons of two elementary school teachers, he joined the Minnesota National Guard on his seventeenth birthday during his junior year of high school and served in the Guard for nine years.  In addition to being passionate about building a stronger America, he loves playing music, is an obsessive reader, and religiously follows his favorite team, the Minnesota Twins.  Chuck and his wife live with their two daughters in their hometown of Brainerd, Minnesota.  You can find him on Twitter @clmarohn   Listener Mail Josh responds to a listener’s question about conservatism’s challenges with appealing to minorities and whether our nation’s institutions are worth conserving given the history of American slavery and other past sins.  

Episode 85 – Strong Towns with Charles Marohn

In 1976 historian George H. Nash wrote The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945, a celebrated historical accounting that established much of the narrative for how we think about the development of modern conservatism even today.  George Nash joins Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis to discuss the various strands of thought that emerged after the second World War that eventually evolved into a political movement on the Right.  Along the way, Dr. Nash shares his insights on the colorful individuals who shaped the debate, how they fought one another, and how an eventual loose consensus was brought forth.  Finally, he offers some thoughts on what a lifetime of studying the history of conservatism can teach aspiring conservatives today.   Podcast Survey Help us make the podcast even better: Take the listener survey for a chance to win a Saving Elephants coffee mug.   About George H. Nash George H. Nash is the epitome of a gentleman and a scholar.  A graduate from Amherst College who received his Ph.D. in History from Harvard University, Dr. Nash is an authority on the histories of American conservatism and the life of President Herbert Hoover.  Dr. Nash is an independent scholar, historian, and lecturer.  He speaks and writes frequently about the history and present direction of American conservatism, the life of Herbert Hoover, the legacy of Ronald Reagan, the education of the Founding Fathers, and other subjects.  His writings have appeared in the American Spectator, Claremont Review of Books, Intercollegiate Review, Modern Age, National Review, New York Times Book Review, Policy Review, University Bookman, Wall Street Journal, and many other publications.  He has lectured at the Library of Congress; the National Archives; the Herbert Hoover, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson presidential libraries; the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum; the Hoover Institution; the Heritage Foundation; the McConnell Center; and at various universities and conferences in the United States and Europe.  Several of his lectures have been featured on C-SPAN.  He has also been interviewed by C-SPAN, National Public Radio, numerous radio stations, and the print media.  Dr. Nash lives in Massachusetts.   Listener Mail At the end of the episode, Josh responds to a listener’s question about a comment he made in the episode that dropped on Election Day 2020.  Josh had expressed his views that that time that neither major party candidate represented an existential threat to the United States and the listener askes, given what we now know about the election aftermath, accusations of widespread election fraud, the incursion on January 6, and the subsequent white washing of the Republican party, would Josh now view Trump as an existential threat to the country?  

Episode 84 – The History of American Conservatism with George Nash

Few conservative thinkers are as little known, controversial, or had as great an impact on the conservative elite as Leo Strauss.  Who was Leo Strauss, what did he believe, and how does that inform conservative thought today?  Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis is joined by Seth Root to disentangle the mysteries of Straussianism including his views on esoteric writing, the ancients vs. moderns, reason vs. revelation, and arguments against historicism and relativism.  Seth also enlightens us on the different variants of Straussianism and why he identifies as a West Coast Straussian.   About Seth Root Seth Root is the cohost of the In The Trenches Podcast, a show for conversations with people that are right in the middle of the war of ideas.  Seth was a fellow at Conservative Partnership Institute and an incoming intern at the James Wilson Institute on Natural Rights and the American Founding.   Listener Mail Josh responds to a Mark’s email about his blog post Fifty Conservative Thinkers and conservatism and the environmental movement.  Mark is the author of Old Man on a Green Bike: Chronicles of a Self-Serving Environmentalist, a book on the politics and practicalities of conscious bicycling, inspiring readers to take to two wheels for their own sake, and maybe also the good of the planet.  

Episode 83 – West Coast (Straussianism) is the Best Coast with Seth Root

Syndicated columnist, author, podcaster, and political commentator Jonah Goldberg joins Josh to discuss his work in conservative media, their shared concerns with the direction of the country and sanity of the GOP, and why Woodrow Wilson was possibly an even worse human being than James Buchanan.   Jonah Goldberg hosts The Remnant, a podcast featuring a “Cannonball Run”-style cast of stars, has-beens, and never-weres to address the most pressing issues of the day and of all-time, mixing history, pop culture, rank-punditry, political philosophy, and, at times, shameless book-plugging, and the nudity is (almost) always tasteful.  In October of 2019 Goldberg co-launched and became founding editor of the online opinion and news publication The Dispatch.  He was the founding editor of National Review Online, and from 1998 until 2019 he was an editor at National Review.   A prolific writer, Goldberg writes a weekly column about politics and culture for the Los Angeles Times as well as a frequent “newsletter” The G-File.  He has authored three books, the No. 1 New York Times bestseller Liberal Fascism; The Tyranny of Cliches: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas; and Suicide of the West, which also became a New York Times bestseller.   Goldberg is also a regular contributor on news networks such as CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC, appearing on various television programs including Good Morning America, Nightline, Hardball with Chris Matthews, Real Time with Bill Maher, and The Daily Show.  Goldberg is an occasional guest on a number of Fox News shows and a frequent panelist on Special Report with Bret Baier.   Listener Mail In this episode we’re introducing a new segment: listener mail.  Josh selects from some of the messages he’s received and responds to them in the podcast.  Few episodes have generated as much feedback as the previous episode: Episode 81 – But, He's a Fighter.  Josh reads a text he received from Jeff saying how much he enjoyed the episode and a tweet and email from Dennis expressing concerns over the episode.  

Episode 82 – Ruminating Remnants with Jonah Goldberg

How often have you heard someone say of a Republican politician that they don’t necessarily approve of everything they do or say, but at least they fight?  What exactly do we mean when we say—often approvingly—that someone is a fighter?  Why is the Right so concerned with whether or not someone is fighting?  Who are they supposed to be fighting, and what does it mean to fight?  What is the role of civility in public discourse, and is it possible to maintain an appropriate amount of civility while still fighting?  If we grant that the Right seems to be on the losing end of the culture wars, what is the best course of action?  Does fighting mean we develop our own form of cancel-culture and work to produce as many liberal tears as we can?  Or does it mean we work to rebuild our own cultural values?  Can both be done at the same time?  Is it even possible to make cultural gains through political means?   Bob Burch joins Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis to hash out these questions and more in a conversation where they—ironically—have more to fight about than usual.  

Episode 81 – But, He's a Fighter

“There's a well-worn tale about modern American conservatism,” writes Stephanie Slade in her piece for Reason entitle Is There a Future for Fusionism?  “It says that the movement as we know it came into being during the mid–20th century as a ‘fusionist’ coalition of economic libertarians and religious traditionalists.  These groups, whose goals and priorities differed from the start, were held together mainly by two things: the sheer charisma of National Review founder William F. Buckley Jr., and the shared enemy of global communism.  As long as the Cold War endured, the story goes, each wing was willing to cede some ground to the other…But the fall of the USSR meant the collapse of the common foe that had sustained the fusionist partnership.  It was able to trundle on for a while, powered by a reservoir of goodwill, but it has long been running on fumes.  In the last few years, the alliance's inherent tensions have come to a head.”   The problem with this “well-worn tale”, Stephanie contends, is that it isn’t true.  Fusionism, as developed by conservative thinkers from William F. Buckley Jr. to Frank Meyer, was a philosophical orientation that sought to advance both virtue and liberty as societal ends whereas the coalition on the Right that formed to combat global Communism was born out of political expediency.  As such, fusionism is just as relevant in a world where Communism is no longer the global menace it was in the prior century, in spite of competing voices on the Right calling for a realignment of market-skeptical Common-Good Conservatism, nationalism, and populism.   Stephanie joins Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis to discuss the true history of fusionism, what it became the dominant consensus on the Right, and why it still remains relevant today.  Also discussed are some common objections to fusionism, how fusionism can fit within the broader worldviews of libertarians, conservatives, and classical liberals, what is meant by “liberty” and “virtue”, and the seductive dangers of the post-liberal movement.   Stephanie Slade is managing editor at Reason, the libertarian magazine of "free minds and free markets."  Prior to joining Reason, Stephanie worked as a speechwriter, a pollster, and a regular contributor to U.S. News and World Report.  In 2013, she was named a finalist for the Bastiat Prize for Journalism.  In 2016–2017, she was selected as a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow.  She's a proud graduate of the University of Florida, where she earned a B.A. in economics.  She also has an M.A. from American University.  You can find her on Twitter @sladesr  

Episode 80 – The Future of Fusionism with Stephanie Slade

The Saving Elephants Podcast features engaging conversations about conservative values with a mercifully modern twist.  Tired of political shock-talk and rank punditry on your radio and TV?  Curious about what conservative thinkers of yesteryear had to say but don't have time to read some terribly long, boring book they wrote?  Want to learn why conservatism still holds value for Millennials today? Join us as we re-ignite conservatism for Millennials!

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Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conser...

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