Daniel McCarthy: American conservatism after Trump (and before)

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On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib talks to Daniel McCarthy, editor-in-chief of Modern Age. Former editor-in-chief of The American Conservative, his writing has also appeared in the New York Times, USA Today, The Spectator, The National Interest and Reason. McCarthy also helped run communications for the 2008 Ron Paul campaign and was a senior editor at ISI Books. He earned a Ph.D. in classics from Washington University in St. Louis.

First, Razib and McCarthy discuss the outcome of the 2024 presidential election, and the realignment of coalitions on both right and left, and what these realignments might presage for both parties’ future. McCarthy also outlines the long march of anti-war conservatives who organized themselves around The American Conservative in the first George W. Bush term, their eventual move into the mainstream and poll position in the discourse under Donald Trump. Razib asks about the origins of modern conservatism’s divisions, going back to William F. Buckley’s founding of National Review in the 1950’s. McCarthy also talks about Russell Kirk’s role in the development of post-World War II conservatism, which included the founding of Modern Age, a more intellectual and philosophical publication than National Review. Razib asks McCarthy how the Right will evolve in a changing America, with a diminishing white majority and a more post-Christian mainstream.