#2: Daniel McCarthy on The American Conservative

In this episode, we hear a May 19, 2016 interview with Daniel McCarthy, editor of The American Conservative. In 2002, a small group of writers and politicians on the right, including Reagan’s former senior advisor Pat Buchanan, founded a magazine called The American Conservative. Established in opposition to the Iraq War, the magazine would feature the writing of traditionalist or paleoconservatives: that is, thinkers on the right who, unlike the so-called conservative establishment, generally detest military adventurism abroad and think that American culture has sadly neglected its roots in the cultural and religious tradition of the West. Though not as widely circulated as mainstream conservative publications such as National Review, The American Conservative has a loyal following on the right, and is known, in the words of conservative commentator Reihan Salam, “as a sharp critic of the conservative mainstream.” In this interview, Dan McCarthy describes his magazine’s role as a critic of the mainstream right, as well as what he thinks of the current fracture of the Republican Party.

The Hauenstein Center Collection