The New Right is distributed across so many conflicting voices, some more thoughtful/sincere than others. Hard to say that a random anon troll's "loving your wife is gay" is representative, or that any viewpoint is representative. Yeah there are antisemites, but half of these anons turn out to be Jewish. I have no idea if this tariff brinksmanship is going to work, but there are thoughtful arguments being made in favor of Trump's approach, it's not all misanthropy.
You are both smart and well-intentioned and have valid criticisms in places, but is it possible your "the New Right left me" posture boils down to novelty-seeking? Maybe you are just bored with dissident ideas because you've heard them all and are looking for a new kick?
Whenever I go after the new right, I have people like you in mind who I do not mentally lump in with those I think are bad actors or frankly garbage humans who don’t care about anything but their bit. So I hope you know that!
It would be one thing if it were just a few people. But it’s not. There are a lot of prominent voices in the movement, anon or otherwise, who have revealed themselves to be especially vile—explicitly making light of or even celebrating the suffering of others. I’ve also lost patience with people like “Auron MacIntyre” who still play this stupid (and dishonest) game of dumping slop into the content troughs while refusing to call out the psychopaths who unfortunately do seem to have the ears of powerful people. The evidence of that is in the 4chanification of the White House—the same White House that exerted State Department influence to provide some measure of relief to Andrew “Loving Your Wife is Gay” Tate. I had an inside look at how some of this stuff works, which I haven’t really talked about yet, but will eventually when the time is right.
There’s no novelty-seeking for my part. I genuinely feel contrition for how I played a part in this. I’ve felt that for a long time, but I have only recently decided to be so forcefully vocal about it. To the extent that I still write and talk about politics, I want people to know that they do not have to be afraid to call out their own side. That grace and understanding still matter and might be the only thing that gets us through this.
I’m happy to! It’s something I’m processing as I write and talk about it. It’s hard because the central question is, now what? And the answer, I don’t know. I just decided to try to set a better example in my own work and warn people against extremes. Your soul can’t tell the difference between irony and sincerity and it’ll eventually poison you. At least that was my experience.
I agree there’s a lot of diversity, and some voices are better than others, but it’s vibes-based to the core. Aesthetics are a great recruiting tool, and I understand why it’s appealing, but seeing so many people go from fun, irreverent and curious to crystallized into some form of slop worship is disheartening. I don’t think you can govern based on vibes, and the tariff thing really drove that home for me. Others might disagree, sure, 7D chess, but there’s no mechanism except for “rejoicing in the collapse” that fits onto what they’ve actually done. I think you do great work, Dave does too, but the overall sphere is a magnet for mindless malcontents and you can see it play out in real time.
Fair to say something like this (https://treeofwoe.substack.com/p/balanced-trade) is economically illiterate but it doesn't read as vibes based. It's not WAGTFKY. Maybe this is naive but I would guess someone in the admin has also read Fletcher.
But you both are absolutely correct that the NR attracts malcontents who have built huge followings by serving up slop (which I assume means cheap, low-IQ chum that flatters dissident egos and inflames their passions w/o presenting any substantive ideas) and engaging in constant territorial pissings, purity tests, and pointless slap-fights with other scene personalities.
My theory is that much of what you describe in the episode is not so much a New Right problem as a social media (particularly Twitter) problem. The algo loves this garbage. But I think (again, maybe naive) the NR has a shot at overcoming the Vampire's Castle sadism that eventually killed the online Left because many (not all) of the NR actually believe in something, have transcendent values, whereas Leftism is resentment all the way down.
REN's 4chan screenshot above reads to me as winking, as much as chubby-cheeked JD Vance holding a lolly and saying "pwease and fank you." Today he tweeted something about wanting to go to war to raise the birth rate. Doesn't seem sincere, and that playful trolling gives the NR its power. Do we want to go back to David Frenchism, which politely and eruditely declared that downwardly mobile American whites deserve to suffer?
You’re right about the social media thing, but isn’t the integral—even inseparable—from the right that we’re talking about?
Re: REN—he was just one of many, many, many examples of people who said similar things, anon and otherwise. Many or most of these people will constantly talk about the little guy getting screwed, but then when the little guy is getting bent over a barrel and getting a colonoscopy with a flamethrower, they laugh or demand silence in suffering. In another more personal example: when I got doxed, REN, who pretends doxing is the highest sin, had no problem interacting with my doxers because it was good for his slice of the media market business. What he’s posting doing during the trade war is basically just another example of that. It is fundamentally nihilistic.
I don’t think the answer is to retreat to George Willism. It also can’t be this, or if it is, we’re in trouble. But there’s no clear “solution”—a terrible political term—that I can see for now other than trying to remind people that your soul cannot tell the difference between the mask and the reality. The bit will eventually consume the individual.
There’s a lot of playing with fire. It’s highly risky for one to be perceived as endangering the family of another. Because people would do anything to protect their loved ones. And so, if a “content creator” decides to obsess about a nasty topic, unless they are sincere and true believers, they should seriously ask themselves if it’s worth the risk.
Pedro, I certainly hope that example is a very fringe element. I consider myself conservative, voted for Trump and want the best for our country and I certainly don't condone that crap.
It will take a bit to listen to this because I have to work. I've been a conservative at least 55 years, writing for it for almost 50. But preliminary thoughts: Is there any more "conservatism," "the right," "the ideology," "the movement," "the dissident right," "the new right," "Buckley conservatism," whatever. Everything is just scattered and what remains is just dealing with what's going on.
Excellent episode. Just a couple weeks ago I was wondering when there would be a Pedro G. and Alex K. episode. I see what you're seeing in the "dumb Right," though my response is a bit different. I just ignore. I suppose that's easier for me (?) because I am more of a small-c, Christopher Lasch conservative who also liked Bernie in 2016 and never really considered myself part of the dissident Right movement, as curious as I was/am. I still think there are some interesting ideas coming out of the Right that rivals or even surpasses those coming out of the Left or the establishment center. And I'm in the academic humanities and the dumb shit I hear there day after day is the bane of my existence. It's still awful in 2025, not the vampire castle it used to be, but still an ideological echo chamber, just a different kind of awful now that they're all in a state of hyperventilating despair. I really appreciated the Barkan and Woodhouse/Fang episodes and many of Alex's recent episodes. I think there are many people who are increasingly averse to the tribalism of political identity and are just looking for a conversation about something.
I just listened to the full podcast. It was really excellent. Honestly, just kudos to you two for being honest and not just being obnoxious to get subscribers. I imagine a lot of people feel the way you guys feel and have been waiting for someone to put a voice to it.
If you just go full send off a ski jump you’re gonna get hurt. The new right is going full send right now. Your podcasts have been a good break check for me.
You are rediscovering an ancient rule-of-thumb. Alex would know that as a Romanian - any movement, organization, or entity that repels the Jews, who are the closest demographic proxy to elite human capital, repels elite human capital in general. Such entities revert into a state of banal peasantry, uncontrolled id, serf-like resentment, and general stupidity. Only Shlomo can save the online right.
What’s funny is that the negative reaction to this talk so far is…
1. People who themselves aren’t the problem reacting with shocked indignation at the fact that Alex didn't give them a caveat. “What?! I’m not like that! How dare you?!” Josh Slocum has a phrase I like on this one: "Supply your own 'not all's."
2. People who are actually the problem playing dumb and acting like little hatchlings in response to criticism that's clearly aimed at them or their table mates. "What movement? What do you mean X/Y/Z? I've never seen this before! I'm just a smol bean."
3. The low IQ riffraff and hangers-on who can only ever respond with lazy, self-flattering and thought-terminating cliches. “Heh! Women, amirite?” "You're just saying this because you're insufficiently dissident/rightwing!"
4. The even lower IQ riffraff who can only ever respond with "So are you saying that X/Y/Z leftist evil is good just because you're against the DR?"
Thanks for mentioning Peter Navaro, but I don't understand why you feel what he says is insane. Alex Kaschuta appears to be an intelligent woman but "mercantilist worldview"? She says there's no mercantilists left to cite? There are MANY on The Right. That's also the same worldview as Alexander Hamilton and all of the men on Mount Rushmore.
I urge both Mrs. Kaschuta and you to read THE GREAT BETRAYAL.
Well, the issue is that Navarro insists that this is all going well and according to plan and it’s just not. To be clear, I think tariffs can be good. I think they can be an instrument of economic nationalism. But the way they’re being implemented now is just not it. And people like Howard Lutnick and Peter Navarro are telling you all is well. It’s just lunacy and at this rate will discredit the very concept of tariffs. “We tried that—it went terribly!” So I get where you’re coming from, but there is legitimate cause for concern here. Thank you for the thoughtful and respectful response.
I appreciate your quick answer and understand what you’re saying with regard to the response. Yes - the short term can be scary. We didn’t get where we did overnight, so it can’t be fixed overnight either. I understand that. But watching our industrial base being systematically given away after NAFTO, the WTO, and giving China “Most Favored Nation” trading status over the decades has been frustrating so those of us who are pro-tariff are anxious to see much of this rolled back. I don’t know if you follow Theodore Beale aka Vox Day but he was also a doctrinaire free-trader for a long time until he re-evaluated. Why is Navarro insisting that all is going well and according to plan? I believe that should be self-evident. Time will certainly tell. And I understand your reticence about people in the future saying, “It went terribly.” We’re still laboring to this day under the myth of the “failure” of Smoot-Hawley. For example: Ben Stein’s monotone monologue in FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF!!! It’s embedded in the American subconscious now.
You mention that your relationship with faith is complicated — i would definitely advise you to work on that area. I was raised catholic and converted to LDS five years ago, and I cannot understate the purpose and change it’s brought to my life. So even when, like you, I’ve become rather uninterested in politics, I can see that there are some really exciting things happening in other areas that give me a lot of hope for what is to come.
Thank you Brother. I want to clarify that my comment was not meant to promote one denomination over another, merely to say that I hope Pedro will embark on that journey soon and that he’ll arrive wherever his truth seeking may lead him.
Based on my notes, a few observations on the podcast. I’ll be 70 in June. I’ve been a libertarian-leaning conservative all my life. In 1975 I transferred to Hillsdale College and my teacher was Russell Kirk. I knew him fairly well until he died. When I got out of the U.S. Army in 1982, for a couple of months I was his assistant in Mecosta. His basic conservative philosophy always has been mine, although with a lot of Austrian and supply-side economics, especially Wanniski, who died 20 years ago, and Laffer, still advising Trump. I’ve made a living writing conservative-libertarian editorials and other articles since 1977. And in the Army I was a Russian linguist and radio intercept solider, basically another form of journalism. I still make a living writing mainly about California and Orange County politics.
Although I have read your stuff for maybe six years, maybe longer, I am unfamiliar with most of the younger podcasters and writers you mentioned. Most of my friends are my age and, although not familiar with the conservative battles of recent decades, vote and have some influence on politics, especially locally. They get their national and international news mainly from Fox News, Newsmax and similar sources. They call themselves conservatives and Republicans, not right-wing, or alt-right, or whatever newfangled phrase is being used now.
It's Trump, not the young conservative (whatever) influencers who appeals to them. And not Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley or Vivek Ramaswamy. It’s also noteworthy 55% of Latino men voted for Trump. There’s a visceral leadership from him absent in other Republicans. People respond to that. Especially after he got shot, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
I’ve done long radio and internet shows like yours with Alex, and there’s always something one leaves out. So I’m not knocking you for not including some things. But in your next show with Alex, an interesting guest, here’s what I would like to see, as these are the most important topics today, influencing not just conservatives, but everybody, and my comments on what you did broadcast:
1. Foreign policy. The Ukraine War and, in general, working out a nuclear peace with Russia. Say what you will about Trump, he has replaced Biden, who almost got us nuked. Especially last fall when he – Biden, not Zelinsky, just a puppet – lobbed missiles deep into Russia. The war is a typical badly though out neocon monstrosity. NATO never should have been enlarged, especially as Bush I, Baker, Kohl and others promised to Gorbachev to expand NATO “not one inch” toward Russia.
I would have liked to hear what Alex sees in Romania, next to Ukraine and close to Russia, and where the U.S. is building a large military base. This also is a problem for Romania because occupation armies degrade the host country. They spread immorality, and demasculinize the men for not being able to defend their own women and children.
Then there’s the Middle East. Trump could work out a deal with Iran on nukes, or we might end up in a disastrous war, which would negate what good he has done.
2. The $37,000,000,000,000.00 national debt. Trump is the first president since Clinton, helped by Gingrich, to at least try to reduce the deficits and debt. The Democrats hate it because he’s ending their USAID and other grifts. He probably won’t succeed and the debt will continue rising until drastic cuts will have to be made by somebody to avoid national default.
3. The Supreme Court. Overturning Roe v. Wade, strengthening the Second Amendment and ending affirmative action all are due to Trump’s appointments. Although Barrett has been wavering, the court mostly is limiting the leftist federal judges.
4. Religion. Trump has rolled back the anti-Christian pogroms of the Biden and Obama regimes. Biden jailed pro-lifers and spied on Traditional Catholics. In another show, I would like to hear from Alex what the state of religion is in Romania. How is the Romanian Orthodox Church doing? How is it affected by the revival of Russian Orthodoxy? How about the Catholic and Protestant minorities? Jews?
5. DEI is being pushed aside, at least as much as possible at the federal level, inspiring attacks on it at the state and local levels, even in such insane states as California and Colorado.
6. Trump and Elon are attacking the trans nonsense. Yet it continues at the state level, especially recently in California and Colorado.
7. Trade and tariffs. Maybe this should be higher on my list, but economics comes after war, peace and culture. You devoted about half of your podcast to it. I’m a free trader. But I’m willing to see how this plays out. Especially as Trump is planning large, new tax cuts and more regulation cuts.
As Alex said, Trump has backed tariffs since the 1980s. Nobody should be surprised by what he’s doing. Nor should anyone be surprised at his mercurial imposition of tariffs, on then off. Especially as he’s highly energized by his second term. It may settle down to 10% tariffs for almost everybody except China (with Russia having close to no trade with us because of sanctions, at least until there’s a peace deal). I read somewhere this could have been the plan all along. Instead of just imposing 10% across-the-board tariffs on everybody, which would bring opposition, instead he’s doing a tariff dance to distract everybody, while using higher levies to leverage lower tariffs on us by the foreigners.
Markets also never go straight up. 10% drops occur on average every two years. And 20% drops every six years. We were due for the latter.
China is different because it really has been manipulating its own tariffs and ripping off our IP. As its economy rises, this may be our last chance to push them to agree to better terms.
Then there’s the problem of our defense industries relying so much on Chinese parts. That doesn’t make any sense, especially if all these wars continue. As I have warned, and the NY Times recently reported, the U.S. arsenal is running bare. We can’t just make orders to China to use their U.S.-transferred factories to get more 155mm shells. We need the factories to be rebuilt here.
You and Alex warned about the tariffs hurting the working class. That may happen in the short term. But after sanctions were imposed on Russia in 2022, it suffered about 2% GDP reduction – then saw GDP rise sharply, along with increases in industrial production to replace the lost vehicle and other imports. Granted, Russia’s economy is different from ours. But they kept taxes low and increased defense spending, despite the war, only from around 7% to 8% of GDP. If Trump cuts taxes and regulations, we could enjoy a similar boom in manufacturing. That’s why this isn’t 1929. Hoover, after imposing Smoot-Hawley, vastly increased welfare programs, then jacked up taxes to pay for them. The triple whammy is what caused the Great Depression: tariffs, taxes and spending. Trump is not doing that.
8. A final point. This all many not work out. We’re in new territory. But the Democrats have no alternative policies. Sanders – I refuse to call him by his cutesy nickname – and Ocasio-Cortez railing against “oligarchy” is going nowhere, especially as he’s superannuated and she’s a simpleton. Democrats’ two main issues are abortion, a 2022 controversy, and slicing off children’s reproductive organs. They have no strong policies except railing against Trump.
As to conservatism, of whatever flavor, it’ll soon be replaced by AI.
The New Right is distributed across so many conflicting voices, some more thoughtful/sincere than others. Hard to say that a random anon troll's "loving your wife is gay" is representative, or that any viewpoint is representative. Yeah there are antisemites, but half of these anons turn out to be Jewish. I have no idea if this tariff brinksmanship is going to work, but there are thoughtful arguments being made in favor of Trump's approach, it's not all misanthropy.
You are both smart and well-intentioned and have valid criticisms in places, but is it possible your "the New Right left me" posture boils down to novelty-seeking? Maybe you are just bored with dissident ideas because you've heard them all and are looking for a new kick?
Whenever I go after the new right, I have people like you in mind who I do not mentally lump in with those I think are bad actors or frankly garbage humans who don’t care about anything but their bit. So I hope you know that!
It would be one thing if it were just a few people. But it’s not. There are a lot of prominent voices in the movement, anon or otherwise, who have revealed themselves to be especially vile—explicitly making light of or even celebrating the suffering of others. I’ve also lost patience with people like “Auron MacIntyre” who still play this stupid (and dishonest) game of dumping slop into the content troughs while refusing to call out the psychopaths who unfortunately do seem to have the ears of powerful people. The evidence of that is in the 4chanification of the White House—the same White House that exerted State Department influence to provide some measure of relief to Andrew “Loving Your Wife is Gay” Tate. I had an inside look at how some of this stuff works, which I haven’t really talked about yet, but will eventually when the time is right.
There’s no novelty-seeking for my part. I genuinely feel contrition for how I played a part in this. I’ve felt that for a long time, but I have only recently decided to be so forcefully vocal about it. To the extent that I still write and talk about politics, I want people to know that they do not have to be afraid to call out their own side. That grace and understanding still matter and might be the only thing that gets us through this.
Thanks I know that. Would love to have you on NRP Radio sometime to probe into this further.
I’m happy to! It’s something I’m processing as I write and talk about it. It’s hard because the central question is, now what? And the answer, I don’t know. I just decided to try to set a better example in my own work and warn people against extremes. Your soul can’t tell the difference between irony and sincerity and it’ll eventually poison you. At least that was my experience.
“Auron MacIntyre” is basically the DEI lady meme just with “Muh! Spengler! Power reveals! Power hides! Pay me!”
I agree there’s a lot of diversity, and some voices are better than others, but it’s vibes-based to the core. Aesthetics are a great recruiting tool, and I understand why it’s appealing, but seeing so many people go from fun, irreverent and curious to crystallized into some form of slop worship is disheartening. I don’t think you can govern based on vibes, and the tariff thing really drove that home for me. Others might disagree, sure, 7D chess, but there’s no mechanism except for “rejoicing in the collapse” that fits onto what they’ve actually done. I think you do great work, Dave does too, but the overall sphere is a magnet for mindless malcontents and you can see it play out in real time.
Fair to say something like this (https://treeofwoe.substack.com/p/balanced-trade) is economically illiterate but it doesn't read as vibes based. It's not WAGTFKY. Maybe this is naive but I would guess someone in the admin has also read Fletcher.
But you both are absolutely correct that the NR attracts malcontents who have built huge followings by serving up slop (which I assume means cheap, low-IQ chum that flatters dissident egos and inflames their passions w/o presenting any substantive ideas) and engaging in constant territorial pissings, purity tests, and pointless slap-fights with other scene personalities.
My theory is that much of what you describe in the episode is not so much a New Right problem as a social media (particularly Twitter) problem. The algo loves this garbage. But I think (again, maybe naive) the NR has a shot at overcoming the Vampire's Castle sadism that eventually killed the online Left because many (not all) of the NR actually believe in something, have transcendent values, whereas Leftism is resentment all the way down.
REN's 4chan screenshot above reads to me as winking, as much as chubby-cheeked JD Vance holding a lolly and saying "pwease and fank you." Today he tweeted something about wanting to go to war to raise the birth rate. Doesn't seem sincere, and that playful trolling gives the NR its power. Do we want to go back to David Frenchism, which politely and eruditely declared that downwardly mobile American whites deserve to suffer?
You’re right about the social media thing, but isn’t the integral—even inseparable—from the right that we’re talking about?
Re: REN—he was just one of many, many, many examples of people who said similar things, anon and otherwise. Many or most of these people will constantly talk about the little guy getting screwed, but then when the little guy is getting bent over a barrel and getting a colonoscopy with a flamethrower, they laugh or demand silence in suffering. In another more personal example: when I got doxed, REN, who pretends doxing is the highest sin, had no problem interacting with my doxers because it was good for his slice of the media market business. What he’s posting doing during the trade war is basically just another example of that. It is fundamentally nihilistic.
I don’t think the answer is to retreat to George Willism. It also can’t be this, or if it is, we’re in trouble. But there’s no clear “solution”—a terrible political term—that I can see for now other than trying to remind people that your soul cannot tell the difference between the mask and the reality. The bit will eventually consume the individual.
There’s a lot of playing with fire. It’s highly risky for one to be perceived as endangering the family of another. Because people would do anything to protect their loved ones. And so, if a “content creator” decides to obsess about a nasty topic, unless they are sincere and true believers, they should seriously ask themselves if it’s worth the risk.
Pedro, I certainly hope that example is a very fringe element. I consider myself conservative, voted for Trump and want the best for our country and I certainly don't condone that crap.
Keep up the good work.
It will take a bit to listen to this because I have to work. I've been a conservative at least 55 years, writing for it for almost 50. But preliminary thoughts: Is there any more "conservatism," "the right," "the ideology," "the movement," "the dissident right," "the new right," "Buckley conservatism," whatever. Everything is just scattered and what remains is just dealing with what's going on.
Excellent episode. Just a couple weeks ago I was wondering when there would be a Pedro G. and Alex K. episode. I see what you're seeing in the "dumb Right," though my response is a bit different. I just ignore. I suppose that's easier for me (?) because I am more of a small-c, Christopher Lasch conservative who also liked Bernie in 2016 and never really considered myself part of the dissident Right movement, as curious as I was/am. I still think there are some interesting ideas coming out of the Right that rivals or even surpasses those coming out of the Left or the establishment center. And I'm in the academic humanities and the dumb shit I hear there day after day is the bane of my existence. It's still awful in 2025, not the vampire castle it used to be, but still an ideological echo chamber, just a different kind of awful now that they're all in a state of hyperventilating despair. I really appreciated the Barkan and Woodhouse/Fang episodes and many of Alex's recent episodes. I think there are many people who are increasingly averse to the tribalism of political identity and are just looking for a conversation about something.
I just listened to the full podcast. It was really excellent. Honestly, just kudos to you two for being honest and not just being obnoxious to get subscribers. I imagine a lot of people feel the way you guys feel and have been waiting for someone to put a voice to it.
If you just go full send off a ski jump you’re gonna get hurt. The new right is going full send right now. Your podcasts have been a good break check for me.
You are rediscovering an ancient rule-of-thumb. Alex would know that as a Romanian - any movement, organization, or entity that repels the Jews, who are the closest demographic proxy to elite human capital, repels elite human capital in general. Such entities revert into a state of banal peasantry, uncontrolled id, serf-like resentment, and general stupidity. Only Shlomo can save the online right.
We do need some sort of name for this movement tho.
I’m only 19 minutes in, but “digital lobotomy” is definitely a keeper.
What’s funny is that the negative reaction to this talk so far is…
1. People who themselves aren’t the problem reacting with shocked indignation at the fact that Alex didn't give them a caveat. “What?! I’m not like that! How dare you?!” Josh Slocum has a phrase I like on this one: "Supply your own 'not all's."
2. People who are actually the problem playing dumb and acting like little hatchlings in response to criticism that's clearly aimed at them or their table mates. "What movement? What do you mean X/Y/Z? I've never seen this before! I'm just a smol bean."
3. The low IQ riffraff and hangers-on who can only ever respond with lazy, self-flattering and thought-terminating cliches. “Heh! Women, amirite?” "You're just saying this because you're insufficiently dissident/rightwing!"
4. The even lower IQ riffraff who can only ever respond with "So are you saying that X/Y/Z leftist evil is good just because you're against the DR?"
Thanks for mentioning Peter Navaro, but I don't understand why you feel what he says is insane. Alex Kaschuta appears to be an intelligent woman but "mercantilist worldview"? She says there's no mercantilists left to cite? There are MANY on The Right. That's also the same worldview as Alexander Hamilton and all of the men on Mount Rushmore.
I urge both Mrs. Kaschuta and you to read THE GREAT BETRAYAL.
<https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/365725.The_Great_Betrayal>
Or the Cliff's Notes view:
<https://www.c-span.org/program/book-tv/the-great-betrayal/160301>
Navoro has a Master of Public Administration and PhD in economics from Harvard.
I don't understand with that background how he can be "batshit crazy."
The same was said of Ross Perot. Was Perot wrong?
Please re-evaluate. If the New York Times is praising you, that might be an indicator.
With respect!
Well, the issue is that Navarro insists that this is all going well and according to plan and it’s just not. To be clear, I think tariffs can be good. I think they can be an instrument of economic nationalism. But the way they’re being implemented now is just not it. And people like Howard Lutnick and Peter Navarro are telling you all is well. It’s just lunacy and at this rate will discredit the very concept of tariffs. “We tried that—it went terribly!” So I get where you’re coming from, but there is legitimate cause for concern here. Thank you for the thoughtful and respectful response.
I appreciate your quick answer and understand what you’re saying with regard to the response. Yes - the short term can be scary. We didn’t get where we did overnight, so it can’t be fixed overnight either. I understand that. But watching our industrial base being systematically given away after NAFTO, the WTO, and giving China “Most Favored Nation” trading status over the decades has been frustrating so those of us who are pro-tariff are anxious to see much of this rolled back. I don’t know if you follow Theodore Beale aka Vox Day but he was also a doctrinaire free-trader for a long time until he re-evaluated. Why is Navarro insisting that all is going well and according to plan? I believe that should be self-evident. Time will certainly tell. And I understand your reticence about people in the future saying, “It went terribly.” We’re still laboring to this day under the myth of the “failure” of Smoot-Hawley. For example: Ben Stein’s monotone monologue in FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF!!! It’s embedded in the American subconscious now.
You mention that your relationship with faith is complicated — i would definitely advise you to work on that area. I was raised catholic and converted to LDS five years ago, and I cannot understate the purpose and change it’s brought to my life. So even when, like you, I’ve become rather uninterested in politics, I can see that there are some really exciting things happening in other areas that give me a lot of hope for what is to come.
I will pray for you to return to the Catholic faith. Jesus, the real Son of the Trinity, misses you.
Thank you Brother. I want to clarify that my comment was not meant to promote one denomination over another, merely to say that I hope Pedro will embark on that journey soon and that he’ll arrive wherever his truth seeking may lead him.
Based on my notes, a few observations on the podcast. I’ll be 70 in June. I’ve been a libertarian-leaning conservative all my life. In 1975 I transferred to Hillsdale College and my teacher was Russell Kirk. I knew him fairly well until he died. When I got out of the U.S. Army in 1982, for a couple of months I was his assistant in Mecosta. His basic conservative philosophy always has been mine, although with a lot of Austrian and supply-side economics, especially Wanniski, who died 20 years ago, and Laffer, still advising Trump. I’ve made a living writing conservative-libertarian editorials and other articles since 1977. And in the Army I was a Russian linguist and radio intercept solider, basically another form of journalism. I still make a living writing mainly about California and Orange County politics.
Although I have read your stuff for maybe six years, maybe longer, I am unfamiliar with most of the younger podcasters and writers you mentioned. Most of my friends are my age and, although not familiar with the conservative battles of recent decades, vote and have some influence on politics, especially locally. They get their national and international news mainly from Fox News, Newsmax and similar sources. They call themselves conservatives and Republicans, not right-wing, or alt-right, or whatever newfangled phrase is being used now.
It's Trump, not the young conservative (whatever) influencers who appeals to them. And not Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley or Vivek Ramaswamy. It’s also noteworthy 55% of Latino men voted for Trump. There’s a visceral leadership from him absent in other Republicans. People respond to that. Especially after he got shot, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
I’ve done long radio and internet shows like yours with Alex, and there’s always something one leaves out. So I’m not knocking you for not including some things. But in your next show with Alex, an interesting guest, here’s what I would like to see, as these are the most important topics today, influencing not just conservatives, but everybody, and my comments on what you did broadcast:
1. Foreign policy. The Ukraine War and, in general, working out a nuclear peace with Russia. Say what you will about Trump, he has replaced Biden, who almost got us nuked. Especially last fall when he – Biden, not Zelinsky, just a puppet – lobbed missiles deep into Russia. The war is a typical badly though out neocon monstrosity. NATO never should have been enlarged, especially as Bush I, Baker, Kohl and others promised to Gorbachev to expand NATO “not one inch” toward Russia.
I would have liked to hear what Alex sees in Romania, next to Ukraine and close to Russia, and where the U.S. is building a large military base. This also is a problem for Romania because occupation armies degrade the host country. They spread immorality, and demasculinize the men for not being able to defend their own women and children.
Then there’s the Middle East. Trump could work out a deal with Iran on nukes, or we might end up in a disastrous war, which would negate what good he has done.
2. The $37,000,000,000,000.00 national debt. Trump is the first president since Clinton, helped by Gingrich, to at least try to reduce the deficits and debt. The Democrats hate it because he’s ending their USAID and other grifts. He probably won’t succeed and the debt will continue rising until drastic cuts will have to be made by somebody to avoid national default.
3. The Supreme Court. Overturning Roe v. Wade, strengthening the Second Amendment and ending affirmative action all are due to Trump’s appointments. Although Barrett has been wavering, the court mostly is limiting the leftist federal judges.
4. Religion. Trump has rolled back the anti-Christian pogroms of the Biden and Obama regimes. Biden jailed pro-lifers and spied on Traditional Catholics. In another show, I would like to hear from Alex what the state of religion is in Romania. How is the Romanian Orthodox Church doing? How is it affected by the revival of Russian Orthodoxy? How about the Catholic and Protestant minorities? Jews?
5. DEI is being pushed aside, at least as much as possible at the federal level, inspiring attacks on it at the state and local levels, even in such insane states as California and Colorado.
6. Trump and Elon are attacking the trans nonsense. Yet it continues at the state level, especially recently in California and Colorado.
7. Trade and tariffs. Maybe this should be higher on my list, but economics comes after war, peace and culture. You devoted about half of your podcast to it. I’m a free trader. But I’m willing to see how this plays out. Especially as Trump is planning large, new tax cuts and more regulation cuts.
As Alex said, Trump has backed tariffs since the 1980s. Nobody should be surprised by what he’s doing. Nor should anyone be surprised at his mercurial imposition of tariffs, on then off. Especially as he’s highly energized by his second term. It may settle down to 10% tariffs for almost everybody except China (with Russia having close to no trade with us because of sanctions, at least until there’s a peace deal). I read somewhere this could have been the plan all along. Instead of just imposing 10% across-the-board tariffs on everybody, which would bring opposition, instead he’s doing a tariff dance to distract everybody, while using higher levies to leverage lower tariffs on us by the foreigners.
Markets also never go straight up. 10% drops occur on average every two years. And 20% drops every six years. We were due for the latter.
China is different because it really has been manipulating its own tariffs and ripping off our IP. As its economy rises, this may be our last chance to push them to agree to better terms.
Then there’s the problem of our defense industries relying so much on Chinese parts. That doesn’t make any sense, especially if all these wars continue. As I have warned, and the NY Times recently reported, the U.S. arsenal is running bare. We can’t just make orders to China to use their U.S.-transferred factories to get more 155mm shells. We need the factories to be rebuilt here.
You and Alex warned about the tariffs hurting the working class. That may happen in the short term. But after sanctions were imposed on Russia in 2022, it suffered about 2% GDP reduction – then saw GDP rise sharply, along with increases in industrial production to replace the lost vehicle and other imports. Granted, Russia’s economy is different from ours. But they kept taxes low and increased defense spending, despite the war, only from around 7% to 8% of GDP. If Trump cuts taxes and regulations, we could enjoy a similar boom in manufacturing. That’s why this isn’t 1929. Hoover, after imposing Smoot-Hawley, vastly increased welfare programs, then jacked up taxes to pay for them. The triple whammy is what caused the Great Depression: tariffs, taxes and spending. Trump is not doing that.
8. A final point. This all many not work out. We’re in new territory. But the Democrats have no alternative policies. Sanders – I refuse to call him by his cutesy nickname – and Ocasio-Cortez railing against “oligarchy” is going nowhere, especially as he’s superannuated and she’s a simpleton. Democrats’ two main issues are abortion, a 2022 controversy, and slicing off children’s reproductive organs. They have no strong policies except railing against Trump.
As to conservatism, of whatever flavor, it’ll soon be replaced by AI.