The American Mind

Russia gonna Russia, while the West, and the Left, gonna fall for it. Michael Shellenberger rolls out an alarming thread on who’s funding climate activists in Europe, and the dire consequences of extremist policies at home and abroad. Meanwhile, The DOJ, CIA, and FBI have been showing increasingly bold signs of corruption and meddling in domestic elections, maintaining an apparently routine dialogue with Facebook and other social media companies about when to suppress “potential threat information.” But don’t worry: they do it all the time! Plus: our editors survey the prospects for November’s midterm elections, and for the republic more generally.

The FBI has raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. Are Merrick Garland and the ruling elites at the justice department so convinced of their political invulnerability that they don’t care how this looks? Maybe the Democrats just think they can buy voters off: in a transparent ploy to do so, the Biden administration has promised a $10,000 student loan cancellation plan. Conservatives are sputtering with outrage, but they ought to be thinking “systemically” about how to dismantle the whole college industrial complex. Plus: Alexander Dugin’s daughter, Darya Dugina, was assassinated by car bomb in Moscow. Our editors, joined by New Founding’s Matt Peterson, offer their thoughts.

In this edition of The Stakes, Michael Anton, lecturer in politics and research fellow at Hillsdale College’s Kirby Center, and a Claremont senior fellow, is joined by Michael Millerman of the Millerman School. The two discuss the teachings of the Claremont Institute's ideological lodestar, Leo Strauss. They also discuss how and to what extent Strauss' teachings, and those of other twentieth century German philosophers, remain relevant today in our crumbling republic despite an active attempt by elites to vilify them. Listeners who would like to hear even more about German philosophers can take advantage of an exclusive 25% discount to the Millerman School by using the code "STAKES" at signup! 

This week, The American Mind team is off, with the exception of Seth Barron who has volunteered to bring you a short and sweet one-man show before we return to a full complement next week. Against the background of Liz Cheney's crushing defeat in the Wyoming primary, Seth analyzes the ever-widening rift between the New Right that is taking over the GOP and the old guard who are now finding themselves not only on the outs, but unelectable. Obviously the only answer in that position is to assume everyone else is wrong and run for president, right? Right?!

This week, while The American Mind's editors are off, Ryan Williams took the opportunity to sit down with Dr. John Marini. Against the background of the FBI's unprecedented raid on Mar-a-Lago, which took place on the 48th anniversary of Richard Nixon's resignation, the pair look back at Nixon's experience with the administrative state as it relates to today. Plus: what can we do to bring government back into the purview of politics and wrench it from the clutches of an increasingly autonomous bureaucratic class?

In a move that predictably has China perturbed, Nancy Pelosi is in Taiwan on a state visit to “reaffirm allies” in the South China Sea, triggering fears of WWIII (again) across the Twitterverse. But does anyone really want an armed conflict with China? And even if they did, would our “yassified” armed forces be up to the task? Meanwhile, the Tavistock Clinic, a gender clinic in the UK, has been ordered to shut down over child abuse concerns, and a Swedish health council has recommended no longer using puberty blockers. Plus: Spencer airs his deep-cut conspiracy theory about Pete Buttigieg. A full cast of our editors analyze our trajectory.

Woke academics are trying to tear down the last barriers against total ideological conformity. Seth and Spencer are joined by Professor Amy Wax, who has ample firsthand experience of witch hunts in the academy and recommendations for change. Meanwhile, monkeypox is on the rise in New York among a certain group of people who apparently shall not be named. And the Biden administration is trying to fudge the definition of recession, so they won’t have to admit we’re in one.

A religion of fantasy requires imaginary martyrs. So this week we were treated to the spectacle of AOC and other members of Congress pretending to be handcuffed for the cameras. But that’s just the beginning of the rabbit hole. Wikipedia is being edited to conform with woke piety, and Merriam-Webster has added a new definition to “woman.” Plus: at least 163 billion dollars of COVID relief money (your tax dollars, that is) was stolen, but elites are betting on the public to just forget about it. Our editors peer through the smokescreen.

Inflation topped out at over 9% this month, which both exceeded the expected 8.8%, and poses huge issues for everyday Americans. From the working class to the not-so-working class, people are coping, or something like it, by deadening their senses and hoping it will all go away. Some believe transhumanism is the answer, but we need stronger medicine to save our souls. Plus: new video shows Hunter Biden at the extremes of depravity. Our editors, joined by Claremont’s new major gifts officer, Elizabeth Haney, analyze the situation in which we find ourselves.

The Dutch government has limited emissions so severely that many farmers will have no choice but to stop farming. The farmers, unsurprisingly, are not happy—turns out kulaks, awkwardly enough, don’t like to be liquidated. Meanwhile, the Dobbs case is starting to animate state politics and will test just how red the red states are. Plus: is trans language shoving women out of the Overton Window?