Columnists From The United States

"[A neoconservative is] a liberal who has been mugged by reality. A neoliberal is a liberal who got mugged by reality but has not pressed charges."

"A welfare state, properly conceived, can be an integral part of a conservative society."

"Neo-conservatives are unlike old conservatives because they are utilitarians, not moralists, and because their aim is the prosperity of post-industrial society, not the recovery of a golden age."

"A liberal is one who says that it's all right for an 18-year-old girl to perform in a pornographic movie as long as she gets paid the minimum wage."

"Today there is a new class hostile to business in general, and especially to large corporations. As a group, you find them mainly in the very large and growing public sector and in the media. They share a disinterest in personal wealth, a dislike for the free-market economy, and a conviction that society may best be improved through greater governmental participation in the country's economic life. They are the media. They are the educational system. Their dislike for the free-market economy originates in their inability to exercise much influence over it so as to produce change. In its place they would prefer a system in which there is a very large political component. This is because the new class has a great deal of influence in politics. Thus, through politics, they can exercise a direct and immediate influence on the shape of our society and the direction of national affairs."

"Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions — it only guarantees equality of opportunity."

"The Supreme Court... was never supposed to be... a democratic institution; it is a republican institution which counterbalances the... democratic institutions."

"[T]he America which emerged from the Revolution and the Constitutional Convention was the first in history. In a democracy, the will of the people is supreme. In a republic... the rational consensus of the people... implicit in the term "consent"... governs the people. ...[I]n a democracy, popular passion may... though it need not... [rule] but in a republic, popular passion is regarded as unfit to rule, and precautions... see that it is subdued rather than sovereign. In a democracy all politicians are, to some degree, demagogues: they appeal to... prejudices and passions, they incite... expectations by... reckless promises... In a republic, there are not supposed to be such politicians, only statesmen—sober, unglamorous, thoughtful men... in... perpetual conversation with the citizenry. In a republic, a fair degree of equality and prosperity are important goals, but... liberty... is given priority as the proper end of government. In a democracy... priorities are reversed: the status... as consumers... is taken to be more significant than... as participants in the creation of political goods. A republic is... "moralistic" in... public and private affairs; a democracy is more easygoing, more "permissive"... more cynical."

"The spirit of rebellion is a spirit of desperation-a desperate rejection of whatever exists, a desperate aspiration toward some kind of utopia. ...It is governed by a blind momentum... and its so-called leaders are... its captives, and ultimately its victims. ...The so-called "betrayal" is... the necessary conclusion... [I]ts impossible intentions are unrealizable... the end result is... a regime which pretends to embody these intentions and... enforces such false pretentions by terror. A revolution... is a... practical exercise in political philosophy. ...It requires an attentive prudence, a careful calculation of means and ends, a spirit of sobriety... [A] successful revolution cannot be governed by the spirit of the mob. ...[I]f ...revolution is not to degenerate into a rebellion, mob actions must be marginal... [O]nly a self-disciplined people can... undertake... a revolution. ...[A] successful revolution is best accomplished by a people who do not really want it at all, but find themselves reluctantly making it."

"Young people, especially, are looking for religion so desperately that they are inventing new ones. They should not have to invent new ones; the old religions are pretty good."

"Joining a radical movement when one is young is very much like falling in love when one is young. The girl may turn out to be rotten, but the experience of love is so valuable it can never be entirely undone by the ultimate disenchantment."

"Democratic socialism turns out to be an inherently unstable compound, a contradiction in terms. Every social-democratic party, once in power, soon finds itself choosing, at one point after another, between the socialist society it aspires to and the liberal society that lathered [sic] it... [S]ocialist movements end up [in] a society where liberty is the property of the state, and is (or is not) doled out to its citizens along with other contingent "benefits"."

"It was a new kind of class war — the people as citizens versus the politicians and their clients in the public sector."

"If you have standards, moral standards, you have to want to make them prevail, and at the very least you have to argue in their favor. Now, show me where libertarians have argued in some comprehensive way for a set of moral standards. … I don't think morality can be decided on the private level. I think you need public guidance and public support for a moral consensus. The average person has to know instinctively, without thinking too much about it, how he should raise his children."

"[Conservatism:] Our revolutionary message … is that a self-disciplined people can create a political community in which an ordered liberty will promote both economic prosperity and political participation."

"Are we in danger of becoming a nation of cry-babies? Are we becoming a people who panic at the least sign at adversity? Are we becoming a people with a faith not in God or in ourselves, but in a paternalistic government to shelter us from all of life's hardships and misfortunes?"

"[T]he United States is unique among nations in being founded not on race, not on kinship, not on language, not on religion, but on political values. To be an American is to subscribe to these values. We are uniquely a political community, as distinct from an ethnic community, a religious community, a racial community, or any other kind."

"The liberal paradigm of regulation and license has led to a society where an 18-year-old girl has the right to public fornication in a pornographic movie -- but only if she is paid the minimum wage."

"What rules the world is idea, because ideas define the way reality is perceived."

"Senator McGovern is very sincere when he says that he will try to cut the military budget by 30%. And this is to drive a knife in the heart of Israel... Jews don't like big military budgets. But it is now an interest of the Jews to have a large and powerful military establishment in the United States... American Jews who care about the survival of the state of Israel have to say, no, we don't want to cut the military budget, it is important to keep that military budget big, so that we can defend Israel."

"The enemy of liberal capitalism today is not so much socialism as nihilism."

"I have observed over the years that the unanticipated consequences of social action are always more important, and usually less agreeable, than the intended consequences."

"If you care for the quality of life in our American democracy, then you have to be for censorship."

"After all, if you believe that no one was ever corrupted by a book, you also have to believe that no one was ever improved by a book (or a play or a movie). You have to believe, in other words, that all art is morally trivial and that, consequently, all education is morally irrelevant. No one, not even a university professor, really believes that."

"Power breeds responsibilities, in international affairs as in domestic -- or even private. To dodge or disclaim these responsibilities is one form of the abuse of power."

"An intellectual may be defined as a man who speaks with general authority about a subject on which he has no particular competence."

"Nostalgia is one of the legitimate and certainly one of the most enduring of human emotions; but the politics of nostalgia is at best distracting, at worst pernicious."

"It requires strength of character to act upon one's ideas; it requires no less strength of character to resist being seduced by them."

"Capitalism is the least romantic conception of a public order that the human mind has ever conceived."

"It is one of the paradoxes of journalism: The more servile a reporter is toward his sources, the more authoritative he can appear in print."

"Journalism is a character defect. I think most non-journalists would agree with this. It is life lived at a safe remove: standing off to one side of the parade as it passes, noting its flaws, offering glib and unworkable suggestions for its improvement. Every journalist must know that this is not, really, how a serious-minded person would choose to spend his days. Serious-minded people do things; a journalist chatters about the things serious-minded people do, and so, not coincidentally, avoids having to do them himself. A significant body of research indicates that non-journalists find us insufferable, perhaps for this reason."

"When he let Kennedy use his column to send signals to Nikita Khrushchev, or lent his skill to Vandenberg to reinforce the anti-Soviet consensus in American diplomacy, he wasn't acting as a reporter but as a patriot. This urge may be a dereliction of duty in the journalist, but it is a sign of decency in the man. That the two impulses in journalism should so often be at odds — duty versus decency — tells us more about the trade than most of us care to know."

"Incoherence is a common hazard for journalists who dabble in ethical judgments."

"The New York Times columnist, on the air: “I think Hillary Clinton was gracious, has put behind her the horrible sexism and misogyny the Democratic primary voters demonstrated, which I‘m appalled by, personally. Never would have happened in the Republican party.” Mr. Kristol is ignoring the public commentary by a prominent Republican on Fixed News on February 3rd of this year, who said the only people supporting Senator Clinton's bid for the presidency were, quote, “the Democratic establishment and white women.” Then this Republican added, quote, “white women are a problem. That‘s—you know, we all live with that.” Which Republican's horrible sexism did Bill Kristol forget? His own. All that was said by William Kristol, today's worst person in the world."

"Our winner [of BEST Persons], the one and only William Kristol, still of The New York Times. His latest gem, after the Supreme Court struck down the Military Commissions Act and restored the Writ of Habeus Corpus to even the detainees at Gitmo: "The decision was wrong and our fears about the Administration's attack on the great writ are overblown, because American citizens have a right to Habeus Corpus, and anyone arrested in this country has a right to Habeus Corpus." Sadly, no! That's the problem! The Military Commissions Act specifically said there was to be no Habeus Corpus for non-citizens, even if they were arrested in this country. More importantly, Bill, if, under the Act, or whatever monstrosity McCain is backing to replace the Act, if they arrested you, William Kristol, and declared you a non-citizen and an enemy combatant, and you say, "But I was born in New York City," exactly where do you think you'll be able to prove that and get yourself released? At a court hearing — a court hearing that would never happen because there would be no Habeus Corpus, because the government said you weren't born in New York City, and your response would never - even - be - heard."

"I have known Bill Kristol since the mid-’90s, when I worked for him. I had admired him even before that, when he was a pup in the Reagan administration. He is his own man, come hell or high water. If I were president — LOL — I’d hang the Medal of Freedom around Bill’s neck."

"Have you ever met a war you didn't love?"

"Almost every Afghan refugee will turn out to be so much better an American than Charlie Kirk."

"Isn't conservatism in part about resisting so-called new realities when you sense they might be questionable, even as people lecture you that you’ve got to get with the times?"

"Trump is the proximate, the efficient, cause of the collapse of the conservative movement. The principles of sound conservatism compel us to criticize him, to rebut him, to resist him, and to plan to overcome him."

"[T]here seem to be more CRIMINALS in the Trump Administration than in the Caravan."

"Hasn't America really always been, at least since the middle of the 19th century, a majority-minority country? Lincoln, July 10, 1858: "We have besides these men—descended by blood from our ancestors—among us perhaps half our people who are not descendants at all of these men...""

"Younger people actually understand how it works. They don't just take what they are fed according to their preferences; they go look at other things. So I've always been more anti-baby boomer and more pro-millennial."

"No disease any refugee might bring to America is as dangerous as the disease of fear, bigotry and hatred now being spread in America by Fox."

"The rhetorical extremism, the winking at violence, the reveling in vulgarity, and the embrace of amoralism are not bugs but features of Trumpism. Intellectual and moral coarsening is both a condition and a consequence of the demagogue's success. Trumpism really does corrupt."

"I’d rather fight than switch. It’s worth fighting."

"The town hall has the spirit of representative democracy, the rally of autocracy."

"You have to use words as they are understood in your time and place."

"[I]nstitutions are strong; it turns out you don't need a lot of sensible or even sane leadership in the White House."

"Winners have standards."