The Enemy of My Enemy
I just had my first article published in Quillette. It's a publication I have admired from afar (and frequently linked to) but somehow I couldn't quite make the right connection there. That barrier has been overcome, so it's likely you'll see a few more of my articles there in the future.
This one is getting some attention because it's my attempt to offer a warning against a proposed alliance between "anti-Marxist liberals" and nationalist conservatives.
That is as bad an idea as it sounds, but the offer has been made, and it is getting traction.
"During a recent conference of nationalist conservatives—a faction attempting to bring intellectual substance and coherence to the political phenomenon of Trumpism—one of the movement's leading figures, Yoram Hazony, proposed 'a new deal between national conservatives and traditionalists on the one hand, and anti-Marxist liberals on the other.'
"This new coalition is intended to replace the American Right's 'fusionist' alliance between religious conservatives, free-marketers, and Cold War hawks, who were once drawn together by their shared antipathy to communism. Nationalists now regard fusionism with disdain, and by proposing an alliance with the center-Left, Hazony and his faction hope to downgrade the free-marketers and freeze out the secular libertarians....
"So then why are some anti-Marxist liberals apparently ready to accept Hazony's offer? Some of these intellectuals were featured speakers at the nationalist conference. As the Dispatch report notes, they include 'Glenn Loury, a Brown University economics professor and prominent black conservative critic of the left's anti-racist dogma; anti-woke culture warrior Douglas Murray (don't tell them about his 2006 work NeoConservatism: Why We Need It); "classical liberal" YouTuber Dave Rubin; the Somali-born champion (and, indeed, embodiment) of Enlightenment values Ayaan Hirsi Ali.'"
This also explains the otherwise inexplicable choice to put Sohrab Ahmari—who as a (literally) dogmatic Catholic does not believe in unfettered free inquiry—on the board of the proposed University of Austin, which is supposed to be dedicated to unfettered free inquiry.
I tick down all the ways in which the nationalists are enemies of liberalism, including some revealing new quotes, and I also point out how unnecessary the whole thing is.
"[T]he nationalist conservative agenda is so thoroughly illiberal that one wonders what the anti-Marxist liberals can expect to get out of the alliance. This is especially true considering how little liberals need the nationalists. Glenn Youngkin's recent victory in Virginia's statewide election indicates that woke ideology is poisonously unpopular. Given the chance, people will vote against it and will cross party lines to do so. Nationalism is unnecessary, ideologically and electorally, to achieve this result. In fact, given that Youngkin performed far better than Donald Trump, who lost the state decisively a year earlier, nationalism is almost certainly a hindrance.
"In spite of the nationalists' assumption that they will be the senior partners in the new alliance, dictating its terms and conditions, it is they who need the boost of association with a popular cause. The cause doesn't really need them."
This article is also prompting a lot of discussion on Twitter, including replies from Yoram Hazony and some of the other nationalists. So stay tuned.