Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
This week, our old friend and proto-podcaster Mark Steyn returns to the fold to discuss his terrific new book Disgrace to the Profession.
In the addition to the book, we also cover Trump (of course), Mark’s neighbor, Bernie Sanders; the dissing of President McKinley, water levels in Alaska, and an update on Steyn vs. Mann. Yep, we got the band back together.
Music from this week’s episode:
Get Happy by Frank Sinatra
The opening sequence for the Ricochet Podcast was composed and produced by James Lileks.
Hello Cleveland, EJHill.
Yes, you should absolutely subscribe to this podcast. It helps!
Help Ricochet by Supporting Our Sponsors!
For a limited time The Great Courses has a Special offer for Ricochet listeners. Order any of these 4 Business & Presentation courses – for just $9.95. Go to thegreatcourses.com/RICOCHET
This podcast is brought to you by Harry’s Shave. For the finest shave at the best price, got Harrys.com and use the coupon code RICOCHET at checkout.
Subscribe to The Ricochet Podcast in Apple Podcasts (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in Apple Podcasts or by RSS feed.
First comment to point out the typo (or course). Bam!
Oh man, this calls for a beer on the train home while I listen.
How many SteynOnline gift certificates do we have to commit to to get him back on a regular basis? Name your price man! Between Long’s millions and the rest of our not millions, we can do it!
Thanks for bringing the Prodigal Son back! Nice work!
I would push back on Mark’s characterization of the two party system. In Westminster systems like Canada’s and Britain, members are usually bound to vote how the party leadership tells them. We don’t have that in our system, which is why we don’t need third parties. The purpose served by minor parties in parliamentary systems is served by members of the two parties that buck their leadership. That of course does not excuse the fecklessness of the GOP leadership.
The cover art on this album makes me so happy, I can’t stand it.
Before I even start listening, I have to say again that EJHill is a genius.
Does anyone know if there is a way to get access to the first five episodes of the GLOP podcast? They seem to be gone from the RSS feed.
Thanks for pointing that out. We’ll re-upload them.
That might be true if upstart Republicans or Democrats didn’t rely on party funding for campaigns and were not bound to the party’s reputation. I’m not very knowledgeable on the matter, but I suspect there is more independence of priorities and financing when distinct parties must form alliances than when factions compete within a single party.
Mark wrote an interesting article about monarchies the other day. I’ve wondered how many Ricochet folks would agree with his claim that monarchy is “the natural order of things” for societies generally.
Aaron,
I’ll have to check that out. I am speaking from my experience of the last two years. I have been working for Australia’s center-center right major party. A most recent example is that in that party, you are not allowed to vote in favor of same-sex marriage, even if you or your constituents personally support it. In some cases, if you vote against leadership, (know as “crossing the floor”) you automatically lose the nomination for that party in the next election. Minor parties are still very marginal. And the dissent coming from a minor party MP is much less regarded than coming from within the party. While you’re right to point out that there is some mechanism of party discipline, we have it much better in this country, with fewer restrictions on spending from outside groups and again, House Republicans can vote against John Boehner if they chose, but a conservative Australian MP cannot vote against the Prime Minister.
I think there are things that could be done to break the two party monopoly (preferential voting?), but I just don’t think the issue should be over stated. Similar problems avail themselves in different systems, just in different ways.
GLoP #2-5 are here. Still looking for #1.
Thank you.
If I’m parsing you correctly, this is incorrect. The parties hardly do anything today. First, everyone except the president answers to their state parties, and the President picks the membership of the National Party (which is really more of a loose coalition of interests and organizations). Even those who answer to state parties only answer in the loosest sense. American parties are extremely weak -oddly, like the founders intended, though it took 200 years to get there. The saying in the biz is that Americans form their coalitions before the election (by assembling coalitions under a party banner) and the Commonwealth forms their coalitions after the election (when they form the coalition to vote for PM).
Aristotle certainly seemed to think so. This is different from “the best system” though. Certainly, history seems to indicate the strongman authoritarian is the default system of anything above the clan (and even some clans). Republics are the exception.
Always look out for #1.
GLoP Culture didn’t have a name until episode 3, I believe. I think the first two episodes were released through the feed for the Ricochet Podcast.
I’ve uploaded episodes 3-5: http://ricochet.com/series/goldberg-long-podhoretz/page/5/
Audible proof that 70 is the new 50.
It was all worth it for the rhyme about gay bars in Riyadh. Definitely, should have Steyn on more. Agree with the chat, a Q & A would be great. Didn’t he use to contribute? Like posts and comments, not just as a podcast guest. How can we get that to happen again?
That was a great podcast. Thank you.
It’s hard to see Mark Steyn get so beat up in the hockey stick case. He does not deserve this.
Cat, Steyn never wrote or commented on Ricochet. But, if I remember right, he was on every podcast with Rob and Peter for a while.
I’d hate to lose Lileks as host, even to make way for Steyn’s return. But nothing would please me more than for Mark to rejoin Ricochet on a semi-regular basis somehow.
I originally joined Ricochet, way back when it first started, just for the chance of conversing with Steyn in the comments. It’s a testament to Ricochet that I stuck around long after he left, without ever having spoken with him.
I wasn’t a member at that time but he was in every podcast for the first several months, then he went on walkabout for a few months. He returned for a few more months, and then permanently disappeared. I never saw anything about why in the main feed.
Sabrdance, I think the takeaway regarding monarchies and dictators (not entirely unlike lawless, untouchable legislators and bureaucrats) is that power determines authority. The will and the means matter more than written agreements concerning political constraints.
Many modern people in democratic nations have a fanciful notion that authority naturally derives from consent of the governed. But citizens only ever hold authority over representatives when politicians have reason to fear voters… even if that fear is merely the threat of losing elections.
What do Republican politicians have to fear? Even people who hate them vote for them because Democrats are worse.
What is now GLOP was, originally cast with Mark, Rob & Jonah. They put it behind a firewall for a few weeks and I joined Ricochet to hear it. I’m still trying to get out.
http://ricochet.com/archives/ricochet-roundtable-with-steyn-goldberg-and-long-1-misty/
Mark was on fire today!
Rob, there are others who have made documentaries and written books debunking climate change hysteria such as James Delingpole. But they get little coverage or publicity.
The migration from the Middle East to Europe is a colonization and Europe will never be the same. Link below is my post on the subject.
https://indianaoracle.wordpress.com/2015/09/05/the-end-of-europe-lesson-the-us/#more-2047
So why are the drummers always the “scruff nerf herder” types
I absolutely disagree that the two-party system is the explanation for the rise of Trump, or that we’d be in any way better served by a greater influence of third parties. You can’t draw that conclusion from recent British politics, for one. David Cameron is as establishment-y as Romney or Bush and decidedly less conservative (could well be a Democrat here). And as of today it’s now obvious that the anti-establishment frustration is as strong over there as here and is decidedly bipartisan.
I totally disagree with Mark’s take on the two party system. In this country we have Winner Take All elections which forces us to form coalitions before elections. In parliamentary systems you have proportional representation which encourages factionalism. Then, once elections happen you get haphazard coalitions of ideologically strange bedfellows, so voting for one party becomes a crapshoot after the election to tell who is going to govern!
@Majestyk — like the Cameron/Lib Dem alliance. With a full primary system the British Conservatives would probably be more conservative; without a third party they might have won a majority sooner. The system helped produce a squishy PM dependent on basically green liberal votes.
Off-topic, but voting for the Lib Dems was another attempt at voting for non-traditional politics. Turned out the Lib Dems were politicians too, and they came crashing down to earth with a thud.
This was precisely what I was alluding to.
Apparently the episode is no longer held in their Global News podcast archives, but not too long after they helped stoke the fire which consumed Tim Hunt after he joked about women scientists crying in the lab, the BBC environment correspondent, in a piece about how the warming oceans are threatening the lives of sea creatures, reported that he was unable to complete his interview of a female scientist because… she started crying! She cares so much about the sea creatures that she couldn’t contain her emotions, you see.