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Michael Anton

Michael Anton is a former senior national security official in the Trump administration. He is best known for his pseudonymous essays written during the 2016 presidential campaign in which he supported Donald Trump.

Series

3 Whisky Happy Hour9 episodesThe Ricochet Podcast1 episode

Recent Episodes

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

Michael Anton Picks Up the Gauntlet

"Human rights do not exist," claims an anonymous dissident conservative writer, but when he (at least we're going to identify the author as a "he"—heh) added some animadversions about our pal Michael Anton, the fight was on! Anton has responded at length to this provocation with a true tour de force over at American Greatness, entitled "Natural Right and the Traditional Reproach." I do encourage interested readers to take in the whole thing, as it a succinct tour through the history and philosophical tradition of natural right, especially as it matches up to our desperate scene today. Of course, denying natural right is a capital offense for our Lucretia, so she joins us for our spirited discussion of this subject, in which I play devil's advocate and press some difficulties with Michael's position and analysis. We also take in Paul Gottfried's polite response to Michael, which left us more puzzled than anything. We did have a couple of minor technical problems while we were recording that dropped Michael’s sound for a few seconds, which led to a couple of very abrupt jump cuts, but we smoothed it out as best we could. We suspect there are sequels to this argument ahead. Stay tuned.
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet

March 2022

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Three Whisky Happy Hour: Michael Anton on the Ukraine Crisis

The Ukraine crisis isn't going away, and with recriminations on all sides making the rounds here at home, it seemed propitious to check in with Michael Anton, who, among other things, served on the National Security Council in two administrations. To say Michael is not happy with the state of play here at home is an understatement, and Lucretia and I fully join in. It doesn't take long for us to wander on to other territory, settling on the terminal confusion and weakness of the Republican Party establishment. But what else is new? This first Happy Hour of Lent, however, finds two of us without whisky during this episode, though I am petitioning to have this podcast be declared an official Feast Day event, so that we can exempt future tapings from the rigors of piety. Exit music this week is "Fool's Overture" from Supertramp, with lyrics that are a close enough fit for our perilous moment.
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet

August 2021

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Three Whisky Happy Hour, with Guest Bartender Michael Anton

We're not done thrashing the Afghanistan disgrace, so we coaxed Michael Anton (the Power Line podcast's most frequent guest it turns out) to join us for a few quaffs. We use three of his recent articles to launch our discussion, starting with "Afghanistan: Doomed from the Start." But we use a section from the middle of this essay, on the blunders of our advisers in the Middle East who don't understand our own Constitution but presumed to advise Iraq and Afghanistan about how to write theirs, to pivot to the crisis here at home. Along the way, though, Michael has been having some very polite arguments with some of the leading "Paleoconservatives," who for various reasons didn't like President Trump's 1776 Commission that was set up in explicit opposition to the pernicious 1619 Project. From there we have a vigorous argument amongst ourselves about how to think about—and more importantly argue in public about—the place of equality in America, deriving from the famous phrase "All men are created equal." (The two Anton articles that bear on this are "Could the Founders Have Done Better?", and "Getting Right with the Founders.") And then at the end, we ask Michael when we can expect him to start a full fledged cooking channel on YouTube, since he recently did a boffo sample on preparing a lamb demi-glace, which naturally led to an argument about . . . lamb. Seriously. (Guess what: Lucretia is agin' it. It figures, doesn't it?) So for listeners who bear with us all the way through to the end, I have some fitting exit music, though not everyone will get it.
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet

June 2021

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Three Whisky Happy Hour: What Would Machiavelli Do?, with Michael Anton

Pour a double for this weeks 3WHH, as Lucretia and Steve host Michael Anton to talk about his extraordinary new article, "The Art of Spiritual War, Or, How to (Posthumously) Conquer the World from Your Desk." The author of the famous (or infamous) "Flight 93 Election" article in 2016 covers an amazing amount of ground in a short space, which includes rehabilitating Machiavelli in a certain way, and then asking the big question: What would Machiavelli, rightly understood, do today? Michael thinks there are some parallels to be drawn between Machiavelli's time—rampant with corruption and failed institutions—and our own. Beginning with the premise that things today are even worse than they look, Anton thinks mere reform won't do—that a real break with the wokerati and our endless constitutional decay requires Machiavellian boldness. As Anton counsels at the end: "Machiavelli thought BIG. His aim was nothing less than to reorder the world . He was not merely trying something no one ever had, but something no one would believe possible." And if you bear all the way to the end, you can catch a preview of Michael's possible updating of Plato, called The Woke Republic, in which "Wokerates" takes on the sophists and calculators in ironic defense of freedom.
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet

September 2020

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

‘The Stakes,’ with Michael Anton

Today is the 4th anniversary of the appearance of one of the most memorable political essays in American history, "The Flight 93 Election," written by the pseudonymous author "Decius." It began with this memorable attention-grabber: 2016 is the Flight 93 election: charge the cockpit or you die. You may die anyway. You—or the leader of your party—may make it into the cockpit and not know how to fly or land the plane. There are no guarantees. Except one: if you don’t try, death is certain. To compound the metaphor: a Hillary Clinton presidency is Russian Roulette with a semi-auto. With Trump, at least you can spin the cylinder and take your chances. Decius turned out to be Michael Anton, and I had forewarning about the article because he roughed it out while visiting me on vacation a couple weeks before. People still talk—and argue ferociously—about Michael's essay, and now he is back with a full length sequel, a book about this year's election, The Stakes: America at the Point of No Return. Michael starts our conversation with an account of how what he thought would be an obscure essay became a sensation, and how the political scene in the country has sharpened more ominously since Trump's upset win four years ago. You can read an excerpt of the book—the concluding chapter—here, where he says "There's little wrong with President Trump that more Trump couldn't solve." (See also Angelo Codevilla's review of the book, "'Finger in the Dike' Election."
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet
The Ricochet Podcast
The Ricochet Podcast

Bad Hair Day

Well, it's crunch time now: we're into the final lap of the election and things are going to be intense for the next 8 weeks or so. But first, some personal business: one of our intrepid cast is sending his youngest child off to college. Is his purpose in life now over? We discuss. Then Mr. Flight 93 himself, Michael Anton joins to discuss his new book, The Stakes: America at the Point of No Return and to warn everyone that if Joe Biden wins, the country will turn into California (but without the weather, the beaches, and the surfing). For those of us who live in the Golden State, it's a weird way to sell a book (it's not that bad here), but hey, Michael's gotta eat too. Then, something of a departure for America's Most Beloved Podcast® -- a sports segment! And if we're going to do a sports segment, then we're going to get one of the best in the business to help us. That would be the great Sally Jenkins -- columnist for The Washington Post. We talk about college football, political activism in sports, and what's it's like to enter the family business when your dad was one of the all time legends. Finally, Nancy Pelosi gets a blowout and it blows up. Perfect. Music from this week's show: I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair by Ella Fitzgerald
Hosts:
James LileksPeter RobinsonRob Long
Organization
Ricochet

October 2019

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

Bonus Episode: Bronze Age Decius?

This special bonus double-episode tests the proposition that a good podcast format is a conversation among friends at a bar—because that's exactly what the first segment of this show offers. Last week I was overseas on the joint cruise of the Claremont Institute and the Pacific Research Institute, both celebrating their 40th anniversary this fall. Following a day tromping around Florence taking in the scenes of various locales for Niccolo Machiavelli, I decided to repair to the smoking lounge with Michael Anton ("Decius"), along with Ryan Williams and Matt Peterson of the Claremont Institute, for an extended cigar smoke over brandy and a chat about Machiavelli's republicanism. From there we take up the curious phenomenon of the pseudonymous writer "Bronze Age Pervert" and his underground best-selling self-published book Bronze Age Mindset that is said to extremely popular with "alt-right" young people. Anton recently reviewed BAM here, but in our conversation he addresses the rumor that he is in fact the author behind it. After all, he's done it before as "Decius," as we all know. To find out the answer, you'll just have to listen to the episode. (And then let is know if we were just a bit too boozy for this experiment to be judged a success.) Then I briefly converse with our own Scott Johnson, who attended President Trump's big rally in Minnesota last Thursday, met in private with Trump, and then received an extended shout-out from Trump during the rally for his persistence in covering the various and multiplying scandals of Ilhan Omar. Since this is a special double-episode, you may want or need to take it in chunks, or take an extra-long walk.
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet

February 2019

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

After the Flight 93 Election

Michael Anton's controversial 2016 essay "The Flight 93 Election" was compared to Tom Paine's Common Sense as a tract that grabbed the public imagination. Michael is back now with a new book, After the Flight 93 Election: The Vote That Saved America and What We Still Have to Lose. Steve Hayward talked with Michael Sunday afternoon, bringing us up to date on the Flight 93 thesis two years into the Trump presidency, with observations on where conservatism needs to go next, the growing threat from a militant left, and what kind of person is necessary to succeed Trump in the fullness of time. Bonus question: Is America going the way of ancient Rome? You'll have to listen to the end to find out. The first brief bumper tune today is the appropriately named (for today's topic) "Prep for Flight" by David Newman (it's from a film soundtrack—bonus points for knowing without looking it up), and we exit with "People Everywhere Just Want to Be Free" from the Rascals, which also fits our main theme in this episode.
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet

May 2018

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The ‘Flight 93 Election’ Comes in for a Landing

Steve Hayward and John Hinderaker interviewed Michael Anton, former senior staffer at Trump's National Security Council and author of the controversial "Flight 93 Election" article from September 2016, at the Ricochet Podcast Summit in Washington. Anton revisited the infamous article, shared his insights about Trump's political character, and also regaled the live audience with a great tale of what it's like to be a chef for a White House state dinner.
Hosts:
John HinderakerSteve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet

December 2016

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

Back to the Beach (Boys) with Michael Anton

With the election over, we can get back to important things. Like the Beach Boys. Except, like everything else, the left has politicized the Beach Boys too. In this episode of the Power Line Show, Steve Hayward talks with writer and native Californian Michael Anton about the Beach Boys, the decline of California into a center-left state, and even Machiavelli.
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet