Power Line

Steven Teles of Johns Hopkins University is a rare liberal who writes with great perception and fairness about conservatism and conservative ideas. In this episode, Steve Hayward talks with Teles about his fine new book (co-authored with Brink Lindsay) “The Captured Economy,” and also about liberalism, intellectual history, and especially about the need for more conservatives in higher education.

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Claremont Institute fellow Joseph Tartakovsky is out this week with a fascinating new book that illuminates the Constitution with a unique approach: “The Lives of the Constitution” explores the meaning of our central political document through the stories of ten important figures in the story—some familiar, like Alexander Hamilton, but some less well known, like James Wilson and Stephen Field. Steve Hayward explores four of the 10 important thinkers and doers that Tartakovsky selected for a closer look. You’ll just have to listen to find out which four.

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Steve Hayward talks with Ed Whelan, president of of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, author of “Bench Memos” on National Review Online, and co-editor of “Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law, Faith, and a Live Well Lived.” In addition to recalling the rich legacy of Justice Scalia, Steve and Ed talk about the problems of jurisprudence today, and in this season of new controversy over the 2nd Amendment, Steve even asks the bold question—was the Bill of Rights a mistake?

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In this very special episode, Steve Hayward gets an origin story out of Charles Murray, surveying the sweep of his life from childhood in Iowa through Harvard, the Peace Corps in Asia, and evaluating social programs in the 1970s where his growing doubts and misgivings started him on the road to his many pathbreaking books. Along the way, Steve and Charles also talk about NASA and the Apollo program, which Charles and his wife Catherine also wrote a fine book about.

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In our regular bi-weekly checkup with Henry Olsen, the Obi-Wan Kenobi of election analysts, Steve Hayward and Henry cover the fallout from the special election in House district 18 in Pennsylvania, how the tariff issue might play out, what to expect in the aftermath of the recent chaotic Italian election, plus a look ahead to November, including some of the key governor’s races like Bruce Rauner in Illinois. And finally, is there any hope for Republicans in California? To find out, you’ll have to listen to the end.

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We decided to transcend the recent International Women’s Day by declaring our own American Women’s Day with Julie Ponzi and Julie Kelly, stalwarts of AmericanGreatness. Steve Hayward draws out their views on how to come to grips with Trump, why the culture wars are more important in the short run than the budget deficit, and who they hope the Democrats will be foolish enough to nominate in 2020. [Sponsored by Mancrates this week.]

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In this short episode, Steve Hayward shares his recent short lecture at Claremont McKenna College on the campus threats to free speech, analyzing the pincer movement of the wholesale postmodernist rejection of the liberal tradition and recent social science that purports to establish that speech constitutes literal violence. If either of these attacks take firm hold, the liberal tradition is over, and freedom of thought along with it.

Steve Hayward catches up with Henry Olsen in London, ahead of the upcoming general election in Italy where populist parties are expected to do well, and where German politics remain in disarray because of the populist eruption in their last general election. Meanwhile, Brexit continues to be a non-stop agony for British PM Theresa May, while the best performing government in western Europe right now may well be (sit down for this) … France!

Power Line co-founder John Hinderaker joins Steve Hayward to offer up a recap on the just-concluded annual CPAC meeting, and to analyze the aftermath of the Florida school shooting, where media distortion and liberal virtue-signalling are reaching Olympic gold medal proportions.

Steve Hayward sits down with author Fred Siegel about a wide range of topics, from Trump and the Democrats, to how to think about leading intellectuals including H.L. Mencken, Arthur Schlesinger, Richard Rorty, Michel Foucault, and Mark Lilla, and the problems of the coastal elites in California and New York.

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Is it possible to be a liberal but not a “Progressive”? Steve Hayward sat down with Damon Linker, author and columnist for The Week, to discuss this and related questions, such as why Linker defected from the right to become a moderate liberal (hence “the missing Linker”), and his thoughts about religion and politics.

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With news breaking of the possible involvement of President Obama in the FBI investigation of Carter Page along with Sidney Blumenthal slithering from the sewer yet again, Steve Hayward asked John Yoo some questions about how the FISA process actually works—especially the three renewals of the Page warrant that required new probable cause. What could that evidence have been? Possibly nothing.

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Steve Hayward talks with Kelly Jane Torrance, deputy managing editor of the Weekly Standard, about the protests in Iran and the Iranian dissident movement in exile, which is being ignored by nearly all of the mainstream media. Torrance is one of the only journalists covering this story closely, while still making time to keep up her title as the Cocktail Queen of Washington.

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Men and women may not be able to be friends because sex gets in the way, as Billy Crystal once insisted, but what happens when we can’t tell men from women any more, and sex gets all tangled up in more acronyms than a Federal agency policy manual? That’s the question Steve Hayward takes up in this episode with Ryan Anderson, author of the new book When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment.

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Steve Hayward sits down with Henry Olsen, author and senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, but also a premier practicioner of “psephology” (try pronouncing that fast three times—or just once!), which we define as reading the entrails of public opinion polls to figure out what the heck is going on. Henry was one of the very few to predict Trump’s 2016 victory in detail. Here we look ahead to the mid-terms, talk about Ronald Reagan, immigration, Star Trek, Star Wars, and the most important subject of all: who will win the Super Bowl and World Series this year.

Steve Hayward is joined by the triumvirate behind American Greatness (amgreatness.com)—Chris Buskirk, Ben Boychuk and Julie Ponzi—to talk more about what the MAGA agenda means in practice, the shape of the fast-moving debate over immigration reform, whether the decline of California is irreversible, what lessons should be learned from the dramatic fall of Steve Bannon. And Steve debuts Power Line’s new signoff catch phrase: “Milk the soft power dividend!” Bumper stickers to follow.

Steve Hayward reached all the way across the Atlantic to track down comedian/magician (and occasional Ricochet contributor) David Deeble to talk about comedy, why most comics (and actors and most other artists) are liberal, and the challenges of comedy in Germany, which isn’t exactly known for its appreciation of comedy. If you’ve never seen David in action, look him up at his website (DavidDeeble.com) and follow him on Twitter, @DavidDeeble.

Steve Hayward and John Hinderaker take note of the exit of Al Franken from the Senate, and how it has thrown Minnesota politics into a state of turmoil, making it ground zero for the mid-term election later this year. Unnoticed by the national media, Minnesota has been slowly turning into a red state—Trump nearly won it in 2016—and this year will see two Senate races as well as a governor’s race. Steve and John also talk a bit about energy policy and why the renewable energy fetish is biting people hard in northeastern states this week.

In this year-end episode, Steve Hayward checks in with Ben Boychuk, columnist for the Sacramento Bee and managing editor of the American Greatness website, about how to think about Trump—yes, we’re still trying to figure him out too—and looking ahead to next year. Conservatives are mostly pleased with Trump’s first year. What might go wrong for Trump in 2018?

“Darkest Hour,” the new Churchill biopic that comes out in general release this week, has generated some controversy about its accuracy and depiction of Churchill in the crucial weeks of May 1940. Steven Hayward, who liked the film, and Scott Johnson, who disliked it, argue it over and break it down for us, and end with a list of Churchill books everyone should read.

The Power Line Blog's Podcast

Ep. 66: The Telos of Teles

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Ep. 65: The Lives of the Constitution

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Ep. 64: Finding Nino: A Celebration of Justice Scalia

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Ep. 63: How Charles Murray Became Charles Murray

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Ep. 62: Help Us Obi-Wan Henry—You’re Our Only Hope

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Ep. 61: American Women’s Day

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Ep. 60: The Future of Free Speech on Campus

Ep. 59: Populism Sweeping Europe?

Ep. 58: CPAC Recap and Shooting Aftermath

Ep. 57: Fred Siegel Explains It All

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Ep. 56: The Missing Linker

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Ep. 55: Fee, Fi, Fo, FISA

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Ep. 54: The Second Iranian Revolution?

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Ep. 53: When Harry Became Sally

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Ep. 52: Regarding Henry

Ep. 51: Getting Tired of All the Greatness!

Ep. 50: The Lighter Side of Deeble

Ep. 49: Life After Franken in Minnesota

Ep. 48: Celebrating a Year of American Greatness

Ep. 47: Shedding Light on “Darkest Hour”

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