Power Line

A slight departure for the Power Line Show this week: Steve Hayward has lost his voice (bringing cheer to his critics and enemies), and couldn’t do the author interview planned for this week, so John Hinderaker stepped in to host this episode with special guest. . . Steve Hayward! Just how does that work, you say? Well, Steve is currently giving a series of periodic lectures on conservatism at Yale under the auspices of the William F. Buckley Program at Yale, and in lieu of our usual interview, we decided to drop in Steve’s first lecture on “Conservatism and Its Enemies.” Yes, the title is an homage to Karl Popper’s most famous title, but the theme of the talk is actually an attempt to get away from the central “friends vs. enemies” theme of that other famous Carl (Schmitt), and figure out instead how left and right can better “achieve disagreement.” Another enigmatic phrase? You’ll just have to listen to find out how it works.

End bumper music this week is Perpetual Groove, “All This Everything, Pt. 1.”

Herbert Meyer, a senior CIA official during the Reagan years and occasional contributor to Ricochet, suffered a serious bicycle accident recently and remains hospitalized. Herb was one of the first persons in the Reagan Administration who began to think out loud what Reagan had thought more privately—we can win the Cold War with the Soviet Union! With several new books about Reagan and the Cold War in recent months, Steve Hayward decided to dust off some archival recordings with Herb from a few years back that hold up better than ever, and provide lessons for today on how good intelligence work is done. Please keep Herb in your thoughts and prayers as you listen to this remarkable man and his fascinating stories.

(Closing bumper music this week is “Forgiven, Not Forgotten” by The Corrs.)

The Power Line Show takes a break from the All-Kavanaugh-All-the-Time format of recent weeks, and sits down with historian William Anthony Hay, author of a brand new biography of Robert Banks Jenkinson. What? You’ve never heard of Robert Banks Jenkinson? You might recognize him better by his “stage name,” Lord Liverpool, Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1812-1827, during the windup of the Napoleonic wars and the War of 1812 with the United States. Will Hay brings to life this forgotten but very important figure, and ties in what lessons Liverpool offers for today. (Liverpool was perhaps the first Euroskeptic, so we end our conversation with thoughts about Brexit, naturally.) The book, by the way, is Lord Liverpool: A Political Life. Highly recommended.

Only Paul Mirengoff’s vacation to Europe this week kept the entire Power Line crew from assembling to kick around a few loose ends of the Kavanaugh saga. John Hinderaker and Scott Johnson joined Steve Hayward to analyze the prospects for the FBI investigation this week, the likely outcome at the end of it, and how it may affect the election only a month away. Scott and John also have kept a close eye on Keith Ellison’s run for attorney general in Minnesota, observing that the abuse allegations against him are the least of his problems.

With the Kavanaugh-Ford sexual assault controversy reaching a climax in the next few days, Steve Hayward decided to check in with “Lucretia,” Power Line’s “International Woman of Mystery,” and Julie Kelly, frequent contributor to American Greatness and other sites, to see what they make of the situation. To say they are “not impressed” with Ford’s allegations against Kavanaugh would be a Cat 5 understatement. Hoo-boy are they unimpressed! Just listen and you’ll see what we mean.

New opening bumper music this week: the studio version of “Mexico” by moe., and ending with Helen Reddy’s most expected song for this particular moment.

This episode features the address Steve Hayward delivered this week to the Friends of Ronald Reagan at the California Club in Los Angeles, reflecting back on how Reagan weathered two tough mid-term elections and what lessons it might hold for Trump and Republicans this November. Dennis Quaid, who has signed recently to star as Reagan in an upcoming biopic, was in the audience, which prompted some conversation about one of Quaid’s early breakout roles in “Breaking Away” (1979). No refund if you don’t like this episode!

Between the incessant controversy about Russia hacking our elections, and the recent recommendation of several U.S. science academies that we return to paper ballots, we thought it was high time to devote an episode to cyber-security issues. And we have just the person for the topic: “Lucretia,” Power Line’s International Woman of Mystery. In addition to being an expert on the Constitution, “Lucretia” also runs a cyber-security program at a major university. In addition to talking about the national security angles of cyber-security, Lucretia also walks us through basic risks each of us face as regular uses of the internet. (Hint: You really may want to think about covering up your laptop camera!)

With two more weeks of primary election results to pick over, Steve Hayward checks in with Henry Olsen to see how things look. Florida increasingly appears to be the most interesting battleground state, with very competitive races for both governor and U.S. Senator. Henry also puts down his political polling data and puts on his Bill James hat to look ahead to the baseball playoff season starting a month from now. Also soccer, but we don’t really care about soccer. It’s a weenie Eurosport.

After receiving a query from a young person about why the U.S. didn’t aim for victory in Vietnam, Steve Hayward decided to put the question to Mackubin T. Owens, a Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam and long time professor of strategic studies at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. Mac has also written for National Review, the New York Post, and numerous other publications, as well as several fine books on war. His many reviews of Vietnam books—both good and bad—can be found at the Claremont Review of Books. Steve and Mac also discuss the portrayal of Vietnam in popular culture (especially the “demonization” movies of the 1970s), as well as the best and worst books about Vietnam.

Will the November election produce a (Democratic) blue wave or a (Republican) red tide? Pre-election opinion polls this year seem more volatile than ever, and beyond the horse-race aspect, there are lots of problems with opinion polling in the age of cell phones and the internet. Steve Hayward sat down with Karlyn Bowman, public opinion specialist at AEI and author of recent article on “Is Polling Broken?” in National Affairs, to talk about the condition of opinion polling today. Bottom line: polling may not be completely broken, but there are a lot of loose pieces that need reassembling.

Steve Hayward, just back from a regional meeting of the National Association of Scholars, sits down with Warren Treadgold, author of brand new book, The University We Need, which offers a bold idea: because colleges and universities are so far gone and likely unfixable, the time has come to found a brand new elite university that not only departs from the dreary orthodoxy of campus leftism, but also departs from the standard modes of university structure and governance. Treadgold, a professor of Byzantine Studies at St. Louis University, also offers a brief introduction to that fascinating field.

In this very special episode, Steve Hayward uses some unaired material from a long interview with the late Peter Schramm of the Ashbrook Center. Peter passed away in August 2015, and left a legacy of brilliant and inspirational teaching to a generation of students at Ashland University. This Hungarian immigrant is best known from his lecture and essay on how he became an American, “Born American, But in the Wrong Place.” In this wide-ranging conversation, Steve and Peter talk about education, classroom teaching, great books, American exceptionalism, and also immigration, where Peter offered some prescient thoughts about the incompetence of Republicans in handling the issue—very timely meditations for today.

If a thuggish regime fell in the forest and the New York Times didn’t report it, did it make a sound? This week Steve Hayward talks with Kelly Jane Torrance of the Weekly Standard about what is going on in Iran, where the Trump Administration’s heavy pressure may be straining the regime to the breaking point. But the mainstream U.S. media seem to be ignoring the tidings of increasing unrest and instability. Kelly Jane keeps close tabs with the Iranian resistance in Europe and the U.S. and is well positioned to fill in the gaps.

Steve Hayward and his pseudonymous mystery guest “Lucretia” return for the second half of their conversation about the meaning and interpretation of the 14th Amendment. Building on last week’s analysis of the “equal protection clause,” this episode goes on to the other three important clauses in Section 1—the “citizenship clause,” the “privileges and immunities clause,” and the “due process clause.” Steve and “Lucretia” devote special attention to the controversy over “birthright citizenship,” which is freshly back in the news right now.

This month marks the 150th anniversary of the enactment of the 14th Amendment, which has been abused perhaps more than any other part of the Constitution. Steve Hayward welcomes back to the show the pseudonymous mystery guest from last week, “Professor X,” who knows more about the 14th Amendment than the Power Line crew has forgotten. In this first of a two-part series, Steve and “Prof. X” take you inside the classroom to untangle the “equal protection” clause—what it was intended by the Congress that wrote the Amendment, and how it has been twisted by modern courts. And “Prof. X” will get a new moniker going forward at the end of this show. You’ll just have to listen to find out what it is!

With the ascent of “democratic socialism” in the Democratic party and a Supreme Court confirmation fight commencing this week, Steve Hayward checks in for the latest on how this may play out in the midterm election with Henry Olsen, and also introduces us to a new special, anonymous (and soon to be regular) mystery guest, “Professor X.” She teaches at a major public university, and argues that we aren’t arguing broadly enough about what is wrong with the Supreme Court these days. (Bonus: we also talk guns and shooting!)

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Steve Hayward talks with two proud Yale bulldog alumni—James Kirchick of the Brookings Institution and Jeremy Carl of the Hoover Institution, about the mess in higher education and the mess at our border. It’s a coin flip between which is the bigger mess today—immigration or college campus madness, and maybe there is a connecting thread. But stick around, we have a side dish of energy policy included, because this is a high energy podcast!

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What could the cult-camp classic “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” have to do with the electricity grid? A lot, as it turns out, and Steve Hayward ponders this gonzo crossover topic with three experts on energy policy, Lynne Kiesling of Purdue University, author Robert Bryce, and author/activist Tisha Schuller. Not only does this episode feature killer garden produce, but it also has Steve Martin references. Who says energy policy wonkery can’t be fun!

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Steve Hayward is joined this week by Power Line’s own John Hinderaker and Power Line’s eminence grise behind the curtain, Joe Malchow, to dissect the key takeaways of the Inspector General’s findings about the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton. The second half of this episode features Henry Olsen with his latest “surf report” about where the Democrats’ “blue wave” stands at the moment. Hint: Democrats shouldn’t be waxing up their longboards just yet.

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This week’s episode offers a conversation between Steve Hayward and Charles Copeland, president of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) about the crisis of the university, especially Steve’s favorite theme that universities are slowly committing intellectual suicide. This discussion took place at the recent Western Conservative Summit in Denver.

The Power Line Blog's Podcast

Ep. 93: Conservatism and Its Enemies

Ep. 92: “We can win this thing!” Revisiting the Cold War with Herbert Meyer

Ep. 91: The Deep End of the (Lord) Liverpool

Ep. 90: Kavanaughed to Death

Ep. 89: #NotMeToo!

Ep 88: “Breaking Away” with Reagan, Trump, and the Midterms

Ep. 87: She’s Ba-aack! “Lucretia” on Cyber-Security

The Power Line Show Ep 86: November’s Coming!

Ep. 85: Vietnam Revisited, With Mackubin T. Owens

Ep. 84: Blue Wave or Red Tide?

Ep. 83: The University We Need?

Ep. 82: “Born American, But in the Wrong Place”—Remembering Peter Schramm

Ep. 81: Iran Primed for Revolution?

Ep. 80: The 14th Amendment at 150, Part 2

Ep. 79: The 14th Amendment at 150, Part 1

Ep. 78: Here Comes Da Judge!

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Ep. 77: Bulldog Edition

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Ep. 76: Killer Tomatoes and the Electricity Grid

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Ep. 75: The IG Report, and the Latest Big Wave Surf Forecast

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Ep. 74: “The Suicide of the University” Revisited, with Charles Copeland

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