Fresh audio content: David Frum

Just posted to my radio archives: August 9, 2012 Partial conservative renegade and former Bush speechwriter David Frum on the right, and his roman à clef about Washington, Patriots. [The text of the intro, in which I recount my history on the right in condensed form, is here. The headnote includes links to longer versions of the story.]

My history on the right: the potted version

This was part of the introduction to my interview with David Frum, the conservative writer and now partial renegade, on my August 9 radio show. This is mostly a condensed version of two longer pieces, one in Bad Subjects, and the other in The Nation. My good friend Michael Pollak asked me to post the text, so here it is. Before David Frum, a few words about my own right-wing past. In 1972, I cast my first ever presidential vote against Richard Nixon, because he wasn’t conservative enough. I wasn’t always a right-winger. My eighth-grade world… Read More

On not staging a mock conversion to the right

Here’s a slightly edited version of my opening remarks at last night’s panel on the right, featuring Corey Robin and me, moderated by Christian Parenti, held at UnionDocs in Brooklyn. It was a fine event, and thanks to all who made it possible. Audio will be posted somewhere soon. Given the day, I’d originally thought I would rue the absence of an actual right-winger on this panel, then recount my political history as a brief libertarian in my early college days, and announce my return to the fold after a long, frustrating career on the… Read More

New radio product

Just posted to my radio archives: October 1, 2011 Corey Robin, political scientist at Brooklyn College and author of The Reactionary Mind, on how the right thinks