Why I Read The American Conservative (TAC)

Originally posted January 19, 2016.

I am head of global investment strategy for Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., chairman of richardcyoung.com, and editor of Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report. In my daily search for fresh, provocative wisdom, I rely on a network of old-line, trusted resources. At the top of my list is The American Conservative, published by my friend and long-time Cato Institute-supporter Jon Basil Utley. I am always searching for hot-off-the-press insights released by TAC editors, founding editors, and friends. Here I am referring to Daniel Larison, Rod Dreher, Pat Buchanan, Taki Theodoracopulos, Scott McConnell, Noah Millman, and Jon Basil Utley himself.

In a recent letter, TAC reminded supporters: “For the first time in many years, our principles—federalism, decentralized political power, fiscal responsibility, a foreign policy of prudence, respect for traditional liberties and communities—are waxing. A door has opened for traditional conservatives to do real damage to the reigning big government/interventionist consensus—the consensus that is always in favor of another war, more spending, taking away civil liberties, and ignoring the constitution.”

I regularly share the insights of TAC’s experts with my readers at richardcyoung.com. Below are some examples of what I have posted that will allow you to understand the esteem in which I hold TAC. My hope is that you will pass the word on to friends and associates. And like Dick Young, I hope you will become a supporter of America’s leader in “conservative realism and restraint” at The American Conservative.

Warm Regards,

Dick

• Jon: The military maintains some 4,000 bases inside the U.S. and 1,000 overseas with personnel in 140 nations; many installations have fewer than 100 troops. Many are simply tripwires filled with potential hostages so as to get America involved in new conflicts and wars. …  Weaponry is the greatest money sink of all. Weapons are designed to be built in key congressional districts, not to be the most efficient or cost effective, as during the Second World War. … Half of defense manufacturing workers are unionized, many with outdated work rules and few of the efficiencies instituted by competitive private industry.

• Scott: Hillary Clinton facilitated the rise of former Cheney aide (and wife of neocon strategist Robert Kagan) Victoria Nuland to the most powerful European post in the State Department. Obama had to placate Hillary, and the country looked the other way while Nuland pulled the levers to foment an anti-Russian coup in Kiev. Without this bit of caprice, would we be in the present showdown?

• Pat: Sanders and Trump both opposed the war in Iraq that the Bush Republicans and Clinton Democrats supported. Both Sanders and Trump oppose NAFTA and MFN for China and the free-trade deals that Clinton Democrats and Bush Republicans backed, which have cost us thousands of lost factories, millions of lost jobs and four decades of lost wage increases for Middle America. Trump has taken the toughest line on the invasion across the U.S.-Mexican border and against Muslim refugees entering unvetted. Immigration, securing the border, fair trade—Trump’s issues are the issues of 2016.

• Daniel: On the campaign trail, Marco Rubio is calling for a “new American century.” He’s also running a different type of campaign, one that eschews spending on policy staffers, field operations, and other traditional aspects of a winning bid in favor of television advertising and digital outreach.

• Pat: In the Middle East, where the crucial Western interest is oil, and every nation—Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Libya—has to sell it to survive—no nation should be able to drag us into a war not of our own choosing. In cases where we share a common enemy, we should follow the wise counsel of the Founding Fathers and entrust our security, if need be, to “temporary” but not “permanent “or “entangling alliances.” Moreover, given the myriad religious, national and tribal divisions between the nations of the Middle East, and within many of them, we should continue in the footsteps of our fathers, who kept us out of such wars when they bedeviled the European continent of the 19^th.