Michael Anton on the Founding, the failures of Conservatism, Spiritual Warfare, and more
Michael Anton is an American conservative essayist, speechwriter, and former senior national security official in the Trump administration. In 2016, under the pseudonym Publius Decius Mus, he wrote The Flight 93 Election, an influential essay in support of Donald Trump’s campaign which was subsequently credited by various media as the one that made the argument that got the President elected....
Mark Granza: In a recent essay you wrote that: “It is at least theoretically possible that the [American] founders got it right but that their arguments, and the regime based thereon, were too fragile to survive for long because one or both were (are) eminently susceptible to corruption.” Where do you think the founders’ arguments might be most corruptible or fragile?
Michael Anton: ... I basically derive that from the ancient political philosophers, who argue essentially that you cannot rationalize politics. So I think it’s at least possible that they might consider the American founding as a project that can’t work, because it presumes a level of rationality amongst the people that, in their view, doesn’t and can’t exist. Politics, they’d say, is contentious and irrational and it involves the passions...
Mark Granza: It seems that the composition of the American people has changed beyond anything the founders would recognize. Is it possible that the United States has changed to such an extent as to make the founder’s vision unattainable for America today?
Michael Anton: I guess when I get gloomy I worry about that. But then when I’m feeling optimistic, I think no, some of that spirit is still there, and we may see it emerge and push back against some of the craziness that’s going on today....
Conservatives oppose the racial hatred so weakly and ineffectively that it amounts to non-opposition. That said, I think it’s less true today than it was even a year ago. The events of last summer along with the exposure of CRT [Critical Race Theory] since were so horrific that they stirred the Right and caused it to be more active against this stuff.
I’ve read this great column by Pedro Gonzales recently [a very similar one by Scott Greer appeared in American Greatness a few months prior], in which he said that if we keep dancing around and refuse to say that much of what the left is spewing is simply anti-white hatred, we’re going to lose....
Mark Granza: Absolutely. Since we’re here, I’d like to talk about the role of Free Speech...
Michael Anton: For the founders, Free Speech is essential for two reasons. The First Amendment covers speech and religion, and I don’t think those two concepts are divisible for the founders. You own your body and you own your mind. So you have to be free to believe what you believe, or the society you live in is fundamentally a tyranny.... And you can’t have elections without deliberation. And you can’t have public deliberation without free speech. And so without free speech the very foundation of the republic goes away...
Mark Granza: In a recent podcast with PostModern Conservative you talked about the Regime’s rhetoric, and how its attempts to exclude increasing numbers of people from the systems will eventually lead to the point where so-called “deplorables” will have no access to resources left. At which point, you said, they will be forced to revolt and start building parallel structures. Do you think that’s the only scenario where people will revolt?
Michael Anton: I don’t think that’s the only thing that would get people to revolt. I do think though that that surely will...
I actually use mandatory vaccines as an example, and this was pre-Covid. I can see a revolt arising if not with this vaccine then with the one down the line....
Mark Granza: One last question Mr. Anton. It’s 2040.... The Right has regained power and now controls the institutions.
Michael Anton: Well, first I’m seeing a functioning border, both at the Southern border, at the airports, and all ports of entry where we’re keeping track of who’s coming in. There are only lawful entries. And workplaces throughout the land are required to check a worker’s legal eligibility. Personally, I’d like to see no immigration for the foreseeable future - America does not now need more people....
This interview appeared on IM—1776 an online magazine of philosophy, cultural, and sociopolitical analysis: