The Brion McClanahan Author & Historian Blog

Don’t get conned by the Neocons. That should be a campaign slogan somewhere. Most Americans probably wouldn’t get it, but unfortunately most Americans have already been conned by the Neocons. In both parties. If you talk to people who have been around American politics for some time, they’ll tell you the Neocons weren’t much of a problem until the late 1970s. Sure, they were around, …more

American foreign policy is a mess and has been since the early 1950s. If we listened to George Kennan, that would not be the case. Kennan is famously responsible for the “containment doctrine” following World War II, meaning that the United States should contain communism to the areas where it already existed. Taken to its extreme, this involved the United States in several hot wars …more

With secession becoming a much more relevant topic in 2023, the question then becomes can it work? Syracuse Professor Ryan Griffiths studies the topic from a global perspective. He thinks secession can and does work, but not in the United States. Yet, this is an amazing development. Griffiths doesn’t use the same tired arguments that secession is illegal or the War settled it. Nope. He …more

What do you get when you mix the superhero complex with Lincolnian nationalism? This piece at The American Thinker. What we need, according to this pseudonymous writer, is a good barbarian to save us from the bad barbarians. Someone like, say, Donald Trump. We’ve been here before. If only we could get our guy in office, the guy who will mean Tweet, take it to …more

Tim Scott has announced he’s thinking about running for president. We’re at that point in American politics. Let everyone know you are “thinking about it” so you can raise money. A lot of money. We will be in the “billion dollar” campaign territory very soon. Scott’s first fundraising video was filmed at Ft. Sumter. You see, Scott argues that Ft. Sumter defined American history because …more

I’ve spent a lot of time on my show railing against American “nationalism.” Why? Simply put, it’s one of the most pernicious myths in American history. There never has been an American “nation.” This expertly development narrative only appeared after the War. Granted, Americans used the terms “nation” and “one people” prior to the War, but everyone knew that this was an attempt by “innovative” …more

Victor Davis Hanson thinks we are headed for a “French Revolution” in America. He is rightly worried about the culture war, but like all Lincolnites, Hanson does not understand that we’ve already had a “French Revolution.” It took place between 1861-1865. This is why I constantly say if you wish to “conserve” Lincolnian Republicanism, you are conserving a leftist revolution. Leftists are starting to lean …more

If anyone thinks they have adequate representation in Congress, they are either clueless or rich. Maybe both, because the only “people” represented in Congress are corporations, special interest groups, and political action committees. In other words, not you. In fact, the representative ratio in Congress is somewhere around 750,000:1. When the Constitution was written in 1787, George Washington insisted that for good “republican” government, we …more

Maybe we are winning. When a mainstream conservative can write glowingly about John C. Calhoun, perhaps the Straussian smear tactics against the man aren’t having the desired effect. Good. This helps American conservatism. I know the other argument. Calhoun was a racist. How can we support that? This is a stupid argument made by historically ignorant and stupid people. You could probably count on two …more

During the 1980 presidential campaign, Republican candidate Ronald Reagan continually hammered President Jimmy Carter for being too soft on communism and too weak in the Middle East. He was on to something with the Reds, though you could make a case that Carter wasn’t really aware of how many commies were floating around D.C. But the charge against Carter’s policies in the Middle East were …more