The Brion McClanahan Show Podcast

The Millennials have taken over the building, or so it seems if you watch the news. “AOC” is the media darling and everyone is jumping on board. But this isn’t the whole truth. We are seeing a slight generational shift in the United States Congress, but the Generation Xers have more seats than the Millennials and the Boomers still run things. Regardless, don’t be fooled …more

Is history a social science? No. In fact, the social sciences are the enemy of both history and tradition. I explain in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show, the last of 2018.

I get this all the time: “Okay, Lincoln didn’t go to war to free the slaves, but without slavery, the South wouldn’t have seceded and therefore Lincoln would not have gone to war to prevent secession. No slavery, no war.” This is an important and nuanced argument, but one that misses several important pieces, most importantly the long view of American history. I discuss the …more

December 11, 2018, a date which will go down as one of the single greatest examples of modern political stupidity but perhaps the best example of political theatre in the modern age, the Donald, Nancy, Chuck, and Mike Show. This episode episod of the Brion McClanahan Show covers the glorious meeting, including Pence’s silence, Trump’s “manspreading” and “mansplaining” and what the meeting really exposed.

Heavy metal music was invented by Western Civilization. I know to some people this might be sacrilege, but it’s true. It could not have been made without it, and it embodies urban white working class society. It also was a hearty reaction to the Cold War and the prospect of mutual assured destruction. I discuss these issues and more in this episode of The Brion …more

Former Representative John Dingall recently wrote an op-ed for The Atlantic in which he proposed to, among other idiotic measures, abolish the Electoral College and the Senate. Yes, because Progressives really believe in “minority” rights. But this is instructive. We should know who these people are and what they really want. Dingall, as a cranky old man, is just willing to say it. I discuss …more

George H.W. Bush is dead, long live George H.W. Bush. Might as well say it. We have an elected king. The overkill in our public mourning proves it. This was created and now perpetuated by the Republican Party, and we have strayed so far from our republican principles the founding generation would be spinning in their graves. I discuss this headlong rush to monarchism in …more

Was John F. Kennedy a conservative? I get this question a lot, and I have been asked several times to do an episode on JFK. The wait is over. Short answer, yes Kennedy would be a modern “establishment conservative,” but that isn’t saying much. It is, in fact, a criticism. I take on Kennedy the president, if he should have been including in my 9 …more

It has become a cottage industry to compare Donald Trump with the “worst” presidents in American history, among them Andrew Johnson. The comparison is apparently easy. Both men were and are, in the words of a recent op-ed, “unpopular and unfit.” Is this true? More importantly, was Johnson any different from Abraham Lincoln? The Twitter historian brigade would tell you so, but not so fast. …more

Dust off your black cockle hat and buckle shoes and get ready to celebrate the first Thanksgiving in Pilgrim style! Or not, because the Pilgrim event in 1621 wasn’t close to the first Thanksgiving. That honor would go to the Spanish in Florida and the English in Virginia. What happened? If the glorious Pilgrims were not the first settlers to celebrate Thanksgiving in North America, …more