The Brion McClanahan Author & Historian Blog

I recorded episode 496 of The Brion McClanahan Show on Afghanistan over the weekend, before the events of Monday and Tuesday. Before we had people getting run over by airplanes and falling off the sides of the aircraft at 5000 feet. Before we had several laughable moments from the Biden administration asking the Taliban to have an “inclusive” government. Before Joe Biden made a decent …more

This is a given, but stupid leftists say stupid things. And it seems to be getting worse as more “college educated” people are sent into the American workforce. There’s a reason “Joe the Plumber” had some common sense. He never went to college. Now, what does that say about yours truly who spent years in universities? My wife has all the common sense. I just …more

I’ve often said that almost every president in the last one hundred years should have been impeached and removed from office for violating their oath to “uphold and defend the Constitution.” But I have never seen a president openly say they knowingly violated the document. That is until Joe Biden. When the “CDC” extended its illegal and unconstitutional eviction moratorium, Biden did just that. He …more

American political parties are generally a joke. They don’t contain any substance, are hidebound by large donors or the prospect of appealing to a “big tent,” and always betray their constituents. Progressives complain loudly about Joe Biden. He isn’t one of “them,” but he wasn’t Donald Trump so the establishment backed his candidacy. Trump was the outlier. He didn’t seem particularly interested in toeing the …more

What can the “Civil War” teach America? If you asked this question in 2011, at the 150th anniversary of the event, the modern historical establishment said something like, “The South went to war to defend white supremacy and slavery and we should put an end to the “Lost Cause” myth of the event.” Or “Let’s understand that Southerners were un-American white supremacist traitors who waged …more

What is conservatism? If you ask twenty different “conservatives,” you’d probably get about twenty different answers. If you ask someone on the left, they would probably say it is racism, xenophobia, hate, and fascism. See how this works? Conservatives are still trying to figure out what to “conserve.” At the same time, you have “conservatives” who think we need to conserve discarded leftist talking points. …more

When I was an undergraduate, I purchased Why Not Freedom? by the Kennedy twins out of Louisiana. I was hooked. At the time, I was your typical “conservative.” That booked opened my eyes. They were talking about nullification and the 10th Amendment, and it made sense. I started thinking about American government differently, and I remember telling my college conservative friends that this was the …more

Many Americans used the word “nation” to describe both the government and society in the United States. This is the most glaring social problem in America. You see, both the left and right use this as a weapon against their political enemies. The left likes to brand the United States a “nation of immigrants” and pushes one size fits all government for their “national” constituents. …more

Can “conservatism” save America? The obvious answer is no, particularly if your brand of “conservatism” is tied to the Lincolnian nationalist myth. That would be Claremont/Hillsdale conservatism. But even some of them are reassessing their belief that “conservatism” can turn things around. Take Glenn Ellmers for example. In March he argued that “Conservatism is not enough.” I agree. Then he suggests that we need to …more

Was Donald Trump a “populist”? How about Bill Clinton, or Barack Obama, or Joe Biden? What about Pat Buchanan? Trump’s victory in 2016 created real interest in American populism. Is it simply a rural version of progressivism? What are it’s goal and origins? You can’t understand American populism without first understanding Jeffersonianism. There’s a reason Tom Watson called his newspaper The Jeffersonian. And you can’t …more