The Brion McClanahan Author & Historian Blog

In 2012, I wrote a piece for the Daily Caller titled, “President Obama Doesn’t Play Enough Golf.” Critics complained that Obama spent too much time hitting the links and not enough time in the Oval Office. How wrong they were. The more Obama sat behind his desk in Pennsylvania Avenue, the more damage he did with a pen and a phone. Biden has ripped a …more

You know you are winning when so called “Blue States” are talking about secession. Case in point, CALEXIT or a host of other secessionist movements that popped up during the Trump administration. It’s hard to determine if these are going to be lasting secession movements. Progressives typically love centralized power too much to give it up, but then again, so do neoconservatives. Which is why …more

If you listen to the woke idiots on the left (and neocon right), Confederate monuments were built to honor and perpetuate white supremacy and slavery. This would logically mean that the Union monuments built during the same period would explicitly state that they were built to honor abolition and egalitarianism. Except very few of them say anything about either. In fact, they don’t typically mention …more

According to a poll from YouGov and The Economist, a plurality of respondents think Barack Obama is the best president in American history. This is stunning. Donald Trump was also ranked in the top five, which means most Americans don’t know history beyond the last two decades. Sad, but true. Which is why you need this show. I talk about the poll and “President’s Day” …more

You almost can’t make up the hubris of the political left. No one holds them accountable, so they can be as corrupt (and stupid) as possible. Case in point, an article in Time Magazine that openly admits to a political conspiracy before the 2020 election in an effort to defeat Trump. The term is included in the title to the piece. What’s funny, of course, …more

Nevada is going to allow large tech companies to create self-autonomous cities in order to lure them to the State. This prompted a listener to ask me if this was a think locally, act locally issue. Short answer, no, but there are some interesting things to discuss with the issue, so I covered it in the 400th episode of The Brion McClanahan Show.

Leftist “journalist” Casey Michel penned a piece for Politico insisting that Joe Biden take a page from U.S. Grant concerning potential “insurrection” in the United States. His solution? Use the military to bully people and then crush civil liberties. Michel sounds like a nice guy. This piece is nothing more than hysterical history and hyperbole masquerading as serious “journalism.” I explain in this episode of …more

Sixty years ago, the left worried about the “Imperial Presidency” and put all their faith in the federal court system. Now, conservatives fret over Joe Biden’s executive overreach while hoping that a newly “conservative” federal court system will provide a few victories. But what if the left was right sixty years ago on the presidency while the right correctly railed against “government by judiciary” in …more

Both the 1776 and 1619 Projects have a similar view of American history: America is an idea. One views it as a bad idea, the other as a good idea. Either way, they conceptualize Americans as tied together by ideology and nothing more. But this raises the questions: what is an American and more importantly, does such a thing exist? I discuss in this episode …more

Chronicles Magazine published a special edition issue this past month titled “Remembering the Right.” These 18 essays are dedicated to prominent real conservatives, not the plastic glory hounds like Dinesh D’Souza or Sean Hannity. They have their place, but Paul Gottfried did a marvelous job in bringing this collection to print. I discuss first principles in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show.