The Brion McClanahan Show

Sometimes we need a break from politics, war, and economics. We all agree that the world has gone insane. What do you do to unplug, to escape? Baseball has long been one of my distractions. I know MLB is a woke corporation. So is just about anything else. But the game is still pure and it means something in the think locally, act locally mindset. I discuss in this episode of The Brion McClanahan S...

American troops are out of Afghanistan. They should have never been there. The neocons are livid. How dare the president end a perpetual occupation of a foreign country? That is what they really wanted. It's what they always want. I discuss in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show. https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com

Barack Obama held a "sophisticated, vaccinated" 60th birthday party last week. When the left called him out for his hypocrisy, he quickly uninvited people and scaled down the gathering. Marueen Dowd called Obama out for his ill-timed optics. But this is who Obama always has been. I discuss in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show. https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/suppo...

Leftist twit Cody Cain thinks every totalitarian government in world history has been right wing. You read that correctly. According to Cain, Stalin was a right winger. So was Castro and Chavez and the ruling party in China. This position is so stupid it deserves to be mocked. I do so in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show. https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support ht...

The Governor of Oregon recently signed a bill eliminating any proficiency tests for Oregon high school students. All in the name of "equity." She argued that "students of color" had difficulty meeting the requirements, so instead of working to raise students--all students--to those standards, they just eliminated them. Here's your participation trophy. The raises the question, what is education fo...

A Wisconsin rock is racist. That's what some idiotic students have claimed at UW Madison. How do they know this? One newspaper article from 1925 said it was. No other evidence in the last one hundred years could verify the claim, but regardless, the rock hurt their feelings so it had to go. Did the mature adults in the administration tell them, "No. Shut up"? Nope. They removed it and let the petu...

Joe Biden has committed an impeachable offense. He knowingly and admittedly violated his oath of office by signing off on a CDC order to extend the eviction moratorium. Virtually every legal scholar (except one) said the move was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court had already said the moratorium was unconstitutional. Biden said the move was unconstitutional. We now live under the rule of men not...

One of the primary goals of the progressive left is to make every issue revolve around race or gender. Class isn't on the table any longer. It used to be, but the modern left aren't as interested in Marxist theology as they used to be, that is unless it applies to critical theory. With that it mind, would you support the candidate who primarily wrote the political platform I describe in this episo...

In 1971, future Supreme Court justice Lewis Powell wrote a confidential memo to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce bemoaning the rising power of the anti-corporate left. He was spot on regarding the stupidity of the left, but he also missed a key component of the Jeffersonian tradition. Americans had generally been opposed to corporations, and we see why in 2021. If you aren't woke, you go broke. Corpor...

The modern left are simply an updated form of American Puritans. Even in the 19th century, the Puritans politicized their cultural and religious beliefs. This led to the radicalization of New England, some of New York, and the Midwest. It was also hypocritical and dangerous. I explain in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show. https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support ht...

In 1958, Southern leftist Louis Rubin penned a piece for Human Events that wondered aloud what the Civil War centennial could teach America. You know what he didn't mention? Racism, hate, white supremacy, oppression, treason, and a host of other stupidity that the modern academy would suggest it can teach us. In other words, Rubin, a leftist, thought the War had more to offer, namely that it foist...

2020 made Americans realize the value of federalism. If you lived in a blue State, you probably hated it. If you lived in a red State, you probably loved it. But just because you hated it, if you did, doesn't mean its a bad system. Of course, blue State people think red State people need to toe the line and accept their way of life, which is why I needed to discuss federalism in this episode of Th...

The debate between yours truly and Michael Anton at American Greatness centers on one important point: is the American tradition based on the proposition that "all men are created equal"? I say no, he insists yes. If he is correct, then is the American tradition conservative and in what way? Or more importantly, were Southerners the outlier in the American experience or the bedrock of the American...

Continuing our discussion of the origins of American conservatism, I turn to a 1987 essay by Clyde Wilson on the founding generation and the Constitution. Dr. Wilson wrote this essay during the bicentennial celebration of the Constitution, but as he explained, the founding generation didn't count on modern American politics or activist judges to distort original intent. He also explains the core p...

If you think the debate between myself and Michael Anton at American Greatness is new, think again. Conservatives have been discussing the meaning of "conservatism" since the end of World War II. In 1962, Wilmoore Kendall wrote an essay for Modern Age titled "What is Conservatism?" I discuss the essay in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show. https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanah...

I received several emails from listeners (and Tom Woods) asking me to respond to a social media post on the War that clearly has gone viral. The author(s) claim to present "facts" about the War that your "heritage, not hate" neo-Confederate uncle miss. You see, if only these enlightened people controlled American education, no one would believe that the War could be a more complex issue than simpl...

If you put your faith in an elected official, you're going to be disappointed. Republicans in particular have a habit of being turncoats. They say one thing and do another. This has been the case for a long time. How do you punish them for this duplicity? I explain in the episode of The Brion McClanahan Show. https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory...

Some "conservatives" want to salvage an "American nation." This is impossible, both practically and historically. I explain in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show. https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com

The simple answer is no, but particularly if you are talking about Lincolnian nationalism and the "proposition nation," the favorite projects of the Claremont/Hillsdale school of "conservatism." You can't conserve anything with that as your core argument. Glenn Ellmers agrees that conservatism is a lost cause, and he calls for some type of local action to arrest the heavy hand of Washington, D.C.,...

Trump's election in 2016 and the ongoing reevaluation of the Republican Party has given rise to a discussion of American populism. What is it? Is Trump a populist? Are some Democrats populists? Are populists and progressives the same thing? These are important questions. A recent piece at National Review suggests we could learn much from William Jennings Bryan. There is some truth to this. I discu...

The 250th anniversary of the Declaration takes place in five years and the "history wars" of 2020 and 2021 make it clear that it won't be a celebratory event for a large segment of the population. And judging by "conservative" and leftist scribblings on the topic, it also won't be historically accurate. I discuss the issue in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show. https://mcclanahanacademy.com...

Did Southerners link the birth of the United States to 1788 rather than 1776? That's what neocon Cameron Hilditch at National Review argues. In fact, he believes July 4 presented problems for secession, and that Southerners explicitly rejected the Declaration for that reason. He needs to read more history. I take Hilditch to task in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show. https://mcclanahanacad...

Is the United States Constitution proslavery or anti-slavery? Or is it something else. The modern progressive left would like you to believe it was a proslavery document while the neoconservative right and some libertarians would argue it was anti-slavery. I contend it was neither. I discuss this now controversial issue in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show. https://mcclanahanacademy.com ht...

I recorded this episode before Nikole Hannah-Jones decided to reject UNC's offer of tenure and bolt for Howard University. It doesn't matter. The fact is, the academy, and particularly journalism departments, deserve her. American journalism has always been about propaganda, and Jones admits her 1619 Project is not history, it's journalism. In reality, it's one long Op-Ed. I discuss tenure and jou...

Leftist Christian Parenti thinks Alexander Hamilton was a "radical" and that most Americans misunderstand his "radical" agenda. This is true, but he left off two very important groups: libertarians and real federalists who have been hammering Hamilton's "radicalism" for years. And don't forget that Russell Kirk never classified Hamilton as a "conservative." I discuss Hamilton in this episode of Th...