He’s still alive. Norman Podhoretz, who is still alive and willing to give an interview, has agreed to be interviewed The Wall Street JournalBarton Swaim, a very perceptive man this weekend. Although he claims that his peers have passed away, he says that a lot of them are still alive. He certainly didn’t sound dead. Bill Buckley has passed away, Irving Kristol is gone, American political commentary has been left worse off, but Norman remains with us and is almost 92 years old. He continued for nearly a page. JournalI agreed to every word. Actually, I actually called him to let him know. He and Midge Decter have been my friends since the mid 1960s. I now agree more with him than ever.
Norman’s death is likely one of the reasons for conservatism’s sorry state, as he discussed in The JournalIt was this weekend. He refers to it as the “fractured state of American conservatism.” Some years ago, I called it “The Conservative Crack-Up” and addressed it in a book under that title. Norman got it more concisely this weekend than we did. He finds conservatism “muddled.” When Bill and Irving were still kicking, they — because of their stature and prudence — could bring discipline to the contending factions of conservatism. He is now in his 90s and Norman is the only one left.
Before he switched to a more liberal political view, he was a former left-liberal editor of the Jewish magazine Commentary. CommentaryIn the 1960s, he was also a’s. Was there anything that made him different? It was exactly the same thing which made him pro Trump in 2016 and 2020. He also told The JournalThis weekend, he will likely vote for Donald Trump 2024 in his second term. He realized that anti-American rhetoric from the left was not funny after years of being a leftist. They meant business. America is hated by the left. Norman loves America. He spent almost a year driving across the country in 1970s, visiting places such as Peach Bottom, Pennsylvania and Bull Snort (Georgia), if my memory is correct. His belief in America was strong when he returned from his trip to New York. For Norman, the question remains: Is America “a force for good in the world — or not?” He finds it a force for good.
Norman refers to the war between conservatives & liberals. There is no middle ground. The left is at our war and we must not give up on them. This sounds almost like Rush Limbaugh. Rush said when he lived that either the left should be crushed or the right one must be. That is what I agree with. Both Rush and Norman have believed that the left has won the culture war, at least for now, but says Norman: “They haven’t yet won the polity. That’s very encouraging.” On the other hand: “The right, as I used to understand it, no longer exists. So you’ve got one very clear side (the left) and one very muddled side (conservatives).”
The muddled right, he says, has failed “to understand the nature of the conflict.” It is a war in Norman’s way of thinking, and he says, “I think Trump was the only guy who understood the situation in those terms, whether by instinct or whatever.” Norman has never met Donald Trump, but he believes in him. Norman believes in Trump’s ability to accomplish his goals. “But I thought the animosity against him was way out of proportion and, on the right, a big mistake. I switched from being anti-anti-Trumpist to becoming pro-Trumpist. I still think — and it’s been the same fight going on in my lifetime since, I would say, 1965 — I still think there’s only one question: Is America good or bad?”
Norman Podhoretz’s question is: “Is America good? Or bad?” Although only 250 years old, America is a republican nation that has rebuilt the world or attempted to rebuild it. America saved civilized humanity in two world conflicts and brought about modern times. It made the vast frontier of the world the most modern. The United States has done more to make the world a better place than any other nation. Norman makes a valid point.
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