Burkes of Prey

America lost its humor in 2012.

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Has America lost its sense of humor? In Jonah’s view, only a Brit with a distinctly stiff upper lip can answer that question. He’s joined on today’s Remnant by journalist and politician Daniel Hannan, who’s back on the show to explore when and why America began to take a turn for the crazy. Why do recessions lead to populism? Is political apathy actually a good thing? And has the United Kingdom become besotted by its own post-liberal movement?

Show Notes:

– Daniel’s webpage

– Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature

– Matt Ridley’s The Rational Optimist

– The Remnant with Yuval Levin

– Watch this episode on YouTube

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Comments (39)
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  1. Brandon Hartley

    Yeah, get him back - he's brilliant, witty, a real treat. As often as he'll come.

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    Ben Connelly

    This was quite good

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    George.Skinner

    Canadian political trends always tend to lag the US by about 5 years, which is part of why Canada elected their progressive avatar Justin Trudeau in the 2015 election as Barack Obama was nearing the end of his 2nd term. Canadian right wing populism is definitely on the upswing: the western province of Alberta is governed by a right wing populist party, and the current federal Conservative leader comes from a history as a partisan Parliamentary attack dog who was never trusted with a major cabinet portfolio when the Conservatives were in power federally between 2006-2015. You see a lot of trucks (and it's always trucks) with flags and decals printed with "F*ck Trudeau", and people starting to ape the approach of Fox News and talk radio commentators. It hasn't reached the pitch or volume heard in America, but give it time. If the federal Liberals get turfed in the next election and a federal Conservative government can restrain itself from spitefully poking the left in the eye at every opportunity, the populism will probably have peaked and recede. If the Liberals win another election with a minority based on small pluralities concentrated in urban ridings, hang on...

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    This comment has been deleted

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    Addicus

    Using Swift’s song to comment on the Right’s back lash on Taylor. “And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate…” Brilliant.

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    1. Brandon Hartley

      I thought it cute that Jonah clearly didn't get it, either . . .

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    CynthiaW

    Good conversation.

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    Uzodinma Ukagwu

    On the Canadian conservative leader, the 2 main worry we liberals have are his closeness to the social conservative right and health of our welfare safety net. This will also be the tested and trusted playbook the liberal party will use in the next election to try to scare liberal voters back into the fold.
    We saw the conservative leader openly associate with and support the truckers during the protests to the chagrin of polite Canadian society. The social conservative right that favors restricted abortion access, curtailing of trans rights, repealing of assisted suicide and cannabis legalization laws makes up about 25% of the conservative party and he is viewed as awfully close to them.
    Pierre Poilievre's lower taxes agenda is the only reason why I would consider voting for the conservative party but could come at the expense of safety net programs put in place by the liberals.
    My opinion is that the liberals have not done badly over the past 8 years in office and that any economic issues like inflation and slow economic growth are in line with global trends. The biggest issue the liberals will face is a collective exhaustion after 10 years in office in 2025, potentially worse if Trudeau tries to seek re-election.
    The scare playbook is what the liberals have used to stay in power so far especially on social issues. It is easy for liberals to link Canadian conservatives to their cousins in the US and say do you want what is happening over there to happen here? This playbook has only been enough to win minority governments in the last 2 elections and may not be enough this time.

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  8. Bobby D

    Great discussion. I always enjoy your discussions with Hannan.

    As for the Taylor Swift kerfuffle, is this really a conspiracy theory? Swift has long aligned herself with the progressive left, and her music is nothing more than a lyrical version of a woke victimhood rant. I suspect that there’s a huge overlap between the Venn diagram of her fan base and those who use terms like “birthing person” and “Latinx.”

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    1. Lowedj

      No conspiracy theory required regarding Ms Swift. Most can agree that contemporary musicians (Rock in particular) tend to be to the left and their lyrics sometimes or even often reflect this viewpoint tendency. But is it a “conspiracy”in the sense that Ms Swift is part of a dark plot to help mastermind this or that sinister plan? No.

      As an aside, there are an occasional exception when a “conservative” theme can find its way into a Rock song, but one must admittedly hunt for them. One of my favorites is “Taxman” by The Beatles. Another is “Hang Fire” by The Rolling Stones where Jagger/ Richards bemoans the cultural and economic miasma of late 1970’s/ early 1980’s UK. Portion of lyrics are below:

      “In the sweet old country where I come from
      Nobody ever works
      Yeah nothing gets done
      We hang fire, we hang fire

      You know marrying money is a full time job
      I don't need the aggravation
      I'm a lazy slob!
      We hang fire!”

      In the next verse, Mr Jagger informs us:

      “We've got nothing to eat
      We got nowhere to work
      Nothing to drink
      We just lost our shirts
      I'm on the dole
      We ain't for hire
      Say what the hell
      Say what the hell, hang fire”

      Haha. I have always enjoyed that cynicism about the UK central planning welfare state.

      But back to the Swift plot. Taylor Swift is a gifted songwriter with an OK voice and she appears to be an astute businesswoman. She generally comports herself well on the popular stage and perhaps one can find fault with this or that statement or lyric she may said or performed in the past. But there are worse performers that one could follow. It stretches all reasonableness to think there is a political conspiracy involving her and that she is some sort of deep state asset as suggested by the Trumpian troll world silly universe.

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      Richard Maxton

      Ugh.

      Taylor Swift. She's a musician. She's famous. She's Travis Kelce's girlfriend.

      That's it folks. There's no vast conspiracy here; no reason to conflate her fanbase with "wokeness" or the Progressive Left—which she might be ideologically aligned with, but her fanbase doesn't care about that. They like her music, and her clothes. And the way her music makes them feel. That's the sum total of Taylor Swift's powers.

      On the massive heap of "stupid" in our "everything-is-politics" life in 2024, this has GOT to be at the top of the heap.

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      1. Bobby D

        While her music may not be explicitly political, it tends to revolve around themes of victimology and grievance.

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          Richard Maxton

          If you say so. I don't listen to a lot of pop music, so I don't have a take.

          But in general, I think this whole thing is on the stupid side of the spectrum in the realm of culture/politics.

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          1. Bobby D

            It’s definitely on the stupid side. I’ve been waiting for something to take down the MAGA movement. I’ve unrealistically hoped that the downfall would come at the hands of a latter-days Bill Buckley. Perhaps I should just settle for the fact that it may come at the hands of a progressive analogue of Trump himself.

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      Matt Stokes

      What a bizarre comment.

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    4. Jackrabbit McQuivers

      I don't think you understand her fanbase very well at all. Which is fine. No need to. But, as a gentle correction to your claim, Swift's fanbase is pretty darned large, pretty widespread and diverse. A guy in my office who is a proud MAGA dad bragged to me just last week that he got tix for his daughter.

      Some things are more unifying than politics, and your mischaracterizations of political factions. Some things cut across Americans. (To be clear: I'm not a Taylor Swift fan; but have respect for the breadth of her appeal.)

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      Scarlette Tarte

      You would be wrong. I know lots of conservative moms and their daughters that love her. Her fan base is broad among white women mostly. Center right to all the way left to the a-political, but not too many MAGA.

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    Toog

    In the discussion of Canada, Jonah missed an opportunity to make one of his favorite points. One factor that may contribute to the relative lack of venom in Canadian federal politics is that Canada is an extremely decentralized federation; many important questions just aren't federal at all.

    When Republicans want to thump their chests about federalism, they say they'd abolish the federal Department of Education. Well, that's how Canada already works. No federal education department. No federal funding for K-12 education. No federal role in curriculum, or any other education policy. BTW, Canada gets very good results on international tests.

    People talk about "Canadian" health care, but nearly everything is run by provinces. The main federal role is to provide block grants covering just over 20% of the cost. The main federal law was passed in the 1980s and has hardly been amended (or enforced) since. It is 14 pages long, and would be half that except that it's repeated in English and French.

    Of course Canadians fight about issues like everyone. Many noticed the trucker "convoy" about COVID policy. Fewer noticed that when Trudeau wanted to fight an election over vaccine mandates in 2021, the only mandates in question were for federal civil servants and air and rail passengers (not including commuter rail), because that's what the federal gov't controls. There was no Canadian equivalent of the OSHA mandate because nearly all labor law (except for a few sectors like banks) is provincial.

    A few things cut the other way; e.g., the criminal code is federal (although law enforcement and prosecutions are mostly provincial). But in general, Canada is FAR more decentralized than the U.S., and is a great case study in just how well subsidiarity can work.

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    EmmyCab

    “Hatred is never a healthy emotion. It eats away at you, and to be encouraged in this way, to define yourself by who you don’t like is… I just think it makes everybody grumpier.”

    Amen.

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