Cake or Death?

Steven Teles, a professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University, joins us on the ...

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Steven Teles, a professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University, joins us on the heels of his newly released book, Never Trump. Stop sharpening your pitchforks, everyone! It’s an objective treatment of the Never Trump movement that doesn’t come down one way or the other on it. It also leads into some classic Remnant wonkery, with tangents into the problems with party strength, mediating institutions, and political history, and how these things relate to the tensions within modern conservatism.


Show Notes:

–Steve and Rob Saldin’s book, “Never Trump”

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  1. Avatar photo
    Steve Gordon

    This was really good. I could feel my blood pressure going up a bit at the beginning of the Never Trump discussion. However, what ensued was a really enlightening discussion about the movement and how it came to be and what happened in the wake of the election.

    I know Jonah goes to great pains to "not carry water for the party" but for some of us that's exactly what we work to do. We're trying to produce results at the ballot box so policy decisions are more reflective of conservative philosophy. That's why I really like the part at the end about building long term, durable institutions that stitch together the various constituencies of the GOP/Conservatism.

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    Sonofasailor35

    Excellent, just excellent. I took a couple of political science courses in college very long ago, and don’t remember any details from them except that at times they were “interesting.” Wish I had had Prof Teles as an instructor back then, I’m sure I would have remembered much more.

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  3. Kindaconservative

    I know this is kind of a jerk comment. Especially after fully enjoying the topic and discussion. I just think it's note worthy that the use of "right" at the end of a point being made was incredible due to the quantity.

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  4. Melissa

    Hehe, that fella was not the easiest to follow. I spent most of the Teles parts blinking slowly and then picked the thread back up at the Jonah parts.

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  5. Melissa

    "There are many rooms in the mansion of Never Trump." :D

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  6. ROBERT

    I choose cake!

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    Sad Trombone

    Recently finished a biography of Henry Clay, present at the creation of the modern two party system after the "corrupt bargain" election of 1832. One distortion of the Constitution that occurred, during Jackson's veto of the Second Bank of the US, was taking the power to run the Senate from the VP to the majority leader. This was before the party system existed and has never been adjudicated. After Trump the next President should try to recover this power to enforce discipline on the Congress.

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    Pastorfbt

    Wonkery! Love it! Right? You know?😁

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  9. Quintus Sertorius

    I thought this was a very interesting PodCast and I very much enjoyed it. It is always good to hear conversations that can challenge your movement etc.

    That said, I am not going to hold my breath waiting for academics to publish studies about the “monsters” in the basement of the Democrats/Left side of the political spectrum. I doubt there are any dissertations being written about left’s version of the John Birch Society and the Alt-Right. Jonah pushed back somewhat on that but in a pretty anemic way in my opinion.

    Still very much enjoyed the podcast!!

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    1. Jeff Ray

      Agreed. No coalition is completely ideologically pure. The association of the civil rights movement with communists and the "free speech" movement of the early 60's should have been a 50 mph fastball down the middle.

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    Merrijane

    Mormons go to Illinois, not Indiana. Yes, I'm a nitpicker.

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      Man-Eating Cow

      Actually, we go to Wyoming. Well, okay, sometimes Illinois, but for the specific context of "see, children, how close disaster can come" it's Martin's Cove.

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