Conversations with Bill Kristol

In his second conversation with Bill Kristol, American Enterprise Institute scholar Charles Murray discusses the state of American civic life and how this can help us understand the current political moment. Murray explains how the decline of communities, the effects of immigration, and the growth of anti-trade sentiment have fueled populist impulses in 2016. Kristol and Murray also revisit Murray's prescient The Bell Curve (1994) and discuss how cognitive ability might affect American life in the future.

In his second conversation with Bill Kristol, Claremont McKenna professor of political philosophy Mark Blitz discusses American liberal democracy. Blitz explains the meaning of individual natural rights and why they form the basis of American government. Blitz and Kristol then consider critiques of American liberal democracy—most prominently, that the American regime promotes inequality or leads to a lowering of standards. Blitz addresses these criticisms and explains why the American regime remains solid and defensible.

In his third conversation with Bill Kristol, Paul Cantor focuses on works of literature—plays, short stories, and novels—that deepen our understanding of the characteristics and challenges of political and economic liberty. Cantor considers a variety of authors from across the centuries—Ben Jonson, Daniel Defoe, Georg Büchner, Elizabeth Gaskell, Joseph Conrad, Franz Kafka, and Tom Stoppard—who thought deeply and wrote powerfully about the politics of freedom.

In their third "state of the 2016 race" conversation, Kristol, Abraham, Cost discuss how to think about the 2016 presidential race and consider whether the frequently underestimated Trump could win. The group also reflects on how various possible outcomes could affect the political parties and our politics. The group discusses these and many other questions in this timely conversation on the 2016 elections.

The ninth in our ongoing series with Harvard professor Harvey Mansfield focuses on the Constitution and what Mansfield calls “America’s Constitutional Soul.” In this conversation, Mansfield discusses the jurisprudence of the late Justice Antonin Scalia and his focus on the wisdom of the Constitution. Mansfield reflects on why America has a “Constitutional Soul” and how our political parties treat the Constitution. Finally, Kristol and Mansfield consider the relationship of the Constitution to the Declaration of Independence.