This week, Jonah brings The Remnant to you from the ice-wracked void of Austin, Texas. His guest is Stephanie Slade, the managing editor of Reason magazine. Stephanie and Jonah provide some helpful explanations of what the oldest coalition of modern conservatism (i.e. “fusionism”) really is, who its members were, and what its political motivations were. Then, in an instance of “violent agreement,” our two intrepid intellectual explorers refute the idea that this fusionist project is a “dead consensus” or that it necessarily precludes membership from libertarians. Interestingly, Jonah thinks that the tensions within fusionism are strong enough that “it doesn’t make sense as a purely philosophical project,” but Stephanie is confident that American political history indicates that the tension between virtue and freedom is resolved within the fusion of these different branches of conservatism.

Show Notes:

-Stephanie Slade’s Reason archive

-Stephanie: “Is There a Future for Fusionism?”

-M. Stanton Evans: The Theme is Freedom

-Jonah: “Fusionism Today”

-Ramesh Ponnuru: “Fusionists and Fissionists”

-Murray Rothbard: “Frank S. Meyer: The Fusionist as Libertarian”

-Frank Meyer v. L. Brent Bozell Jr.

-Daniel E. Burns: “Liberal Practice v. Liberal Theory”

-Donald Devine’s The Enduring Tension: Capitalism and the Moral Order

-William James’ “blooming, buzzing confusion”

-Post-liberal conservatives

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