Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values

In this re-podcast from America’s Future Facebook live interview, Ericka Andersen interviews Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis about his motivations for launching Saving Elephants.  Also discussed are the worsening partisanship and tribalism in recent years and possible solutions to a healthier political dialogue.

 

About Ericka Andersen

Ericka Andersen is a freelance writer and digital media marketing professional.  Her writings cover addiction, church planting, mental health, politics, policy, culture, fitness, and more for a variety of publications in including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Washington Post, and National Review.  She is a regular contributor at Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC.)  Previously, Ericka worked for National Review magazine, was Online Media Director for Congressional House Leadership, for the Heritage Foundation and Human Events magazine.

 

Ericka is the author of “Leaving Cloud 9: The True Story of a Life Resurrected From the Ashes of Poverty, Trauma and Mental Illness”.  She wrote “Leaving Cloud 9” for those who have suffered trauma of all kinds—and have or are seeking to overcome it in the future.  The book is a true story of miraculous healing—both physically and mentally—from years of trauma, suffering from depression, going through divorce and personal destruction.

 

Ericka host the “Worth Your Time” podcast, featuring inspiring women living out big dreams and making a difference in the world.  The podcast is generally faith-based and seeks to highlight the stories of women living and loving others well.

 

Ericka lives in Indianapolis, Indiana.  You can find her on Twitter @ErickaAndersen

 

About America’s Future

America's Future is an organization that recruits and cultivates young professionals to become effective, lifelong advocates who will inspire their peers to embrace freedom.

 

America’s Future empowers young people to be active, civil, and curious citizens who build freer communities that lead to fulfillment, dignity, and happiness for all by working toward a time in America where young people collaborate to drive change in their communities—change that equips the individual to build a free and happy life.  America’s Future offers rising generations opportunities for networking, mentoring, leadership and community engagement through our national network and extensive array of programming.

 

Founded in 1995 by a group of aspiring young advocates, America’s Future Foundation quickly grew to be “the place” for rising young leaders in Washington, DC. In 2011.  They have since expanded by launching chapters in cities across the country.

 

For the Trump-skeptical conservative, the past five years have been dizzyingly disconcerting.  We’ve often felt politically homeless and even out of step from the power centers on both the Left and Right.  What’s a principled conservative to do?  What is the long-term goal of the movement?  What future might we practically hope for and what goals are overly optimistic and detached from reality?

 

Returning guest Justin Stapley joins Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis to contemplate the merits of Trump-skeptical conservatives sticking with the GOP and whether the Republican party could reasonably embrace a principled conservatism in the future.

 

Justin Stapley has been writing politically since 2016. His writing has been featured by ALEC, The Federalist Coalition, and the personal blogs and platforms he has operated over the years, which include Never Tyranny, The Millennial Federalist, and The Liberty Hawk.

About Justin Stapley

Justin considers himself a liberty-minded conservative with principles and beliefs grounded in the idea of ordered liberty as expressed in the traditions of classical liberalism, federalism, and modern conservatism.

Justin currently studies Political Science at Utah Valley University with an emphasis in Political Theory and Constitutional Studies.  He is a staunchly independent voice and is unafraid to call balls and strikes as he sees them.  His calm but pointed writing style is often flavored with humor as he analyzes and discusses both news cycle driven topics as well as deeper philosophical considerations.

Justin appeared previously on Saving Elephants on the following episodes:

 

Episode 30 - Fusionism with Justin Stapley

Episode 55 – The New Centrist with Justin Stapley

Bonus Episode – The 2020 Elections – Now What?

Episode 77 – Truth in Tension with Justin Stapley

 

You can following Justin’s blog on Substack

 

Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis offers a conservative critique of socialism.

 

It’s hardly news that socialism is gaining in popularity among younger Americans.  Yet it’s more difficult to ascertain what Millennials have in mind when they express support for socialism or socialist candidates.  Do they mean Marxism or the numerous varieties of Communist authoritarian regimes tried over the past century, European-style “socialism”, democratic socialism, having the state seize the means of production and abolish private property, bolstering labor unions, or some complex web of worker-ownership cooperatives?  Or do they simply mean “whatever we have now, I don’t like that” with some vague idea that “the rich are not paying their fair share” thrown in for good measure?

 

Millennial support of socialism likely has less to do with an embrace of socialist arguments than with a frustrated search for answers.  Socialism is winning by default, not persuasion, in much the same manner some candidates win elections not because they are liked, but because they are less hated than their opponent.

 

Just as it’s hardly news that younger Americans are becoming increasingly supportive of “socialism”—however defined—it also goes without saying that American conservatives have—generally speaking—opposed socialism and supported capitalism (or, more accurately, the free market).  And while most conservatives will tell you this is for the sufficient reason capitalism “works” and socialism doesn’t, if pressed further they are likely to give additional moral reasons the former is superior to the latter.  And that moral reason would be that capitalism allows for a flourishing of liberties that socialism impairs or, in some cases, obliterates.

 

But before we can untangle the merits of capitalism and how it is superior to socialism, both economically and ethically, we have to first come closer to understanding what we mean by the terms “capitalism” and “socialism”.

 

Founded in 1953, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) has remained on the forefront of the conservative intellectual movement with a particular focus on ensuring college students are equipped with the tools they need to explore the conservative worldview.  During the tumultuous begins of the modern conservative movement in the United States, ISI embraced many of the views and adherents of both the libertarian and traditionalist wings of the movements.  Today, ISI is yet again navigating the divisions on the Right as they seek to maintain a platform where these embattled factions can meet together and debate their differences with civility and passion.

 

Joining Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis in this episode is James Davenport, Academic Program Officer for ISI, as they discuss indispensable books for the student of conservatism, the plight of young conservatives on college campuses, the importance and relevance of fusionism, cancel culture and civility, and how conservatives might combat the continuous Leftward bent of higher education.

 

About James Davenport

James Davenport is Academic Program Officer for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.  He received his BA in politics, philosophy, and theology from the Templeton Honors College at Eastern University.  As an undergraduate, James was an ISI Honors Scholar and president of his campus ISI Society—The Montaigne Society.  He also participated in seminars with the Elm Institute, was a fellow with the Philadelphia Commons Institute (formerly the Agora Institute), and was a course fellow in religion and politics with the Hertog Foundation.

 

James’ writing can be found in the Imaginative Conservative, The University Bookman, Philanthropy Daily, Front Porch Republic, the Forma Journal of the Circe Institute, and more.  He also hosts the Conservative Conversations with ISI podcast alongside ISI President Johnny Burtka and National Director of Student Programs Marlo Slayback.  You can find James on Twitter @mrJSDavenport

 

Listener Mail

In the listener mail segment Josh responds to a listener’s request to cover the topics of conservatism in urban areas and the challenge of countering the Left’s hold over elite institutions, particularly in higher education.

 

As the old adage goes, variety is the spice of life.  And the conservative heartily agrees.  Variety, not uniformity, is what gives life its vitality and each life the potential for self-actualization and the opportunity for each of us to develop in our own unique way.  But is variety compatible with equality?  What do we mean by equality, and how might equality be established?  What is the relationship between equality, progress, and justice?

 

In this solo episode, Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis explores what conservatism has to say about variety and equality and their relationship to progress and justice.  No one disputes inequalities exist.  But there is much disagreement on why they exist, or what qualifies as an “inequality”, let alone what should be done about it.  Perhaps the sharpest question we can ask is who is to blame for inequalities?  Does the mere fact that one person is unequal than another person create an injustice?  And what of the various kinds of inequalities?  We might be able to reach a wide consensus that no injustice is done if John is taller than Bill, or even if John is wealthier than Bill.  But what if John belongs to an ethnic or social group that’s predominantly wealthier than Bill’s ethnic or social group?  Is that an injustice?

 

To the conservative, true equality—equality before the law and before God—is precisely what gives rise to inequalities.  And enforcing unnatural equality necessarily violates our natural equality.  If people who are born with different abilities and access to opportunities are all set on a level playing field, we would naturally expect radically different outcomes.  If we were to force equal access to opportunities by granting them to those without and depriving them to those who would otherwise have access, we would still see different outcomes because people would still be operating within the abilities they inherited at birth.  If we strove still to eliminate even these inequalities, by demanding or enforcing that all outcomes be the same—such that if one person’s abilities allowed them to produce more or excel in some way beyond that of their peers we would deprive them of their excess production—we might finally achieve absolute equality.  But the price we’d pay would be the death of distinction, variety, and—in a multitude of historical examples where such heavy-handed leveling has been attempted—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Is that justice?  Is that progress?

 

Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis is joined by Ian Rowe and Nique Fajors—two black Harvard Business School graduates—who hope to change the narrative and highlight the positive achievements of black men in the United States.  What is wrong with the common narrative surrounding black men?  How much has changed over recent decades and are those changes adequately reflected in the narrative?

 

Ian and Nique host The Invisible Men, a podcast and video platform interviewing successful black men.  In the aftermath of Rodney King’s assault by police officers in the 90s and his attackers’ subsequent acquittal, Ian Rowe and Nique Fajors grew weary of a public narrative proclaiming that black men in America were doomed to failure under an oppressive system.  A feeling of invisibleness struck both Ian and Nique who were then Harvard Business School classmates as the stories of men like them became increasingly ignored in the public eye.  Today, Ian and Nique have resurrected “The Invisible Men” as a video podcast.  In their inaugural episode, Ian and Nique share their inspiration behind launching “The Invisible Men” documentary in the 90s and discuss why—30 years later—their message of agency and empowerment is needed more than ever.

 

About Ian Rowe

Ian Rowe is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on education and upward mobility, family formation, and adoption.  Mr. Rowe is also the cofounder of Vertex Partnership Academies, a new network of character-based International Baccalaureate high schools opening in the Bronx in 2022; the chairman of the board of Spence-Chapin, a nonprofit adoption services organization; and the cofounder of the National Summer School Initiative.  He concurrently serves as a senior visiting fellow at the Woodson Center and a writer for the 1776 Unites Campaign.

 

Until July 1, 2020, Mr. Rowe was CEO of Public Prep, a nonprofit network of public charter schools based in the South Bronx and Lower East Side of Manhattan.  Before joining Public Prep, he was deputy director of postsecondary success at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, senior vice president of strategic partnerships and public affairs at MTV, director of strategy and performance measurement at the USA Freedom Corps office in the White House, and cofounder and president of Third Millennium Media.  Mr. Rowe also joined Teach for America in its early days.

 

Mr. Rowe has an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was the first black editor-in-chief of The Harbus, the Harvard Business School newspaper; a BS in computer science engineering from Cornell University; and a diploma in electrical engineering from Brooklyn Technical High School (Brooklyn Tech), one of New York City’s elite public schools, which specializes in science, technology, and mathematics.

 

You can follow Mr. Rowe on Twitter @IanVRowe

 

About Nique Fajors

Nique Fajors is a business leader in retail, e-Commerce, software entertainment, and organizational development.  Mr. Fajors has launched over 85 e-Commerce products and services generating over $2.1 billion.  A nationally respected business thought leader, he has been quoted in the New York Times, The Financial Times, and Business Week and been a speaker at TEDx.

 

You can follow Mr. Fajors on Twitter @NFajors

 

America’s history of bigotry and racism have left wounds that fester to this day.  How might the country make amends to those racial minorities who were harmed?  To what extent are white Americans responsible for addressing wrongs perpetrated by their ancestors?  To what extent can the effects of these past sins be measured and known?

 

These are not easy questions, nor is there much consensus on where we go from here.  But there is one area where both conservatives and liberals may be able to find common ground: addressing historic wrongs committed by the practice of redlining at the local level.  Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis is joined again by Charles Marohn to discuss the history of redlining, its effect on American minorities, and a possible path forward to making restitutions consistent with conservative principles.  Much of their discussion centers around an article Marohn wrote for Strong Towns entitled The Local Case for Reparations.

 

About Charles Marohn

Charles (or “Chuck” to friends and colleagues) Marohn is the founder and president of Strong Towns, a nonprofit that supports thousands of people across the United States and Canada who are advocating for a radically new way of thinking about the way we build our world. Marohn is a professional engineer and a land use planner with decades of experience. He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning, both from the University of Minnesota.

 

Marohn is the author of two books: Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity and Confessions of a Recovering Engineer. He hosts the Strong Towns Podcast and is a primary writer for Strong Towns’ web content. He has presented Strong Towns concepts in hundreds of cities and towns across North America. Planetizen named him one of the 10 Most Influential Urbanists of all time. He is a long-time commentator on KAXE Northern Community Radio. He currently co-hosts KAXE’s Dig Deep program, a monthly examination of public policy issues affecting Minnesotans.

 

Marohn grew up on a small farm in central Minnesota. The oldest of three sons of two elementary school teachers, he joined the Minnesota National Guard on his seventeenth birthday during his junior year of high school and served in the Guard for nine years. In addition to being passionate about building a stronger America, he loves playing music, is an obsessive reader, and religiously follows his favorite team, the Minnesota Twins. Chuck and his wife live with their two daughters in their hometown of Brainerd, Minnesota. You can find him on Twitter @clmarohn

 

Listener Mail

Josh responds to a listener’s message asking if he would encourage his listeners to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

 

Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis joins Dennis Sanders on his podcast En Route to discuss the past, present, and future of the GOP and conservative movements, what younger generations of Americans have to offer the country, and where the #NeverTrump movement went wrong.

 

About Dennis Sanders

Dennis Sanders is a blogger, podcaster, pastor, and media and technology professional.  He hosts En Route, a podcast about the journey focusing on religion, politics and culture and the things we discover on the way.  Dennis was born and raised in Flint, Michigan and currently lives in Minneapolis.  You can find Dennis on Twitter @denminn

 

Often the highest praise we can offer a bright, promising student is “you’ll go far”.  Americans have long associated success with striking out on one’s own and heading for greener pastures.  But is this transient attitude conducive to the long-term health of local communities?  What happens to the places we leave behind and what impact does that have on us?

 

Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis is joined by Gracy Olmstead, author of Uprooted: Recovering the Legacy of the Places We've Left Behind.  Their conversation delves into how Americans have historically thought of leaving or sticking with the communities of their upbringing and how American practices don’t always align with American values.  Gracy offers her thoughts on what wisdom Alexis de Tocqueville and Wendell Berry have to share and how the pains of homesickness might point us towards an understanding of what parts of the past are worth bringing into the future.

 

About Gracy Olmstead

Gracy Olmstead is a writer and journalist located outside Washington, D.C.  Her work has appear in The American Conservative, The Washington Times, the Idaho Press Tribune, The Federalist, The Week, National Review, and Acculturated. 

 

Gracy’s book examines the heartbreaking consequences of uprooting—for both her hometown of Emmett, Idaho, and for the greater heartland of America.  Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Uprooted wrestles with the questions of what we owe the places we come from and what we are willing to sacrifice for profit and progress. 

 

You can follow Gracy on Twitter @GracyOlmstead

 

Listener Mail

At the end of the episode, Josh responds to a listener’s question about the recent debate on the Right regarding whether Viktor Orbán policies in Hungary are worth emulating in the United States to effectively engage in the culture wars.

 

The opioid overdose crisis is back in the news with recent revelations that the already shocking death toll has increased dramatically since the pandemic.  Drug overdose is now the leading cause of accidental death with opioids accounting for most of the deaths.  This crisis has certainly received a lot of attention from lawmakers, healthcare professionals, and the media.  However, Saving Elephants returning guest Peter Pischke argues that much of the debate over what to do about the growing crisis is overly focused on patients with medical needs who rarely abuse their medication.

 

About Peter Pischke

Peter Pischke is an independent disability and health reporter covering politics, journalism, ethics, and culture.  He is the host of the Happy Warrior Podcast and the creator of The Happy Warrior substack.  His specialty is communicating on the little-discussed side of the opioid crisis, the side from those reliant on opioid pain medication, the prescription opioid crisis.

 

Peter himself is a disabled pain patient and became deeply impacted in 2018 when his trusted physician force tapered him off his medication.  With an ear to the ground on the different sides of this deeply felt issue, Peter tries to parse out what is happening on the ground and give his readers a clear picture of what the opioid crisis is and how we might get out of this man-made mess.

 

Peter was a guest on the Saving Elephants podcast in Episode 42 - Media Bias with Peter Pischke.  You can read his recent article in the New York Daily News on the CDC’s mishandling of the opioid crisis here.  You can find Peter on Twitter @HappyWarriorP