The first couple of weeks after an election, the winning side spends the time imagining all the good things that will come. The euphoria fades as political reality sets in with the roll out of nominations to the new administration. We see this with Trump, as he announces who he plans to nominate to certain posts. The good feelings are now giving way to varying levels of concern.

The big area of concern is his foreign policy team which looks like the amen corner of the Israel lobby. The only skeptic of foreign adventurism is Tulsi Gabbard, who he will nominate for the director of national intelligence. This should not come as a complete shock since Miriam Adelson provided a third of his campaign budget. She is the widow of Sheldon Adelson, who is buried in the Mount of Olives.

A reality of political life in America is that the Israel lobby wields an enormous amount of power, going back to the Johnson administration. Even Truman complained about these people, when they were in their infancy. Since the Six Day War, Israel has played an outsized role in American politics, which means being in good standing with the Israel lobby has been essential to victory.

It is not all bad news. Trump has sidelined the neocons, which are not a part of the Israel lobby, despite what some people claim. The neocons have drafted on the Israel lobby at times, but as we saw in the Biden administration, their agenda can fall afoul of the Israel lobby. Prioritizing Ukraine over Israel is probably what spelled the end of the Biden presidency and the defeat of Harris.

Trump also seems to be serious about swinging a wrecking ball through the corrupt Department of Justice. Nominating Matt Gaetz, a guy with good reason to seek some retribution, says bad times are coming for the crooks. His pick for the top assistant and the solicitor general is also a good sign. If fixing the Justice Department means more of the same in Israel, that is not the worst trade.

That is the show this week. I am heading out for the weekend, so it means everyone and his brother has demanded time from me this week. As a result I had not time to prep a show, so I just did an out off the top of my head on the trade-offs were are starting to see in Trump 2.0. That is the thing to understand. It is all about trade-offs that can advance the ball down the field.

Edit: I am told that Adelson did not come up with the full $100 million, but Tim Mellon, of the Mellon family, kicked in $170 million. I checked this and I cannot verify the former claim or the latter claim, but Mellon did give at least $100 million. This post from the NYTimes lists the major donors. Regardless, the Israel lobby played a major role in getting Trump elected, so they get paid. That is politics.

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This Week’s Show

Contents

• Intro
• Appointments Signal Priorities
• Political Reality
• The Issues
• The Road From Here

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• 02m57s Victory for the normies
• 08m59s Bonfire of the talking points
• 14m32s Window of opportunity for troublemakers
• 18m21s The squirrel election
• 25m37s Compulsory voting? Strewth!
• 32m50s Landscaper wars
• 34m49s Sci-Am editor speaks
• 38m03s The Amish vote
• 40m21s Signoff with the Chairman

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01 — Intro.     Yeah yeah, I know: it’s a little early for Christmas. I just wanted to come in with jubilation, and there’s nothing quite as jubilant as the Hallelujah Chorus. That was the London Philharmonic conducted by Sir Adrian Boult, whom I once saw conduct in person.

This is of course your jubilantly genial host John Derbyshire, on the air with edition number 970 of Radio Derb. The previous 969 podcasts — audio and text transcripts both — are all archived at my personal website johnderbyshire.com. From the “Navigation” box on my home page just click on “Opinions” and then, at the “Opinions” page, click on “Radio Derb.” There they are, hours of happy listening.

As Master of the Metadata I can in fact tell you precisely how many hours: 621, plus 39 minutes and 22 seconds. Sit back and enjoy!

Also on my home page are instructions on how to support my work using snail mail, PayPal, or crypto, or via Zelle direct to my bank. To make a tax-deductible donation, earmark a check with my name and mail it to: The VDARE Foundation, P.O. Box 211, Litchfield-with-a-“t”, CT 06759. Thank you!

The occasion of my jubilation is of course the triumph of my party, the Republican Party, in this week’s general election. I shall open with some comments about that.

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It has been roughly fifty years since Nixon was forced from office. Watergate has largely slipped from our collective memory as most of the main players have slipped loose from this mortal coil. At the time, it was considered the greatest political scandal in American history, maybe even a near death experience. Nixon was not denounced as Hitler, but you can see the beginnings of that impulse in this period.

Another thing forgotten is that Nixon remained a bogeyman for the people we call the left long after the scandal. Reagan was compared to Nixon. The Democrat Congress relentlessly investigated him, sure that he was doing Nixon stuff. The Iran – Contra affair was supposed to be his Watergate. Bush I got the Nixon treatment as well with the whole October surprise business.

The election of Bill Clinton seems to have put an end to the Nixon stuff, as it boomeranged back on the Democrats. This also may turn out to be the high-water mark for the forces behind the toppling of Nixon and the aftermath. The managerial state has been in decline ever since. We are now at the final chapter of a period that started with FDR, climaxed in Watergate and may now be coming to an end.

The managerial system that was born under FDR, or at least came into practice, finally took control of the political system during Watergate. It was the “deep state” that took down Nixon and the “deep state” is just a spooky word for the permanent set of institutions that now govern us. The election of Trump in 2024, roughly fifty years after Watergate, may signal the end of managerialism.

For sites like this to exist, it requires people like you chipping in a few bucks a month to keep the lights on and the people fed. Five bucks a month is not a lot to ask. If you don’t want to commit to a subscription, make a one time donation via crypto. You can send money to: Z Media LLC P.O. Box 1047 Berkeley Springs, WV 25411-3047. You can also use PayPal to send a few bucks. Thank you for your support!

This Week’s Show

Contents

• Intro
• Nixon To Trump Fifty Years
• The way To Think About Nixon
• The Managerial Super Cycle
• Nixon To Trump
• Revolt Of The Economic Elite?
• The Decline Of Managerialism
• Managerialism Has Failed

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• 02m09s Is the West waking up?
• 12m48s The Hanns Johst reflex
• 20m12s America’s can’t-dos
• 29m11s What’s up with Koreans?
• 32m12s New Yorkers don’t vote
• 34m12s Garbagegate
• 37m09s Trick-or-treat fades
• 39m23s Signoff: Halloween Hank

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01 — Intro.     And Radio Derb is on the air! Greetings, listeners. That was a snippet of Haydn’s Derbyshire March No. 2 and this is your awesomely genial host John Derbyshire with news of the hour.

Nothing much of any interest is happening here in the U.S.A. right now, so this week’s podcast will lean heavily on foreign topics. And no, this does not mean that Radio Derb is shedding our isolationist convictions. We remain as opposed as ever to foreign entanglements. Events beyond our shores, though, have an abstract interest of their own, and may have things to teach us.

So let’s go scanning the world. Before we do, though, let me direct you once again to my personal website johnderbyshire.com where, along with much fascinating reading and listening matter — including, just posted, my October Diary — you will find instructions on how to support me using snail mail, PayPal, or crypto, or via Zelle direct to my bank, or with a tax-deductible donation by a check earmarked with my name and mailed to: The VDARE Foundation, P.O. Box 211, Litchfield-with-a-“t”, CT 06759. Thank you as always for your encouragement. Continue reading →

Every four years the media tells us that this is the most important election in our lifetimes, maybe in the history of the world. It is always nonsense, of course, but even if it does turn out to be important, few people realize it. Hardly anyone realized that the 1992 election, for example, would be an inflection point. The Cold War was over, and it felt like politics was not all the important.

This time may be different. Trump is a unique figure and has come to define the first quarter of the 21st century. To understand him and his time on the stage, you must start with the election of the execrable George Bush and then follow the chain of events that flowed from that moment. Trump was the delayed response to the hollowing out of conservatism and the Republican Party by the neoconservatives.

What the Trump era has come to be about is who is going to run the country, Americans or a collection of alien weirdos? For their part, the alien weirdos have made it clear since Trump came down that escalator that they would rather blow up the world than allow normal Americans to rule themselves again. The election next Tuesday is the last battle in the fight between Trump and the alien weirdos.

By all accounts now, Trump is favored to win. If the riggers steal another election, then any hope you have for a soft landing is gone. The country plunges into the darkness and whatever comes out decades from now will bear little resemblance to what everyone understands to be America. This may happen even if Trump wins, but there is at least the hope that not all the lights go out.

That is the show this week. This is, at the minimum, a very important election, but also the last election for a uniquely American figure. No other country could produce a politician like Donald Trump. Even by American standards, he is a singular figure, a force of nature who has changed everything during his time in the arena. Enjoy the last few days of his last election. You will never see this again.

For sites like this to exist, it requires people like you chipping in a few bucks a month to keep the lights on and the people fed. Five bucks a month is not a lot to ask. If you don’t want to commit to a subscription, make a one time donation via crypto. You can send money to: Z Media LLC P.O. Box 1047 Berkeley Springs, WV 25411-3047. You can also use PayPal to send a few bucks. Thank you for your support!

This Week’s Show

Contents

• Intro
• Enjoy The Ride
• The Case For Trump
• The Case For Harris
• Fraud Factor
• The Big Mo
• State Predictions
• How To Watch

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• Intro
• How Low Will They Go?
• A Consequential Endorsement
• Republics And Empires
• Certifiable Lunacy
• Miscellany
• Signoff

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01 — Intro.    And Radio Derb is on the air! Greetings, one and all, from your inclusively genial host John Derbyshire, here to bring you reflections on the week’s news.

Ten days to the general election and the anti-Trump rhetoric is heating up. Did you know that Trump is a Hitler Hitler Hitler, Nazi Nazi Nazi, fascist fascist fascist? In case you didn’t, all sorts of Ruling Class front men have been stepping up to tell you: John Kelly, for example, Trump 45’s Chief of Staff, and Bob Woodward, one of the hack journalists who helped bring down the great Richard Nixon fifty years ago.

How will it all end up? I don’t know any better than you do, but I’ll speculate.

Before I get to speculating, though, just my weekly reminder that my website johnderbyshire.com is there for your reading and listening pleasure with links to my entire print and online output all the way back to 1966.

On the cover page of that website are instructions on how you can help keep me afloat using snail mail, PayPal, or crypto, or via Zelle direct to my bank, or with a tax-deductible donation by a check earmarked with my name and mailed to: The VDARE Foundation, P.O. Box 211, Litchfield-with-a-“t”, CT 06759. Thank you for your help. Continue reading →

One of the reasons it feels like the wheels are coming off society is that we seem to be at the end of things. By things I mean cycles. These are cultural, intellectual, historical and economic cycles. Some have played out over generations while some are playing out in a single lifetime. The result of so many things ending at once is something like the confluence of several rivers.

Probably the biggest thing coming to an end is the idea of America that everyone was raised to believe. If you remember the Cold War, then you probably recall people talking about the difference between America and the world. It was not just the free world versus the communists. Europeans would talk about how America was the envy of the world for our freedom and love of individuality.

We put people in jail now for having the wrong opinions. Our institutions are so corrupt no sane person trusts anything that comes from them. The only difference between America today and the Soviet Union of the 1970’s is that we have vast material prosperity, but that is bought on credit. The American economic system is a ticking timebomb just waiting for someone to cut the wrong wire.

People struggle to accept that old America is dying, and this remains a primary obstacle to changing the trajectory of society. The answer to the ongoing madness from the people we call the left is some form of “We just have to go back to…” that can never happen, so we continue to swirl in the churn of decline. This is often the dynamic with the other things entering their end phase.

It is why we are cursed with backward thinking. Everyone is obsessed with rummaging around in the past, like a person searching around for a lost item, as if there is an answer in the past that will prevent the inevitable future. One reason no one talks about what comes next is fear of what comes next. It means closing the door on the past and those past ideas. The future is a terrifying idea for America.

For sites like this to exist, it requires people like you chipping in a few bucks a month to keep the lights on and the people fed. Five bucks a month is not a lot to ask. If you don’t want to commit to a subscription, make a one time donation via crypto. You can send money to: Z Media LLC P.O. Box 1047 Berkeley Springs, WV 25411-3047. You can also use PayPal to send a few bucks. Thank you for your support!

This Week’s Show

Contents

• Intro
• Cycles & Super Cycles
• The Rope Of History
• The End Of Things

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• 01m57s Thank you, Columbus!
• 08m45s Kamala’s Fox interview
• 18m59s Bring on the triumvirate!
• 26m15s Skeptical on Kamala’s Glock
• 28m39s Anarcho-tyranny, U.K.
• 31m35s Anarcho-tyranny, U.S.A.
• 34m13s Triggered by Chaucer
• 35m54s Signoff

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Transcript

01 — Intro.     And Radio Derb is on the air! That was Haydn’s Derbyshire March No. 2 in a big band arrangement, and this is of course your intractably genial host John Derbyshire with thoughts on the passing scene.

Two weeks this coming Tuesday is Election Day, if Comrade Merrick Garland doesn’t find a way to cancel it — don’t think he’s not trying. What are the prospects? I have no idea, but I’ll cover some relevant events.

First, though, my weekly reminder that you can help support my efforts here via snail mail or PayPal, relevant address and link at johnderbyshire.com, or using Zelle direct to my bank, or with a tax-deductible donation by a check earmarked with my name and mailed to: The VDARE Foundation, P.O. Box 211, Litchfield-with-a-“t”, CT 06759. Thank you for your help. Continue reading →

The failure of conservatism is one of those things that has been observed many times by many different people, but why it failed is never discussed. The assumption is that conservatism failed because the people in it did not try hard enough, or they were easily corrupted by the big money donors. The underlying assumption is that it could have succeeded and created the civil nationalist paradise.

This is why these successive efforts over the last decade to create a new right have failed to get very far. They assume they just need to get new people saying the same old things and they can get the band back together. Christopher Rufo’s internet activism is in pursuit of the same agenda as Buckley conservatism. It has the same agenda because it learned nothing from failure.

The most likely answer to why conservatism failed, however, is that it was doomed from the start and by start, I mean the founding. Conservatism, in a nation that was never a nation, but rather a country that saw itself as a radical experiment in liberty, was going to be the first thing reformed out of existence. What a radical experiment of any kind can never tolerate is anything in its way.

Conservativism in America was just slow progressivism, with progressivism being the radical ideology at the core of the experiment. As Dabney noted a century ago, conservatives were merely a drag on progressivism. Its job was to slow the process but eventually concede to the progressives. This meant that the reason conservatism failed is the progressivism has failed.

That is the show this week. Technical issues made it difficult to record and compile the show, so it may sound a bit wonky. Getting over those technical issues left little time to organize my thoughts on this topic, so it is mostly thinking aloud, but it is a subject I may returned to in a future show. The death of conservatism is as much about the death of progressivism as anything else.

For sites like this to exist, it requires people like you chipping in a few bucks a month to keep the lights on and the people fed. Five bucks a month is not a lot to ask. If you don’t want to commit to a subscription, make a one time donation via crypto. You can send money to: Z Media LLC P.O. Box 1047 Berkeley Springs, WV 25411-3047. You can also use PayPal to send a few bucks. Thank you for your support!

This Week’s Show

Contents

• Intro
• The Death Of Conservatism
• Doomed From The Start
• The Mystery of Progressivism
• Buckley Conservatism
• Trumpism & Populism
• After Conservatism

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Are we doomed? It certainly seems like it. Polling on the issue suggests that most people expect something bad to happen in the near future. The unspoken driving force of our politics for the last decade is this sense of foreboding. Despite all the numbers people use to measure society looking good, the voters keep searching around for someone who will either fix things or stop the fixers.

One reason for the pessimism is the people in charge have been crying wolf for decades as a way to both distract people from certain topics and as a way to rally support for the ruling class. The theater of democracy requires a hero and a villain, so it is only natural to create a crisis atmosphere in which to place them. Politics is one manufactured drama after another.

Even so, there are reasons to be worried. The behavior of the authorities in response to the floods in Appalachia underscore the fact that our government is not very good at doing basic things anymore. The main road was washed out and no one thinks it will be replaced in their lifetime. The reason for that is we drive over torn up roads every day that never seem to get repaired properly.

That said, doomsday seems to be a part of the American DNA. For as long as there has been moving pictures, the end of the world has been a topic. Movies and television shows based on the end times are a stock feature. The cause of doom changes from generation to generation, but the sense of doom is constant. It is as if Americans need to be in fear in order to feel alive.

On the other hand, maybe it is that the youngest people in the Western world have the best historical perspective. Nothing lasts forever and that means what we call the West will one day draw to a close. Perhaps the birth of this nation is so recent that it remains a reminder that death is inevitable. On the other hand, maybe we suffer from a collective form of imposter syndrome.

For sites like this to exist, it requires people like you chipping in a few bucks a month to keep the lights on and the people fed. Five bucks a month is not a lot to ask. If you don’t want to commit to a subscription, make a one time donation via crypto. You can send money to: Z Media LLC P.O. Box 1047 Berkeley Springs, WV 25411-3047. You can also use PayPal to send a few bucks. Thank you for your support!

This Week’s Show

Contents

• Intro
• Doomsday’s Past
• Doomsday Templates
• Are We Doomed?
• Arc Of History

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