National Divorce in the News
Last week in Dallas with Glenn Beck--taping eight shows for The Blaze--and more.
My apologies for the long absence; I’ve been running around the country, and I’ve finally got a moment to do a roundup of my whereabouts.
My last piece, on National Divorce, made the rounds online, generating a great deal of positive and negative responses. I’m grateful for my friend Dan Bongino, who read much of the piece on his very popular podcast, which led to many others reading it, sharing it, and arguing about it.
I hadn’t anticipated exactly how much hostility I’d receive—maybe because I expected more critics who’d be likely to write rebuttals of their own (like National Review’s editor, Rich Lowry, who wrote his deeply silly and unserious “National Divorce is a Poisonously Stupid Idea” in response to me) to actually read the piece til the end. I admit, I did expect more—even from a reliable redoubt of mindless and unexamined Boomer patriotism.
Lowry and others who are terrified about the National Divorce conversation lean back on emotion. What scares them most about the current political environment is the idea—gaining steam on the Right, because we’ve got eyes and brains and the ability to be thoughtful and discerning about what time it is—that there’s a point at which America might be too far gone to return to anything resembling the America of our youth, much less the America of the Founding. Lowry writes,
The real impetus for the talk of a breakup is despair. It constitutes giving up on convincing our fellow Americans, giving up on our common national project, giving up on our birthright. This is an impulse to be resisted. Breaking up is hard to do, and quitting on America is—or should be—unforgivable.
There’s a big difference between “giving up on convincing our fellow Americans” and engaging in an utterly fruitless exchange, expecting synthesis but consisting mainly of shouting irreconcilable, mutually-exclusive first principles. In other words, arguing our point of view is still essential, but we must speak beyond those in the establishment conservative commentary class (like Lowry himself).
In my piece, I included the section on the certain collapse of the American regime because it’s something that many conservatives like Lowry must learn to face. Can we all admit that nothing human lasts forever, including the United States? If we can (and we should), we must slowly grope at a point at which the country is truly changed fundamentally, and a return to constitutional government (or even American life in the 80s and 90s) is impossible. What then? Even if he might agree in the abstract, but claim we have centuries to go—and many, many more miles to plunge—does Lowry admit this is a possibility? No, because that’s what “giving up on our birthright” means to him; it means being stuck on the sinking ship, forever, impotently yelling stop—and believing so furiously in the idea of the ship that you sing along with it.
I know we live in a low-attention-span time, but I didn’t think that anything not included in a tweet (and towards the end of the article itself) would count as “esoteric.” I guess that’s where we are.
Here, then, is the key part of the National Divorce piece:
Because it’s just over the horizon of what we can imagine from our vantage point, National Divorce isn’t at all an immediate action plan--or, at least, I don’t see it as such. Rather, it is a rhetorical strategy to prepare the ground for crucial discussions about what comes next in America, as the country grows even more divided, bitter, and angry.
More than anything else, it is a reminder for Red America to think about economic and cultural autonomy for itself, and what it would take to get there.
Autonomy for Red America is of crucial importance, regardless of the status of political or real separation. It is the ability for Americans to be self-sufficient from the financial, educational and cultural institutions that are hostile to its beliefs and way of life, and make reconciliation increasingly impossible.
At the Blaze
Then, I was invited to spend much of last week in Dallas, taping broadcasts for The Blaze, including two shows with the indefatigable Glenn Beck, for TV and radio; a short segment with Andrew Wilkow; an extended radio chat on the Jacki Daily podcast (not yet posted); two shows with the lovely Sara Gonzales, featuring Joco Booyens and my pal Michael Malice; and two live shows with the high-energy and very entertaining Elijah Schaffer and Sydney Watson. I’d like to thank everyone there, especially the Blaze’s Executive Producer, total pro Rikki Ratliff, for making my time out there memorable and a lot of fun. The videos are below, along with some photographic momentos.
Glenn Beck Radio, October 14, 2021
Glenn Beck TV, October 13, 2021 (at 16:00)
The News and Why It Matters with Sara Gonzales (David Reaboi & Michael Malice) Oct 14, 2021
The News and Why It Matters with Sara Gonzales (David Reaboi & Joco Booyens) Oct 15, 2021
You Are Here with Elijah Schaffer and Sydney Watson (David Reaboi & Harrison Smith) October 14, 2021
You Are Here with Elijah Schaffer and Sydney Watson (David Reaboi & John Doyle) October 15, 2021
Wilkow with Andrew Wilkow, October 15, 2021 (At 32:20)
On the Turntable
Unfortunately, this isn’t available on vinyl, but I’ve been enjoying it since it was released last week when I was in Texas. It’s a duet from Marsia Monte and Uruguayan singer-songwriter and guitarist Jorge Drexler, who seems to be everywhere and recording with everyone lately (including a song on Elvis Costello’s all-Spanish remake of This Year’s Model, called Spanish Model. Drexler was trained as a medical doctor before abandoning that career for music. His last several solo albums are brilliant and fascinating in both conception and execution, especially Amar la Trama (2010), Bailar en la Cueva (2014) and Salvavidas de Hielo (2017).
“Vento Sardo” was written during a 2016 sailing trip in Sardinia, and recorded over long-distance during the Covid-time sessions for Marisa’s Portas LP. Special mention goes to Carlinhos Brown on percussion, and the gorgeous string arrangements from Arthur Verucai.
As a bonus, here is Drexler’s endlessly creative Bailar en la Cueva album from 2014. These are such well-crafted pop songs, arranged with so much taste.