Posted on 09/24/2024 2:43:12 PM PDT by Angelino97
It seems that Rich Lowry, editor-in-chief of National Review, has been canceled from two speaking engagements. One was at Indiana State University and the other at the Badger Institute, which Lowry describes as “a right-of-center institute in Wisconsin.” This was in response to Lowry appearance on the Megyn Kelly Show where, apparently, he committed a disastrous speaking error when explaining the Haitian migrant problem in Springfield, Ohio.
From Lowry’s account, it would seem that he slurred the word “migrant” in pronouncing the phrase “Haitian migrants,” and it sounded to his listeners that he was engaging in a racial insult. Retribution immediately fell on the speaker, who was suddenly disinvited by his prospective hosts, who, according to Lowry, proved that “cowardice is contagious.” But Lowry, who is apparently fighting for both his honor and against censorship, won’t take this rebuff lying down. He has enlisted his magazine to defend him against an unfair charge; and he has had contributors, like John McWhorter, testify to the fact that he never said, “what he appeared to say.” Lowry has also stressed the difficulty of exonerating himself since “the denial of a completely fabricated charge implies a sort of guilt.”
I suspect that what Lowry is telling us is correct, since I have never encountered anyone who works as hard as Lowry at sounding politically correct. That includes all the space he’s devoted to declaiming against the evil or buffoonery of Donald Trump, presumably to keep his NeverTrump donors behind him. Unfortunately, I find it emotionally impossible to feel the slightest sympathy for his cause, just as I would be totally indifferent to the fate of a Mafia capo who had money stolen from his car. It is hard to think of an enterprise that has done less for open discussion on the right than National Review, particularly under Lowry’s stewardship.
One might have thought that Lowry would continue to enjoy the good will of the New Yorker, Forbes, the Guardian and Southern Poverty Law Center, all of which in April 2012 cheered his decision to sack that supposed white nationalist John Derbyshire. John had written a commentary stating that he’d discourage his children from stopping on the road to assist black youths who apparently were waving down help for their disabled auto. Derbyshire argued at Taki Magazine that the risks his children might incur from this random act of kindness would outweigh the benefits it might bring to others.
One may disagree with Derbyshire’s measured argument, which reflected his calculating disposition as a mathematician. But what was an indefensible act of “cowardice” is to have thrown poor John to leftist wolves. Not only did Lowry inflict this cruelty on his magazine’s best writer—to whom he had been paying a pittance—he also showed the very pusillanimity that he is now attributing to Indiana State University and to the very obscure Badger Institute.
In this case, what went around did come around. By the way, I was struck throughout John’s ordeal by the odious posturing engaged in by his leftist and neoconservative defamers. I doubt any of them would have stopped in that potentially dangerous situation that John described. I also suspect these politically correct scribblers live in perpetually protected quarters in which they’re shielded from the inner-city residents they glorify.
National Review has never distinguished itself as a paragon of open discussion. Soon after its founding in 1955, its editor, William F. Buckley, Jr., began excommunicating those on the libertarian right who did not support his very aggressive approach to dealing with the Soviet Communist menace. Contrary to Buckley’s later misrepresentations, the targets of his early attacks were not neo-Nazis but Jewish libertarians. This choice of targets for anathematization changed in the 1980s, as Buckley fell under neoconservative influence. Thereafter his magazine turned to banning writers who offended “Norm and Midge” (Commentary Editor Norman Podhoretz and his wife, Midge Decter).
Lowry was appointed to replace National Review’s more independent-minded editor, John O’Sullivan, in 1997. By then, O’Sullivan had taken the magazine in a critical direction on immigration that rattled the Podhoretzes and other neocon dinner companions of the Buckleys. Lowry could be counted on not to give offense to those who counted as neocon celebrities. Traditional conservatives, particularly Southern ones, were no longer welcome as magazine contributors.
In 2003, Lowry got his pal David Frum, then a Bush Republican, to prepare a diatribe for the magazine on “The Unpatriotic Right,” which attacked, among others, Chronicles’ editor and contributors. In this invective, Frum, now senior editor at The Atlantic, denounced and belittled those on the right who failed to endorse Bush’s war of choice against Iraq. Although this military adventure turned out badly, we may assume that Lowry, like Frum, benefited in terms of useful contacts after expressing his support. Soon afterwards, Frum moved leftward, where he has since been joined by other onetime National Review luminaries once showcased by Lowry, including Jonah Goldberg and David French.
We may also recall Lowry’s more recent efforts to distance himself from the Old Right, which is no longer represented in his magazine. Highlighting this effort was his call for the nationwide removal of statues and monuments commemorating Robert E. Lee, someone associated with what Lowry judges to have been a “traitorous” rebellion.
Surveying Rich’s career, I’m experiencing schadenfreude (if you don’t know what that means, then look it up!) at the morally justified turn in his fortunes. And I won’t apologize for feeling as I do.
He should have said voodoo migrants, because 80% of them practice some form of voodoo.
What was heard? “Hate immigrants?”
It's somewhat open to debate, but many people think his statement started with "Nig--" and then he changed his mind and switched it to "Mig--" but suddenly turned the "i" into a long vowel so that he could say "Migrants".
Rich Lowery is up there with Bill Kristol
absolutely worthless human beings
put cavuto on top of that strawberry upsidedown cluster
Conservative grifters canceling a conservative grifter. What the hell is going on?
“I shun immigrants?”
God has a really great sense of humor, doesn’t he?
I practice Voodoo.
“please let the guy my ex wife is with never figure out she’s a covert narcississsst”
oommmmmm
Where do they get money from now? NR died a long time ago. I canceled my subscription when Buckley died.
Lowry and Goldberg were always punks.
What could be better? Phoneys eating their own.
Maybe he should ask Derbyshire and Coulter for advice on his next career move.
Had a subscription for over 10 years, gave up on it in the early 2000’s.
Just like John McCain found out and then forgot again, the left is your friend when you attack your fellow Republicans and Conservatives, but turn on you in a instant the minute that you don’t toe their line.
John McCain was utterly baffled that the left turned on him when he got the nomination for President, but he returned to the fold when he lost and went back to attacking Republicans.
Nice article.
Sometimes, it’s hard to know who represents conservatism, or what to believe. All the more reason for open discussions.
Who is the voice of conservatism? Buckley was a little ahead of my time. Will never impressed. I followed Joe Sobran for a while, then turned away. Ann Coulter and Mona Charen had their ups and downs. I don’t recall ever being disappointed by Friedman. Thomas Sowell remains the gold standard. Victor Davis Hansen is always good. There are many good authors at American Thinker.
A certain neo-con cold warrior attitude may have been fine when dealing with the Russian communist empire (Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact nations). That empire no longer exists. Brezinsky and others pushing for perpetual war on Russia are trapped in a time bubble. All I am saying is “give peace a chance.”
Trump seems to triangulate to the right answers. Rather than measure him by my scorecard, I will withhold judgment on surprising moves on his part. I will take him seriously, not always literally.
I thought he was going with neighbor and switched to migrants, so it came out as nemigrants, construed as an n word (not neighbor).
But that guy seems to have dumped on plenty of conservatives over the years. He’ll get no support from me.
Yep. Grifters
Where do they get money from now? NR died a long time ago. I canceled my subscription when Buckley died.
Lowry and Goldberg were always punks.>>> I play the brandenburg symphonies occasionally and the firing line intro on, i think the second movement of one of them, just brings back such fond memories of the show.
Bookmark
🤣
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