A response to Patrick Deneen.
Usually when people call me a hobbit it’s because I’m short and fat and hairy, or because I drink too much, or smoke too much, or because I still throw myself lavish birthday parties well into my hundreds. I’ve never heard it used as an insult before, but I guess there’s a first time for everything.
Over at The Spectator World, my friend Grayson Quay reports on the Restoring a Nation Conference held earlier this month. On October 7, the most important voices on the “illiberal Right”—including Sohrab Ahmari, Patrick Deneen, Gladden Pappin, Chad Pecknold, R. R. Reno, Matthew Schmitz, and J. D. Vance—gathered at the Franciscan University of Steubenville to rail against secular liberal modernity. And thank God for that!
But the event exposed deep divisions in the movement. As it happens, an illiberal magazine called New Polity held their own event in Steubenville at the exact same time—and offered free tickets to students from Franciscan U. In an email to Mr. Quay, New Polity editor Marc Barnes denied that he was trying to undermine the conference while admitting that the two groups represent very different worldviews.
See the full article by Michael Warren Davis, October 27, 2022