Arthur Millett joins us today. He is the executive director of the Claremont Institute's Center for the American Way of Life.

He is edited a volume of essays by 19 contributors, many of whom have been published in

First Things. Arthur joined us for a podcast, I think two years ago. The title of the new volume

is up from conservatism, revitalizing the right after a generation of decay.

It's a weighty volume covering many areas of culture and society, so our discussion will be

a little selective, but I recommend it for those right-leaning people would become increasingly

disappointed with, let's just say, the traditional mouthpieces.

That said, let's begin. Welcome, Arthur.

Thank you very much, Mark. It's an honor to be here.

You know, speaking actually of traditional mouthpieces, your title borrows, I imagine, from

William F. Buckley, his up-from-liberalism book, right? Which may have been a borrowing from

Booker T. Washington's, what, 1901, 1902 memoir, up from slavery. Why is conservatism something

that has become oppressive to many people? I include myself, in 2023.

Well, I would say that it has a long history of losing over and over again.

And it has a special kind of way of losing because it never admits its errors.

It never really changes trajectory unless

force. And even when forced, it not only hesitates, it tries to go along the lines of what it has

been doing, or let's say since the end of the Cold War. I mean, I would put it this way.

Listeners should ask themselves, what is name one, just to yourself, you don't need to shout it, but just name one major trajectory changing victory that the right is responsible for since the end of the Cold War. We can all name many losses. We can all

name many such victories on the left. The country continues to churn further left in absolutely

unexpected ways. And yet the right is not responsible for any major fundamental trajectory shifting victories.

And so this edited volume is an attempt, issue by issue, to look at what we've done wrong, what the right has done wrong, what the consequences of that are,

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