Emma Green interviews Claremont Institute President Ryan Williams concerning that conservative group’s goals and aims. She lets him tell Claremont’s story honestly while asking some probing - not entirely friendly - questions.
I’d like to think Green didn’t write the title The Atlantic gave the interview, “The Conservatives Dreading - And Preparing for - Civil War.” I read the article looking for the content the title implies and never found it.
I found a sense that the nation is seriously divided about its proper path, and a strong hope that a robust federalism will permit different state choices within it. You can infer a resignation that - if federalism fails to accommodate our differences - a separation into red and blue nations might peacefully eventuate.
Nowhere do I see any expression by Williams of interest in, or preparation for - “civil war.” We’ve been down that road, in the 1860s, and I hope we learned our lesson.
I conclude the Claremont Institute is the intellectual incubator of modern conservatism, ironically housed in one of the bluest states - CA. I hypothesize the title reflects modern progressivism’s Karen-like unwillingness to allow conservatives to go their own way in their own spaces.
