Conservatism Lives — Even in Mamdani’s New York

There was no identity crisis at National Review’s Buckley Prize night. Thanks be to God, because the kids need us to know who we are.

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Joe Lonsdale (left) and Steve Forbes

Jonathan Alcorn, Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Waldorf Astoria, New York City — “The world is going to change dramatically over the next five or ten years in a lot of very positive ways,” Joe Lonsdale said as he received the 2026 William F. Buckley Prize at National Review’s annual dinner. The tech entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and founding chairman of the board of the new , which is an alternative to the ideological radicalism that tends to strangle a sincere desire for truth in academia, is a young father of six and a breath of fresh air.

With these midterm elections, we’re going on a decade of people saying to me on a somewhat regular basis two things: (1) “Well, at least we know the victory is won.” Meaning: In Christianity, none of these political or cultural battles is the ultimate victory over sin and death, so we’ll be okay, as long as we stay the moral course. Or: (2) “Jesus might be coming soon, right?”

KL

About the Author

Kathryn Jean Lopez

Kathryn Jean Lopez is a senior fellow at the National Review Institute and the religion editor of National Review. Sign up for her weekly newsletter here. She is the author of A Year with the Mystics: Visionary Wisdom for Daily Living.

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