Always remember that Phillips, like Pat Buchanan, is a Nixon man. His whole vision of the future was pinned on the Trickster; his ideal of American politicking and governance was Chuck Colson (once-born), plus wage and price controls. He has been wandering in the wilderness ever since Nixon’s helicopter took off from the White House lawn in 1974.

It is a shame because his knowledge of historical voting patterns in encyclopedic, and his book the English Civil War, the American Revolution and our Civil War (The Cousins’ Wars) was filled with interesting tidbits.