I asked Yuval Levin about some small questions — and I should put “small” in quotation marks: the recent tax bill; what our tax code should be; what our health system should be. (Is the word “system” even appropriate?) If those questions are small … what on earth can be big?
Well, I ask Yuval what “right” and “left” mean, in a political context. And “conservative” and “liberal.” I myself find those terms ever less clear.
What is Putin? Right or left? What is Orbán? What is the Le Pen family? And so on.
I think it’s fairly safe to call Yuval a conservative, and I ask how he became one. Relatedly, we talk about some of his teachers, including Leon Kass. We talk about his favorite Founders, and his favorite presidents. (Those categories don’t overlap, for him.) We have lots on our agenda.
I even ask whether it’s true that Yuval Levin, this famed intellectual, with his nose perpetually in books, watches Desperate Housewives, as rumored.
As you may have guessed, Yuval is the guest on my latest Q&A. It is an enriching conversation (thanks to him). He is the editor of National Affairs, a contributor to various other publications, including ours, and the author of The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left.
For that podcast, go here.