The

The Hello and welcome to Behind the News.

My name is Doug Henwood, as is appropriate to an episode

devoted to American conservatism, we're adhering to traditional values, two guests, two segments,

though the characters we'll be talking about want to blow up more than they want to conserve.

David Austin Walsh will examine the relationship of the far right to so-called respectable

conservatives, a formation that looks

less respectable the closer you look at it. And Laura Field will talk about the intellectuals

of the Trumpy right. Donnie himself is, of course, the furthest thing from an intellectual,

but there are some intellectuals who've latched on to the movement he's catalyzed and led.

First, the relationship of the respectables to the deplorables to steal

former Goldwater youth Hillary Clinton's term. The often grotesque characters surrounding Trump,

as well as the man himself, seemed to have little in common with the old petition

conservatism of William F. Buckley in the leather wing chairs of a Yale common room. But there are

serious continuities and commonalities.

Buckley and Company were often closely associated with racist, anti-Semites, and neo-Nazis,

tendencies Buckley himself was no stranger to. These relationships, personal and political,

are the subject of a book by David Austin Walsh, taking America back the conservative movement

in the far right

from Yale University Press. Here for the first round of our dive into icky waters of the modern

right is David Austin Walsh, who also teaches at the University of Virginia. There's this long-standing

obsession with dividing the respectable versus the kooky right. This goes back a long way,

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