“There is a discrepancy between the desires of voters in a democracy and a republic, and the ideology of the bureaucracies that are supposed to serve the public interest.”

In this episode, I sit down with Christopher Rufo, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He has played a key role in bringing the fight against Critical Race Theory into the public consciousness.

“In the 1960s, the radicals of the West took that idea of cultural revolution from China, and they appropriated it and retrofitted it to fit the conditions and the politics of the West,” says Mr. Rufo. “They believe that you first have to go after a culture of a country, like the United States, and then, only then, can you change the politics of the country.”

We dive into his new book, “America’s Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything,” which explores how the ideology of four 20th-century thinkers profoundly impacted our institutions, and culminated in the 2020 George Floyd riots.

“These are figures of death. And yet they see themselves still, despite all the evidence, as figures of life,” says Mr. Rufo. “Conservatives cannot merely retreat to private business, private life, and think that they’re going to have a country that reflects their values. Conservatives have to get out of the corner.”