The Defining Political Question of Our Time: ‘Do You Know What Time it is?’

Plus, Kyle Rittenhouse's real crime: Standing up to the Woke Mob

If You Don’t Know What Time It Is, Get Out Of Politics Now

The defining political question of our time is this: “Do you know what time it is?”

The line, popularized by the Claremont Institute’s David Reaboi, succinctly captures the most essential of points: If you don’t understand the stakes, and how fraught the situation is — that the ruling class seeks total power, is closing in on it, and will stop at nothing to achieve it — you are unfit to lead. You ought to exit the playing field.

Knowing what time it is leads one to prioritize different ends and to pursue them using different means. For some on the right there appears to be a divide over the stakes inadvertently elucidated in some of the recent debates over national conservatism—namely those focusing on economic liberalism above all else.

This manifestly demonstrates a lack of recognition of “what time it is.” As I write in part in a new piece at The Federalist:

When one hears bromides today about free enterprise and limited government — as if those are not only the main thing, but perhaps the only thing — this is a sign that one may not know what time it is. It also implies a certain focus on the material over the cultural, again when we are in the throes of an anti-cultural revolution, and it is the culture that is preeminent.

What does “market-oriented” matter if you’ve lost the culture on which a genuinely free enterprise system — which we are nowhere near — relies, and the market actors themselves are among the most culpable actors in killing that underlying culture?

What good is “limited government” when the state is colluding with non-state actors to erode the core values and principles on which the republic was founded? Does “limited government” mean exercising restraint while those who loathe our system run roughshod over it? Does it mean the Constitution is a suicide pact, whereby conservatives keep their arms tied behind their back and the left waltzes to victory almost by default?

It’s not that these ideals are not imperative or worth defending. I’d like to abolish the administrative state, reinstitute sound money, and see a massive redistribution of federal power to the states and more importantly the people — along with a host of other policies associated with traditional conservatism and libertarianism.

But an emphasis on these issues to the detriment or exclusion of the almost pre-political, existential challenges we face, indicates a focus on a world, and a time, that we might wish for, but in which we are not currently residing.

Read the whole thing here.

Kyle Rittenhouse’s Crime Was Standing Up to the Woke Mob

Justice prevailed in the Kyle Rittenhouse case, but only after a soul-crushing process that itself served as unjust punishment. And the injustice to which the teenager has been subjected persists in political persecution and perhaps still further legal prosecution.

Our nation's most prominent politicians and news outlets have not only shown no contrition for slandering Rittenhouse, but have doubled down on their character assassination while urging the inaptly named Biden Department of Justice to intervene.

Why does the mass assault against Rittenhouse continue after the facts of the case exonerated him? Because Rittenhouse will be forever guilty of the worst crime of all: defending himself and a community under siege by the left-wing mob.

You're not supposed to dare do that. The Left brooks no dissent and demands total submission. It does the resisting—not its victims.

I unpack the argument at Newsweek.

You can watch my video commentary on the case below: