S1E86 - Bret Stephens - Competition between the Morally Unfit and the Mentally Unfit

“Competition between the Morally Unfit and the Mentally Unfit.” That was Bret Stephens' take on the U.S. presidential race. We spoke of the race and of immigration, including what Stephens described as "legitimate criticism" of the Biden administration as well as Stephens' own family history and realizing the American dream. He also spoke of the need for control of U.S. borders and a wall and the need to bring people in in a regularized way to apply for visas in a way that does not overwhelm. "We need immigrants," Stephens said and from there we went to reproductive rights which Stephens believes won't have the impact it did in the last election. Our conversation went on to Jews and Zionism and Anti-Zionism as the new Anti-Semitism and parallels of the present to the Second World War and Stephens' views that "Ukraine will change the nature of warfare" and Europe's turn to the Right and the present as "a Dreyfus and Herzl moment." Social media, Stephens said, should be called Anti-Social Media because it allows fanatics to find one another. He made his position clear in condemning students who support Hamas and made clear, too, that he blames the professors even more as well as outside money supporting encampments. Stephens then addressed how democracy allowed technologies to be born and take root in the U.S. Who, he asked, would buy Russian and he stated, "China will never overtake the United States" and he said the biggest threat from China is their decline. We went back to discussing immigration and the need for assimilatory capacity and the presidential race and the need there for a system that produces better candidates. We concluded comparing Mozart and Beethoven and The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

Biography

U.S. foreign policy expert and highly awarded columnist Bret Stephens is renowned for his “incisive columns on American foreign policy and domestic politics, often enlivened by a contrarian twist.” Bret is an op-ed columnist for the New York Times after a long career with The Wall Street Journal, where he served as deputy editorial page editor and wrote the “Global View” foreign affairs column – for which he was awarded the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary. He is the author of America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and Coming Global Disorder and is currently working on a book about the future of the free world. Audiences value Bret’s timely insights and “breath of fresh air” delivery, and he has been in-demand with groups including the American Technion Society, the Chief Executives Organization, the Jewish Federations of Northeastern New York and Chicago, Community Advocates, Inc., and many more.

Conversation recorded on June 14, 2024.