Save the date for The American Conservative’s 5th Annual Crony Capitalism Conference!

More details to follow soon.

Join The American Conservative for our annual Gala at The Mayflower Hotel.

The gala features a keynote speech from entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel.  

The evening will also showcase the presentation of TAC’s Conservative Mind Award to Journalist Gracy Olmstead and Lifetime Achievement Award to University of Pennsylvania Professor Dr. Walter McDougall.

Evening Program

• VIP Reception: 5:00-6:30 pm
• Cocktail Reception: 6:30 pm-7:30 pm
• Dinner & Keynote Speech: 7:30 pm-9:30 pm

Click Here  for more information about tickets and sponsorship opportunities.

Did you miss The American Conservative’s Foreign Policy conference last week? No problem! The video for TAC’s 7th Annual Foreign Policy Conference: Beyond 2020: The Future of Realism and Restraint in a Chaotic World is now available.

As we move forward from a presidential election which may ultimately be settled in the court system, where does all this leave restrainers and realists? Is there hope for a noninterventionist foreign policy in the near future?

Whole Life: A Common Sense Agenda for Strengthening The American Family

Stagnant middle class wages, burdensome student loan debt, rising housing costs and delayed family formation have crumbled the building block of our society. For too long politicians have paid lip service to family values but have done very little to support the bedrock institution that undergirds society from the bottom up. If social conservatism is to have a future in American politics, conservatives must become pro-life for the whole of life. As an appetite for a pro-worker, pro-family agenda grows on the Right, it’s worth considering how we might adopt policies to promote strong families, resilient faith communities and a thriving middle class.

On October 14, The American Conservative, American Principles Project and Plough Quarterly  hosted a conference to explore the nature of the crisis and present a winning policy agenda moving forward.

Watch the Full Conference

Agenda

Welcome:Emile Doak, vice president of advancement & programs, The American Conservative

Keynote Address: Pastor J. Heinrich Arnold, the Bruderfhof

Panel 1: Our Cultural Crisis: Why is Pro-Family Policy Needed Now?

Rod Dreher, senior editor, The American Conservative
W. Bradford Wilcox, senior fellow,  The Institute for Family Studies
Ed Lawson, president, Family & Community Engagement Services
Marshall Kosloff , media fellow, Hudson Institute (moderator)

Panel 2: A New Policy Agenda: What Does Pro-Family Policy Look Like in Practice?

Jonathan Schweppe, director of government affairs, American Principles Project
Samuel Hammond, director of policy & welfare study, Niskanen Center
Oren Cass, executive director, American Compass
Catherine Pakaluk, director of social research, Catholic University of America

Concluding Remarks, Emile A. Doak, vice president, advancement & programs, The American Conservative

Healthcare Under Siege: How Industry and Government Colluded to Create a Crisis for Consumers

Panel 1: Middle Men, Mark- Ups & Cronyism in the Age of Covid

• Dr. Robert Graboyes, senior research fellow and health care scholar, Mercatus Center at George Mason University
• Joe Lonsdale, founding partner 8VC and co-founder of Palantir
• Avik Roy, president, Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity
• AnneMarie Schieber, research fellow at The Heartland Institute and managing editor of Healthcare News (moderator)

Panel 2: Beyond Obamacare- Will an Expanded Public Option Curb Cronyism or Make a Bad Situation Worse?

• Michael F. Cannon, director of health policy studies, Cato Institute
• Nick Sorrentino, co-founder and editor of AC2NEWS.com and AgainstCronyCapitalism.org
• Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute
• Leonora Cravotta, director of operations,  The American Conservative (moderator)

Concluding Remarks, Emile A. Doak, vice president, advancement and programs, The American Conservative

The American Conservative and The American Prospect joined for an important discussion about how the left and right can collaborate to confront monopoly power on November 14 at The National Press Club.

The event featured FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra.

TAC & American Prospect Present 11/14/19: Right-Left Convergence Against Monopoly

Other speakers included:

• David Daven, executive editor, The American Prospect
• Robert Kuttner, co-founder and co-editor The American Prospect
• Jim Antle, editor, The American Conservative
• Jonathan Tepper, The American Conservative senior fellow and author of The Myth of Capitalism
• Phillip Longman, managing editor, Open Markets Institute and author of Best Care Anywhere
• Sandeep Vaheesan, legal director, Open Markets Institute
• Guy Rolnik , clinical associate professor of strategic management at the Booth School of Business and senior fellow with the Stigler Center.
• Alan Tonelson , founder of RealityChek, a public policy blog focusing on economics and national security, and the author of The Race to the Bottom.
• Liza Lovdahl Gormsen, director of the Competition Law Forum, British Institute of International and Comparative Law

Till We Have Rebuilt Notre Dame: A Conversation on the Future of Architecture, Faith, and Civilization in the West

presented by The American Conservative and The Westerfield Institute

The wide outcry at the fire at the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris seemed to indicate that many people care about the West’s cultural inheritance from Christendom. Yet with so many Christian traditions threatened by both architectural and religious decay, is there hope for civilization? The French government has insisted it will rebuild, but will it be restored in a way that respects the cathedral’s Christian and Western heritage?

On September 17, 2019, University of Notre Dame Professor of Architecture Duncan G. Stroik, Michael Brendan Dougherty, author of My Father Left Me Ireland., and The American Conservative’s senior editor Rod Dreher participated in a wide-ranging discussion of this watershed moment for Notre Dame, Western civilization, and more.

Watch the full video

The American Conservative was proud to be a co-sponsor of the Committee for Responsible Foreign Policy’s July 19 conference: The Impact of War on Religious Freedom, 9 am-12 pm, The Museum of The Bible.

The event featured a keynote speech from Senator Rick Santorum (Republican-PA)

And a roster of speakers on this important topic including:

W. James Antle III, Editor, The American Conservative
Kristina Arriaga, President, Oxford Society for Law and Religion
Rev. Dr. Andrew P. W. Bennett, Senior Fellow and Director, Religious Freedom Institute
Nadine Maenza, Commissioner, United States Commission on Religious Freedom

Red State=Clean Energy:How Market-Driven Clean Energy Is Transforming the Texas Electrical Grid

 March 8, 2018. Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2045, Washington, DC.

Thanks to past actions by state leaders, Texas is in the midst of a clean energy transition driven primarily by market forces. Over the last 20 years, the deregulation of the Texas electricity market and other initiatives, such as adopting one of the first Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) and investing in the Competitive Renewable Energy Zones (CREZ) to bring renewable power to Texas cities, have laid the foundation for today’s market-driven transition away from coal and toward cleaner fuels like natural gas and renewable energy.

What can federal lawmakers learn from the Texas example? TAC co-hosted a discussion of how these trends are playing out in the Texas electric market, how conservative leaders are embracing the economic benefits of clean energy, and what the “Texas story” can teach us about current energy debates in Washington and around the country.

Watch the full discussion here. This event was co-sponsored by the R Street Institute, Texas Clean Energy Coalition (TCEC), and The American Conservative.

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U.S. Foreign Policy in the Trump Era: Can Realism and Restraint Prevail?

November 3, 2017. Jack Morton Auditorium, George Washington University, Washington, DC.

Since its founding in 2002, The American Conservative has advocated for a truly

conservative foreign policy: one that rejects neoconservatism not in favor of “isolationism,” but in the great American traditions of realism, prudence, and restraint.  This fall, TAC convened leading scholars, policy experts, and journalists to make the case for realism and restraint in the Trump era. Speakers included Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), John Mearsheimer, Paul Kennedy, former Ambassador Jack Matlock, Jr. and many more. Read our recap and watch full video of the conference here.

The Curbside Chat: Charles Marohn of Strong Towns on Building Better Places

October 25, 2017. Hillsdale College Kirby Center, Washington, DC.

How can our towns get stronger—not weaker—when our economy changes? How can we repopulate our empty streets and empty storefronts? What can we learn

from the earliest days of city building about building better places tomorrow? And how can active citizens, local officials, and ordinary people make it happen today, no matter how badly we’re starting off? The American Conservative was proud to co-host Charles Marohn’s answers to these questions with Strong Towns and the Congress for the New Urbanism.

Revitalizing a historic Main Street is part art, part science. On September 28, The American Conservative and the Jackson Anchor Initiative hosted a conversation with two national experts to cast a vision for urban renewal in downtown Jackson.  Click here for highlights of the event.

Why should conservatives care about cities?  While urbanist ranks are admittedly liberal, the ideas underlying New Urbanism are

decidedly conservative: traditional designs, close community, and the preservation of historical modes of living. The American Conservative and the R Street Institute hosted a series of discussions to explore the conservative case for traditional urbanism, and outline the way forward for responsible development of our cities and towns.  Watch the full discussion, which was broadcast live on C-SPAN, here.

Is “pro-business” the same as “pro-market”?  The American Conservative hosted a discussion to explore the cozy relationships between government and business that pervade much of the American economy, and make the case that the growth of crony capitalism–and the policies that feed it–runs counter to a truly conservative approach to economic policy.  Watch the full discussion here.

March 16, 2017. The Union League Club, New York, NY.

In the face of an increasingly hostile culture, how should Christians approach participation in public life? What kinds of communities can foster true discipleship? To mark the launch

of Rod Dreher’s new book The Benedict Option, The American Conservative co-hosted a wide-ranging discussion with Plough and First Things in midtown Manhattan. Watch the full discussion here.