Quotes from Charlie Sykes

We desperately need to have a public that actually cares whether things are true of not.

I tried to distinguish myself from the Rush Limbaughs of the world, but I also understood that there were folks on the Left who did not want to make that distinction: who thought that we all sounded alike, and we all were in lockstep.

The conservative media ecosystem - like the rest of us - has to recognize how critical, but also how fragile, credibility is in the Orwellian age of Donald Trump.

The thing most frightening about Donald Trump is he doesn't know what he doesn't know and doesn't seem to care about what he doesn't know, and as a result of that, he doesn't know what the consequences of his actions might be.

I knew Buckley - he was a friend of mine - and Steve Bannon is no William F. Buckley. Buckley marginalized the kooks. Bannon empowered them.

For decades, conservatives have struggled with containing crackpottery, most notably William F. Buckley's famous excommunication of the John Birch Society in the 1960s.

One of the surprises to me was the willingness of many people in the conservative media to roll over, to abandon long-held conservative principles, and to embrace Donald Trump.

In 2010, conservatives won big majorities in the Wisconsin State Legislature, and I openly supported many of their reforms, including changes to collective bargaining and expansions of school choice.

You know something that you'll never hear on one of these cable talking-head shows? One of the guests going, 'Hmm, I don't know.'

If a university announced that henceforth, it would be offering a three-year bachelor's degree, in one stroke it would cut the cost of a college education and provide a distinctive way of competing for students - as well as put the institution on the cutting edge of reform.

There once was a time when employers could be reasonably certain that college graduates had a basic sense of the world and, as a minimum, could write a coherent business letter. That is simply no longer the case, as some academic leaders appear ready to admit.

It is an uphill fight to persuade workers that the minimum wage is not in their interest.

It is harder to explain why free markets create wealth than it is to pander to workers who have been displaced by global competition.

To finally reform higher education, we should start by asking fundamental questions, such as, Why does it take four years to get a degree?

I have a confession to make. When I was a child, I was a chronic, repeat doodler.

The N.R.A. has effectively turned itself into the Id of the Right.

Reagan wrote out many of his radio commentaries and newspaper articles as well as many of his own speeches. He wrote poetry, short stories, and letters. Trump, in his own hand, writes 140-character tweets.

Academic culture is not merely indifferent to teaching, it is actively hostile to it.

After 2008, I told people that conservatives were going to be invisible for a while. But, with time, our ideas would be back.

For years, Republicans have effectively outsourced their thought leadership to the loudmouths at the end of the bar. But perhaps the most extreme example of that trend has been the issue of guns, where the party has ceded control to a gun lobby that has built its brand on absolutism.

As our politics have become more polarized, the essential loyalties shift from ideas to parties to tribes to individuals. Nothing else ultimately matters.

In our era of zero tolerance, I would surely have spent most of elementary and middle school shuttling between suspensions and expulsions, with an occasional time out for social studies.

Despite the evidence that we already have too many students in higher education, the hot new idea among the political class is to double down by pushing for 'free college tuition.' The problem with the 'free college' idea is, however, not merely financial. It also reinforces the myth that college is appropriate or even possible for all students.

Denouncing Nazis is the easiest thing in the world: All it requires is a modicum of historical perspective and a working moral compass.