By Mark Granza

Michael Anton is an American conservative essayist, speechwriter, and former senior national security official in the Trump administration. In 2016, under the pseudonym Publius Decius Mus, he wrote The Flight 93 Election, an influential essay in support of Donald Trump’s campaign which was subsequently credited by various media as the one that made the argument that got the President elected.

A senior fellow at the Claremont Institute and a professor at Hillsdale College, a careful student of Leo Strauss by way of tutor Harry V. Jaffa as well as a dedicated scholar of Niccolò Macchiavelli, Anton is considered by many as the leading thinker of the ‘New American Right‘. Because of his willingness to engage with thinkers outside of the Overton window and usually ignored by mainstream conservatives, he’s also one of the most appreciated figures by the online dissident Right.

As part of a series of interviews which will see various ‘dissident’ thinkers featured on our pages, we decided to reach out to Mr. Anton for an exclusive interview. What follows is an edited transcript of a conversation between Anton and founding editor Mark Granza, recorded on September 9, 2021.

— The Editors

“Normie-cons would howl and stomp their feet and insist that principled loss is the noblest thing of all. They are in love with losing, it seems, it feeds some deep psychological need of theirs.”
— Michael Anton

Mark Granza. Mr. Anton, you’re not a very online person, and yet the New Right is a very online movement. How do you understand the contemporary political importance of social media and why do you avoid it?

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