User:PeterAvery/sandbox

In July 2016 a website was created to reform conservative political thinking under the name American Greatness. The founders of this new website were Julie Ponzi, Ben Boychuck, Chris Buskirk, Seth Leibsohn, and Publius Decius Mus (who in February 2017 was revealed to be Michael Anton ). The founders published the following on their website as what they call a "Declaration of Independence From the Conservative Movement:

"American Greatness aims to be the leading voice of the next generation of American Conservatism. Divisions made evident during the 2016 Republican primaries made the need for a new journal of American conservatism undeniable. The soil of the conservative movement is exhausted. It needs fertilization, re-sowing, and diligent cultivation if it is to thrive again. And while we will always owe a debt to the giants of the movement who have gone before us, we cannot slavishly attempt to relive the politics of 40 years ago."

In order to explain that they are not a part of the Journal of American Greatness, the new website stated the following on the same Declaration:

"Finally, although American Greatness owes an intellectual debt and its inspiration to the Journal of American Greatness (henceforth, JAG) and to some of its contributors, we are not the re-emergence of that much-admired effort. We regret the passing of that manful but anonymous project, which sought to come to terms with the meaning of our current political moment by considering what may be called  a “Greatness Agenda” for America. (The fact that the contributors to JAG felt that anonymity was necessary speaks to the enormity of the problem of our times.) We intend to pick up where the other journal left off, recapturing some of its arguments and expanding upon them."

This website has become a place for conservative writers and scholars who are supportive of the candidacy and administration of President Trump to offer intellectual defenses of their positions. These writings have become a sort of response to the NeverTrump movement that swept conservatism in 2016.

Among the contributors to this website are Ken Masugi, Jay Carnahan , Victor Davis Hanson , Roger Kimball , Brandon Weichert , Mary Grabar , Joseph Arlinghaus , Dennis Saffran , "Decius" and Jesse Merriam.

Probably the most famous article on the American Greatness website was written by one of its staff in September of 2016. That piece was the "Flight 93 Election" essay by the editor who at the time was writing pseudononymously under the pen name Publius Decius Mus. Since then "Decius" has been revealed to be Michael Anton when Michael took a job at the National Security Council in February 2017 as Director of NSC Communications. The Flight 93 Essay was published at the Claremont Review of Books, the famous conservative publication of the Claremont Institute as well as on American Greatness. It got national attention a few days after publication when Rush Limbaugh read liberally from the piece on his radio program.

The Flight 93 Election essay caused real angst among many writers associated with the NeverTrump movement, inspiring many responses from them since it was seen as the most effective defense of voting for Donald Trump made by an intellectual conservative in the fall campaign.