America's Greatest Political Blogger?

by Reihan

It goes without saying that I think Andrew Sullivan is America's Greatest Political Blogger, but I consider myself his loyal sidekick and stooge, so perhaps that doesn't count. Who would come in second? I think a strong case can be made for Daniel Larison, a polymathic paleocon young fogey with a scintillating intellect and a scabrous wit. Larison is a great enthusiast for things unmodern and antimodern, he is a Byzantinist, and he is an enthusiastic believer in the virtues of the Old Confederacy. He doesn't just want the United States out of Iraq -- he'd like to see the United States splinter into a half-dozen or more pacifist agrarian republics. How's that for anti-war? Suffice to say, I'm pretty sure he finds most of my interests, enthusiams, and allegiances more than a little insane. On top of that, I'm pretty sure he'd want my immigrant family to hightail it back to rural South Asia, where we could live a more authentic life of spinning khadi and worshipping Khali.

All this is to say that Daniel and I don't always see eye to eye. For example, as I blog I am wearing a mammoth stovepipe hat modeled on that worn by Abraham Lincoln. But yes, anyway, I like to think I recognize a true talent when I see it, and Daniel is it. Recently Daniel moved his blog, Eunomia, over to the website of The American Conservative. I urge you to check it out, particularly if you think his ideological commitments sound absolutely insane. Just think: this guy studies the Byzantine empire for a living and he knows politics better than just about any professional journo. Antimodernist though he may be, Daniel reminds me of the many virtues of the Internet age.

I'd also recommend, in an entirely different vein, that you read Will Wilkinson, the yin to Larison's yang and a person I'm convinced will become one of our most important public intellectuals. This used to be a minority view, but it seems the cat is out of the bag. My sense is that these two guys can't stand each other on a visceral level, in no small part because each sees the other as the embodiment of much that is wrong with the world. I love them both, which is a testament to my utter incoherence.

Let me also abuse my privileges here by urging Brad Plumer to blog more. I am willing to raise money for a significant bounty of some kind if that's what it takes.