Journalist Bret Stephens to Speak in Santa Barbara

I just interviewed a very interesting man. Bret Stephens is a world-famous Op-Ed columnist with the New York Times. Among many awards, Stephens won a Pulitzer Prize for his writing while he was at the Wall Street Journal. I watched several of his talks and he is a very engaging and inciteful speaker.

Stephens will speak at the Westmont President’s Breakfast on Friday, February 27 at 7 am at the Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort. Tickets may be purchased at westmont.edu/breakfast.

Like many Jewish people, the experiences of his family through pogroms and the Holocaust inform his world view. His grandfather’s family fled a pogrom in Moldova and his grandmother’s family fled Nazi Germany. Born in NYC to secular Jewish parents, he was raised in Mexico City where his father ran a chemical company. Stephens was educated at the University of Chicago and the London School of Economics.

After a turn at Commentary, a journal of Jewish affairs, he joined The Wall Street Journal and wrote editorials for WSJ Europe. In 2002 he joined The Jerusalem Post in Israel as editor-in-chief. In 2004 he rejoined the WSJ as the “Global View” columnist writing about foreign affairs. In 2017 he joined the NYT where he continues to write. In 2013 he received the Pulitzer Prize “for his incisive [WSJ] columns on American foreign policy and domestic politics, often enlivened by a contrarian twist.” There is much more to his resumé. He doesn’t shy from controversy. 

I began the interview querying why he chose journalism as a career. An interesting answer: 

“[F]or all of the profession’s challenges, there are few careers that allow you to have one foot in the life of the mind and one foot in the life of action. And journalism is one of those careers. So, it has great compensations, even though it might not be as remunerative as other professions.”

Stephens sees himself as a conservative in the Reagan mold. He describes himself as being on “the conservative wing of the [classical] liberal church:” free markets, free trade, individual liberty, free speech, and a free press. 

“I think that the best way of preserving a liberal political order is through traditionally conservative means. So, for example, intact families tend to produce more responsible citizens. Churches and synagogues and other civic or religious institutions instill a moral sensibility that’s important for the overall well-being of society. Private enterprise and free markets also develop personal habits, like thrift, responsibility, sociability, that are equally important for decent societies to flourish.”

He supports America’s engagement with the world as being necessary for democracy at home and abroad. He writes frequently about Israel and the Middle East. Stephens has been an ardent supporter of Israel and identifies as a Zionist.

He sums up his philosophical approach this way:

“Last night I listened to a talk from the documentary maker Ken Burns. One of the things that he mentioned is a sign he keeps in his office with the words, ‘It’s complicated.’ I think those are words to live by whenever you’re trying to explain politics or think about politics and political, economic, and social phenomena. I’m always a little suspicious of any kind of orthodoxy because it will inevitably fail to take account of the full range of human experience and reality, and then there’s just no good formulas there. There are good instincts, but there are never perfect formulas.”

I quoted him one of my favorite epigrams by Thomas Aquinas: “Beware of the person of a single book.” “Yes,” he said, “that’s very true.”

Stephens has been a harsh critic of Donald Trump and his Administration. He doesn’t pull punches. He had just gotten back from Davos (World Economic Forum), a conclave of the rich, powerful, and famous. From what I had read about Davos, this year nobody was talking about deals. The main topic was President Trump. 

Stephens’ op-ed piece on Davos was titled “An Unhinged President on Magic Mountain.” His article started with a synopsis of Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain. I’ll let you read the piece, but in it Stephens writes, “The underlying spirit of Davos this year is fear.” He also noted in the piece that Trump’s speech “sounded, in places, as if it had been ghostwritten by Mario Puzo.”

But, despite his long-standing criticism, he has a realistic view of Trump. 

“[H]e was one candidate who was talking all too candidly about issues which America’s elites didn’t want to discuss. For example, the toll of immigration, the failure of elite institutions, the corrosive effects of left-wing identity politics. Of course, he has his own right-wing identity politics, but those were all really legitimate issues, and he was one political leader who had the guts to go there, and he was rewarded for it.”

…

“[T]o be an effective critic of Trump you also have to have an appreciation for the things that he got right. Immigration. The border. Those kinds of things; and also a perception that for many Americans, the experience of the 21st century has been an experience of decline. And I don’t think that those of us who live on the golden coasts of the country sufficiently appreciated that fact.”

We discussed a lot of issues relating to Trump including the ICE raids (“I think it’s going to cost them the midterms”), J.D. Vance (“colossal opportunist”), Iran war (?), Mamdani (“true believer…or rank opportunist?”).

I believe his talk here will be one of the most informative we have had and you will go home with a lot to think about. Thanks to Westmont to making this happen.