By Matthew Purucker · News Editor
Michael Knowles, a conservative political commentator best known for his work with The Daily Wire, spoke on how America’s conservative roots built the country’s identity March 26 in Crawford Hall Auditorium.
Knowles argued throughout his speech titled “The Conservative Mind at 250” that America is a conservative country, which is why the author believes Americans have rejected radical change. Knowles reasoned that this has allowed the United States to last nearly 250 years.
“Not all revolutions are created equal,” Knowles said in the lecture, citing the French, Russian, Haitian and Puritan revolutions. “Our revolution holds that all men are created equal. … The American Revolution is the most successful political revolution in history, and it was successful precisely because it was conservative.”
The host of the Michael Knowles show talked for about 20 minutes, highlighting the impact of American political thought throughout the history of the United States and the conservative ideas behind it.
“America herself is conservative from the grand designs of our forebearers to the ordinary habits of the predominantly conservative people who populate her still today,” Knowles said, concluding the lecture portion of the event.
Afterward, audience members asked Knowles for his thoughts on various topics, including AI, Europe, identity politics, human composting, Alex Pretti, whom ICE agents killed during a January protest in Minneapolis, political factions, femininity and Hamilton, the man and the musical.
“We have to get (along) together,” Knowles said, responding to a question about how to relate to people with opposing political views: in Knowles’s case, liberals. “I wish that I didn’t have to share a country with these people a lot of the time, but I do. That’s the situation I’m in. And if there is a bedrock principle of conservatism, it is accepting reality.”
“So that’s the reality. And then I think you have to ask yourself, ‘How did they get here (liberal beliefs)?’ And I think all of liberalism boils down to three words, which is, screw you, Dad. … And so, you recognize that they made some philosophical errors, and you treat them with respect.”
This “The Conservative Mind” lecture was a part of a lecture series that the Institute for Faith & Freedom (IFF) created in 2022 that, according to IFF’s website, seeks to “explore the precise question of what it means to be a conservative.”
People from and around Grove City College attended the near-maximum capacity event, which was the second time Knowles had given a speech at the college.
Knowles rose to national fame in 2017 when he published “Reasons to Vote for Democrats,” a satirical book mostly filled with blank pages that was an Amazon bestseller in March of that year. Knowles also began hosting his podcast on The Daily Wire that year and has since been prominent in conservative political media.
Political Science Professor Paul Kengor, chief academic fellow for IFF, said in a speech introducing Knowles that he had met him at a Young America’s Foundation (YAF) conference in 2019 and was motivated to bring him to Grove City in 2022.
“Ever since, students have been clamoring to bring him back,” Kengor said. “So, we’d been looking for the right moment.”
Those interested in watching the lecture can visit YAF’s YouTube channel.
