person1952–

Bill Kristol

Disciplines:

Summary

American political commentator — founder and editor of The Weekly Standard (1995–2018) — son of Irving Kristol — former Chief of Staff to VP Dan Quayle — who has become one of the most prominent Never Trump Republicans.

Core Contribution

Creates The Weekly Standard as neoconservatism's flagship magazine — Kristol's Weekly Standard was the institutional voice of the neoconservative movement from 1995 to 2018, supplying the intellectual case for the Iraq War and the hawkish interventionist foreign policy that defined Bush-era Republican foreign policy.

Key Spikes & Highlights

Predicted in 2016 that someone else would enter the race as a third party candidate to defeat Trump — made this prediction repeatedly and confidently without evidence; the failure of the prediction (and similar ones he made about Republican spine) tracked the limits of his ability to see how completely the party had changed
The Weekly Standard was shut down by its owner Clarity Media in 2018 — abruptly, without giving editors time to sell it; Kristol's inability to hold the institutional vehicle he had built for 23 years is the emblem of how the Never Trump wing lost the institutional infrastructure war to MAGA

Notable Works & Achievements

The Weekly Standard

Bulwark

Historical Influences

Irving Kristol Leo Strauss Daniel Bell

Intellectual Lineage

New York Harvard University of Pennsylvania Dan Quayle Chief of Staff The Weekly Standard

Contemporaries & Peers

Fred Barnes Charles Krauthammer Norman Podhoretz

Minds Influenced

Neoconservative movement

Intellectual Posterity

The Weekly Standard Bulwark

Discussing

Bill Kristol

Ask anything about Bill Kristol — their ideas, influences, contradictions, legacy.

person1952–

Bill Kristol

Disciplines:

documentary/commentary

conservatism/neoconservatism

weekly standard

never trump

Summary

Core Contribution

Key Spikes & Highlights

Predicted in 2016 that someone else would enter the race as a third party candidate to defeat Trump — made this prediction repeatedly and confidently without evidence; the failure of the prediction (and similar ones he made about Republican spine) tracked the limits of his ability to see how completely the party had changed
The Weekly Standard was shut down by its owner Clarity Media in 2018 — abruptly, without giving editors time to sell it; Kristol's inability to hold the institutional vehicle he had built for 23 years is the emblem of how the Never Trump wing lost the institutional infrastructure war to MAGA

Notable Works & Achievements

The Weekly Standard

Bulwark

Historical Influences

Irving Kristol Leo Strauss Daniel Bell

Intellectual Lineage

New York Harvard University of Pennsylvania Dan Quayle Chief of Staff The Weekly Standard

Contemporaries & Peers

Fred Barnes Charles Krauthammer Norman Podhoretz

Minds Influenced

Neoconservative movement

Intellectual Posterity

The Weekly Standard Bulwark

Discussing

Bill Kristol

Ask anything about Bill Kristol — their ideas, influences, contradictions, legacy.