- Pritzker Fellows
- Former Fellows
- Matt Lewis
Matt Lewis
Author & Senior Columnist at The Daily Beast
Biography
Matt Lewis is a senior columnist at The Daily Beast, a CNN political commentator, and the author of Too Dumb to Fail: How the GOP Betrayed the Reagan Revolution to Win Elections (And How It Can Reclaim Its Conservative Roots).
Matt’s work has appeared in outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, GQ, The Washington Post, The Week, Roll Call, Politico, The Telegraph, The Independent, and The Guardian - and he has been quoted or cited by major media outlets including New York Magazine, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Associated Press.
Over the years, Matt has provided political commentary on C-SPAN, PBS NewsHour, ABC’s “Nightline,” HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” and CBS News’ “Face The Nation.” He has appeared on numerous radio outlets like NPR and the BBC, and on various conservative programs such as “The Hugh Hewitt Show.” (And who could forget his mention on ESPN’s “The Tony Kornheiser Show”?)
Previously, Matt served as senior contributor for The Daily Caller, and before that, as a columnist for AOL’s Politics Daily.
Matt currently hosts his own podcast, “Matt Lewis & The News,” which features interviews with some of America’s top thinkers, authors, and newsmakers (subscribe on iTunes; Sen. Ben Sasse is a listener!), and co-hosts The DMZ show on Bloggingheads.TV. He is also the editor of the book, The Quotable Rogue: The Ideals of Sarah Palin In Her Own Words.
Matt grew up in Frederick County, Maryland, and graduated from Shepherd College (now University) in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
Seminars
“Conservatism in Thought & Action”
In 1963 Richard Hofstadter published his landmark book Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. Today, the argument could be made that America's inclination toward simplicity and stupidity is stronger than ever, and its greatest victim is a Republican Party. In this seminar series, we’ll trace the conservative movement's strong roots, from Edmund Burke to William F. Buckley, and from Goldwater's loss to Reagan's landslide victory, and then examine the turn of events that led to the election of Donald Trump to the presidency - and explore whether there is any way back to thoughtful conservatism for the Republican party.
Rather than being a reactionary ideology that is based on power and privilege, conservatism has a deep and storied history. From Aristotle to Edmund Burke to Russell Kirk, this seminar will discuss the rise of the conservative tradition and examine conservatism’s deep philosophical roots. It will also examine some of the places where conservatism continues to flourish in the political realm (see emerging political leaders like U.S. Senator Ben Sasse) and in the intellectual realm (see opinion leaders like Yuval Levin, Ross Douthat, and Arthur Brooks).
Special Guest: Matthew Continetti, Editor-in-Chief of the Washington Free Beacon
To understand modern conservatism, it is important to understand the influence of faith (particularly, Christianity) in U.S. politics in both good and bad ways. There is a long tradition of this. Whether it was William Wilberforce fighting the British slave trade or Martin Luther King, Jr. fighting for civil rights in America, the scripture “faith without works is dead” rings true. On the other hand, politics is often seductive, and there are plenty of other examples where the mixing of faith and politics has resulted in unintended negative consequences (for example, prohibition). What is more, sometimes mixing the City of God with the City of Man ends up corrupting the faithful. It is an open question whether that’s what happened when the religious right joined the Republican Party—and it’s a question we will explore.
Special Guest: Michael Wear, Founder of Public Square Strategies & Director of Faith Outreach for Barack Obama’s 2012 Campaign
The presidency of Ronald Reagan may have been the apogee of American conservatism. This seminar will discuss the biography of Ronald Reagan (which dovetails nicely with the rise of American conservatism), “fusionism” and the three-legged stool of conservatism (social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, and national security conservatives) that held together his coalition, and how the achievement of Reagan’s ultimate goal - the collapse of the Soviet Union - ironically sowed the seeds for the movement’s coming apart.
Special Guest: David Pietrusza, Author & Historian
How did conservatism go from William F. Buckley and Ronald Reagan to Sean Hannity and Donald Trump? This seminar will discuss anti-intellectualism and the “dumbing down” of conservatism, the impact of alternative media (social media, cable news, and reality TV), economic and demographic shifts, and identity politics and liberal overreach, all conspired to lead us to this moment.
Special Guest: Kristen Soltis Anderson, Co-Founder of Echelon Insights, Columnist for The Washington Examiner & Author of The Selfie Vote: Where Millennials Are Leading America (And How Republicans Can Keep Up)