Common Ground

This week, we hear from Gerald Russello, editor of The University Bookman, a publication founded in 1960 by the traditionalist conservative Russell Kirk. The University Bookman, like most conservative magazines and journals, is a site where, implicitly or explicitly, there is a debate about what the word “conservative” even means. A couple weeks ago, The Washington Post profiled a number of magazines on the right that have been forced, by the rise of Trump and Trumpism, to stake a claim: is Trump conservative? Is the Republican Party conservative? Who really gets to decide? Gerald Russello provides an interesting perspective on this question because the publication he edits, the University Bookman, is really a review of books and culture. It doesn’t respond directly to the news cycle and rarely takes up specific matters of policy. I asked Gerald whether his and the publication’s bird’s eye view of Trump and the Republican Party helps him see the current debate over conservatism differently. I ask whether he