Episode 55 – The New Centrist with Justin Stapley
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
Release Date: 03/31/2020
Roundtable - The 2026 Midterms
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
We stayed up late to discuss the results of the 2026 midterm elections. The panelists included: Lura Forcum () Corey Nathan () John Giokaris (undisclosed law firm in Chicago) Mike Taylor () Eric Kohn () Steve Phelps () Kent Straith ()
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213 – Approach the Bench with Mason Laney & Will Johnson
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
What’s up with the kids these days? Since even the youngest of the Millennials are entering their thirties, Saving Elephants host (and geriatric Millennial) Josh Lewis welcomes a couple of Gen Zers—Mason Laney and Will Johnson—to gain perspective on the world inhabited by younger Americans. Who are the voices young conservatives are listening to? What explains the rise of dissident Right and radical Right spokespeople like Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens? Is classical conservatism outdated or could it gain a foothold with the youth? About the Podcast Mason...
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212 – Allen Guelzo Redux
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
Was Abraham Lincoln a racist? Were his efforts at emancipation the mere cold calculations of a politician whose sole aim was to win the Civil War, or do they point to some deeper ideals of America’s first principles? Joining Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis is Lincoln historian Dr. Allen C. Guelzo for a wide-ranging conversation on how Lincoln’s efforts at ending slavery and saving the union may provide the clearest example of prudent American statesmanship in practice. About Dr. Allen C. Guelzo Excerpts from the Dr. Allen C. Guelzo is a New York...
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211 – Next Right with Mike Warren
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
Mike Warren has been on a mission to uncover what awaits conservatives, the Republican party, and the Right as the Trump administration begins to wind down. Who will control Congress after the midterms? Is Trumpism finished and everything will go back to the way it was prior to 2016? Does MAGA produce another cult leader who controls the GOP for the foreseeable future? Does Trump find a way to defy the Constitution and stick around? Does finally make his long-heralded appearance and put an end to us all? Mike isn’t in the business of making political...
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210 – John Quincy Adams with Jeffrey Tyler Syck
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
Sure, most of us are aware that John Quincy Adams was the son of Founding Father John Adams and the sixth POTUS with a long and illustrative career in public service and diplomacy. Some might even recall that he was the brains behind the Monroe Doctrine, or that he nearly drowned during one of his many multi-hour swims in the Potomac River, or that he is undoubtedly the former president Americans would least likely want to have a beer with, or that he was considered by some to be . But all of that’s just trivia. More importantly, John Quincy Adams was a prolific writer whose...
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Roundtable - Rise of the DSA
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
Whether it's Zohran Mamdani's win in NYC last year or the slew of Democratic Socialists of America electoral victories this year, the DSA is having a moment. Is this the beginning of the socialist utopia displacing the patriarchal/capitalist system in the United States or the latest ill-fated iteration of a party out of power attempting to redefine itself? Saving Elephants assembled another august panel to discuss this very issue, including: serves as Vice President of Communications for . Prior to joining SPN, Brooke was the Vice President of Communications at the , a...
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209 – The Soul of Schooling
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
Former President George W. Bush was wrong when he iconically stated "Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?" Actually, it's asked all the time (dubious grammatical structuring aside). Politicians and social influencers are quick to bemoan the state of education, but thoughtful conversations on how we might meaningfully change things for the better are few and far between. Saving Elephants has assembled an all-star panel to have a real conversation about education: Have we failed to educate our children? To what extent are problems in education a matter of bad policies,...
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Roundtable - Common Good Conservatism
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
In recent weeks conservative social media has been aflurry debating that nebulous phrase, the Common Good. Does the New Right have a monopoly on the concept of the common good? If we can agree on the common good, does that alone grant us the political authority to impose it? What is the relationship between liberty and the common good? Saving Elephants welcomes two guests to set the record straight for good and all. Dan Hugger, Editorial and Research Fellow and the Host of Acton Line Podcast at the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion & Liberty. He writes and speaks on questions...
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208 – Fusionism with Stephanie Slade
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
Fellow Millennial, Stephanie Slade, has been in the trenches of various factions on the dissident Right lo these past several years to share with the uninitiated normies just how unhinged the Right has become in certain quarters. She joined Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis earlier this year () to explore this phenomenon. But since that time she’s written a book, , which offers the antidote to the rise of rightwing radicalism. That antidote is fusionism, a largely forgotten idea that once defined American conservatism. About Stephanie Slade From Stephanie...
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207 – Why Postliberalism Failed with James Patterson and Thomas Howes
Saving Elephants | Millennials defending & expressing conservative values
Patrick Deneen’s 2018 book, Why Liberalism Failed, was by the standards of most academic works of political philosophy, wildly successful. It struck a chord with some of the broader Right and gave a voice to a growing movement skeptical of the promises of classical liberalism and looking for an alternative. This burgeoning New Right, however, is anything but new. The kind of postliberalism often advocated by the New Right has been attempted in nations across Europe and South America. And each time it has been tried, it has failed. Joining Saving Elephants host...
info_outlineAs the polarization between the two political parties increases where does that leave principled conservatives? Are we simply outcasts, or the new centrists? Justin Stapley returns to the show to discuss the state of the GOP, what he considered to be the “last straw” that led him to leave the Republican party earlier this year, the impeachment proceedings, his objections to “vote blue no matter who”, the changing political landscape, and why he now calls himself a new centrist.
A prolific writer and thoughtful tweeter, Justin began working on projects not at all dissimilar to Saving Elephant’s mission to fight for a restoration of political principles in the American political process shortly after the 2016 election. And during the past several years, Justin has launched multiple websites and written for many affiliate groups.
His flagship website is the apply named justinstapley.com which links to his various endeavors, including a contributing advocate and writer for the Federalist Coalition, an advocacy journalist at NOQ Report, an opinion columnist at Porter Medium, the founder and editor of The Liberty Hawk, and the Shooting Editor at Spencer Durrant Outdoors and will be a co-host for the up-and-coming Spencer Durrant Outdoors Podcast. Earlier this year Justin launched his own podcast called The New Centrist which features his original commentary and highlights of worthwhile speeches. In addition to politics, his writings include recreational shooting, hunting, fishing, and self-defense.
Justin described himself as a “liberty-minded conservative and member of the Republican Party” whose “principles and beliefs are grounded in the idea of ordered liberty as expressed in the traditions of classical liberalism, federalism, and modern conservatism.” While much of that remains the same, he no longer feels he can be a card-caring member of the Republican party and hold to those values, as he explains at length in the episode.
Justin last appeared on the podcast in Episode 30 – Fusionism, and he’s also contributed a couple of blog posts to Saving Elephants, first in contrasting Trump to Reagan then in weighing in on the French/Ahmari wars that erupted within conservative circles last year. You can find Justin on Twitter @JustinWStapley.