The Tribe Of Liberty

National Review’s Jonah Goldberg wonders how to save civilization in his new book, Suicide of the West.

- Nick Gillespie

JONAH GOLDBERG IS worried about the state of the nation. In his new book, Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics Is Destroying American Democracy (Crown Forum), he makes the case that the liberal democratic project is not only in danger—it has become a danger to itself.

The United States, Goldberg argues, has forgotten or rejected its core values, allowing its institutions to decay. The result is a nation that no longer has a coherent self-image, a culture that no longer knows what it lives for. “I like getting rich really fast, and I want to make the world get richer really fast,” he says. “But the violence that does to established institutions and customs and norms sets a lot of people adrift.”

A stalwart of modern conservative political journalism, Goldberg is a longtime editor at National Review, where he helped launch the magazine’s online presence. He also currently writes a column for the Los Angeles Times and serves as a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. And he’s the best-selling author of two previous books, Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning and The Tyranny of Clichés: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas.

Like both of those titles, Suicide of the West blends history and philosophy with pop-culture references; as always, Goldberg’s deep despair is leavened with a lively wit. In June, he spoke with Reason’s Nick Gillespie about how and when America lost its way, why tribalism is the culprit, what role Donald Trump plays in the death of the West—and why Goldberg has become friendlier to libertarianism over the course of his career.

Reason: In Suicide of the West