Everything about Bill Kauffman totally explained
Bill Kauffman (born
November 15,
1959) is an American political writer generally aligned with the
paleoconservative movement. He was born in
Batavia, New York, and currently resides in
Elba, New York, with his wife and daughter.
After earning a
Bachelor of Arts degree from the
University of Rochester, he went to work as an aide to New York Senator
Daniel Patrick Moynihan (which he'd later describe as an "
anarchist-making experience") in
1981. After leaving Moynihan's employ, Kauffman worked as
Washington, D.C., editor for
Reason before quitting over his disagreement with the magazine's
Objectivist editorial slant, after which he and his family returned to Batavia. He is now a contributing editor to
Chronicles and
Liberty, and he's also written frequently for
The American Conservative,
The American Enterprise,
The Wall Street Journal, and
CounterPunch.
Although he's known as a paleoconservative, his politics remain difficult to categorize, as he holds strong
libertarian leanings with
culturally conservative and
isolationist inclinations. He is a
critic of development, frequently writes approvingly of
distributism and
agrarianism, and is extremely
anti-corporation. Kauffman himself has described his politics as "a blend of
Catholic Worker,
Old Right libertarian, Yorker
transcendentalist, and delirious
localist." He has also described himself as a "
Jeffersonian," an "
anarchist," a "cheerful
enemy of the state," a "
reactionary Friend of the Library," and a "
peace-loving
football fan." Although he remains a registered
Democrat, he rarely supports their candidates or their
platform and has frequently voted
Green since the collapse of the
Reform Party in
2000.
Other positions adopted by Kauffman that are considered controversial to both the
Left and the
Right include his support for the
Second Vermont Republic secessionist movement, his admiration for
1972 Democratic presidential nominee
George McGovern, his argument that Catholic Worker activist
Dorothy Day had much in common with elements of the Right, and his contention that
Philip Roth's controversial book
The Plot Against America is "the novel that a
neoconservative would write, if a neoconservative could write a novel." In
2004, he endorsed
Ralph Nader for
President of the United States.
His books include
Every Man a King (
1989), a novel about a young senatorial aide who, disgusted with politics, returns to his rural New York hometown to start a new life;
Country Towns of New York (
1993), a travel book;
America First!: Its History, Politics, and Culture (
1995), a history of American
populist,
isolationist, and
anti-imperialist thought;
With Good Intentions?: Reflections on the Myth of Progress in America (
1998), a collection of (often approving) profiles of the opponents of
school consolidation,
child labor laws, a
standing army,
women's suffrage, and the
Interstate Highway System, as well as the proponents of
homesteading as a means of battling the
Great Depression;
Dispatches from the Muckdog Gazette: A Mostly Affectionate Account of a Small Town’s Fight to Survive (
2003), the story of Batavia and its decline; and
Look Homeward America: In Search of Reactionary Radicals and Front-Porch Anarchists (
2006), a meditation on American political, literary, and artistic figures whose values he admires. He also edited
A Story of America First (2003), a
memoir by the
America First Committee's congressional liaison,
Ruth Sarles. His latest book,
Ain't My America: The Long, Noble History of Anti-War Conservatism and Middle American Anti-Imperialism, was published in
2008 by
Henry Holt and Company.
A devout
Roman Catholic, Kauffman is also an intimate correspondent of
Gore Vidal, with whom he shares many ideological similarities.
Further Information
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