The Liberty Hawk

Justin Stapley introduces himself and his new podcast.

Listen here, or read the transcript of the podcast below.

Welcome to the New Centrist Podcast. I’m your host, Justin Stapley. 

As this is the very first episode of this new podcast, my focus today will be introducing myself and sharing my vision of what I’m trying to do with the podcast. I’ll talk to you a bit about my life, my political engagement up to this point, lay down the basics of where I stand politically, and explain the name and purpose of the podcast. 

So, who am I? My name, as I’ve already mentioned, is Justin Stapley. I was born and raised in Utah. I was, as we say in Utah, “born into the covenant” meaning I was born into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I served an LDS mission to Cleveland Ohio from 2006-2008 and am still an active member, doing my best to pass the traditions of my pioneer ancestors who settled this beautiful country on to my children. 

My faith, and the experiences it has led me to have, provides a pretty firm foundation for my world view and many of my subsequent political beliefs. Specifically, my theology roots me firmly in the belief that free agency is one of the greatest gifts of God. Those who have read my writings at The Liberty Hawk know full well that I place liberty as my first and foremost political consideration. 

Another strong aspect of my worldview inspired by my service as a missionary is my belief that every individual has value and no one is a lost cause. I am a strong believer in pluralism, in diversity of thought, and in the free market of ideas. Having served my mission in Northern Ohio, what I believe to be one of the most diverse regions of America, I was blessed to interact with people of extremely different backgrounds, cultures, and religious traditions. I came to appreciate just how similar we all truly often are while also valuing just how different we can still be. 

Another thing you should know about me is that the World Trade Center attacks in 2001 affected me deeply as a young man. As soon as I completed my missionary service in the fall of 2008, I immediately made good on my determination to join the US Army. I served in both the Utah and Colorado Army National Guard for six years as a weapons mechanic and infantryman.  

While in the Army, I volunteered to qualify for the US Special Forces, the Green Berets, and went through the preparation phase at the Special Warfare Center several times. While I was eventually involuntarily withdrawn for physical fitness reasons, I consider my opportunity to rub shoulders with those elite warriors as one of the greatest honors of my life. 

Before I get a lot of questions in email and on social media: no, I never ended up deploying. I volunteered and trained for deployments several times, but apparently God had different plans for me as every attempt to deploy ended up falling through one way or another. Those who know me can tell you I’ve struggled with guilt in the past over not deploying, especially when there are so many of my brothers and sisters who served multiple deployments. Over the years, I’ve been able to come to terms with not deploying by contenting myself with the knowledge that I stepped forward and I was ready to go, if called.  

The effect 9/11 had on me, my subsequent interest in foreign policy, and my time in the Army, including the perspective that came with experiencing the special operations community, has also had an impact on my worldview. I have often been met with surprise, given my “libertarian” leanings, when its discovered that I have a healthy dose of what some disdainfully call “neoconservatism” in my viewpoints. But, we’ll leave that topic for another day. 

So, that’s me. These are some of the experiences I’ve had in my life that have forged me into who I am and have informed my unique perspective and worldview. As you probably can already tell, I’m a bit of a maverick and don’t fit easily into typical political categories, at least not as political categories are popularly understood today. 

As for my political engagement, I first began writing four years ago in 2016. I was flabbergasted that both the Republicans and the Democrats would give us such horrible candidates. I operated a blog that year that I named NeverTyranny and, while it was a very modest endeavor, I gained some traction for being both Never Hillary and Never Trump.  

In 2017, I rebranded my blog The Millennial Federalist and became an outspoken advocate for the traditions of American Federalism and for proper constitutional process. It was during this time that I became a frequent writer for The Federalist Coalition, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization. They are still active today and I usually write an article for them a couple times a month. 

I took both a writing and social media hiatus for a good chunk of 2018. If you have never taken a break and unplugged for a while, I highly recommend it. It’s a great way to re-center your life. Social media often brings the worst out of us, and we forget how to talk to each other, and instead often talk at each other. Even its only for a couple of weeks, or a couple of days, I encourage everyone to take a breather from time to time. You’ll be amazed how much better you feel, and how you’ll be able to communicate on social media with more humanity and respect when you return. 

My hiatus lasted a bit longer, for about three or four months. I was able to do a lot of reflecting and thinking and took a big step away from the rage machine that so often defines social media. When I returned, I initially began focusing less on a personal blog and more on writing for other organizations. Over the last year, I’ve had my writing featured at The Federalist Coalition, NOQ Report, and Porter Medium. I was also a guest on my good friend Josh Lewis’ podcast, Saving Elephants, last spring.  

All of my efforts have recently come together with the launch of The Liberty Hawk last fall. What I’ve tried to do with The Liberty Hawk is create a crowdsourced online platform for what I term liberty-minded conservatives. I write a lot of content for the site and then get out there and encourage others to submit content of their own. I’ve been blessed so far to have found some very good contributors who submit quite regularly and offer very thoughtful and very engaging takes on the news of the day and on political philosophy. 

Speaking of political philosophy, you’re probably wondering just where it is that I stand. For most of my life, I have simply considered myself conservative. I belong to a very traditional religious tradition that strongly holds to traditional family values and ideas of morality. I started listening to Sean Hannity in high school, and was an avid talk radio listener until just a few years ago. I listened to Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Bill Cunningham, Mark Levin, and especially Glenn Beck almost religiously. I would even listen to Michael Savage and Don Imus on occasion.  

This high level of conservative media consumption was accompanied, and in hindsight I’d say offset, by my love of history. I’ve had a passion for American history ever since I was a kid. Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Adams…these are all my heroes. I loved to consume their writings and the writings of those that inspired them. I would read Locke, Montesquie, and Hobbes as well as the works of the founders such as the Federalist Papers. 

So, for me, the ideas of constitutionalism, limited-government, and natural rights weren’t just catch phrases or slogans. They were principles I firmly believed in. And, they were principles I thought the broad right-wing of American politics firmly believed in. After all, these were things I spent a decade hearing Hannity, Beck, and Rush talk about. These were things Republican politicians would claim to champion. 

If you were to call me a centrist, or especially a moderate, just a few years ago I would have gotten very defensive. I was a conservative.  

But then, the ground suddenly moved under my feet and shattered all of my assumptions. With the rise of Donald Trump’s candidacy, I began to see aspects of the conservative movement that I didn’t understand. There was a lot of anger and hostility that seemed to suddenly become a big part of the right’s political engagement, an anger and hostility that I didn’t have.  

I also began seeing a lot of inconsistency in what the talk show hosts were saying and in what was being reported on Fox News, which lead to a lot of Republican politicians changing some of their tunes and saying things that didn’t quite jive with my understanding of conservatism.  

I had long valued the Republican Party as more ideologically diverse than the Democratic Party. I liked the big-tent, coalition building approach that had been advocated for by Ronald Reagan. While the rise and sudden popularity of Trump confused me, I redoubled my efforts and engagement within the Republican Party and the conservative movement, believing there would be room in the party for reasserting a traditional conservative vision. 

I became more and more shocked as Trump won primary after primary and each candidate of, what I thought was a pretty good Republican field, dropped out of the race. Even so, my home state of Utah voted for Cruz over Trump in our primary, and while the attempt to “free the delegates” failed in the Republican Convention, it was apparent that Trump’s position as the Republican nominee was an uneasy truce between Trump supporters, most other Republicans, and Republican leadership in an effort to defeat Hillary Clinton. 

I listened thoughtfully to Trump’s acceptance speech and tried to make my peace with him as the Republican nominee. But that was immediately followed by his spat with a gold star mother and his continued brazen disregard for truth and decency. I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t swallow this bitter pill that so many were trying to force down by throat.  

And yet, it seemed most other conservatives and Republicans were having the opposite reaction I was having. HIs support continued to grow. His numbers in the polls continued to rise. But, I told myself, it’s just because the Democrats corralled themselves with Hillary Clinton, one of the most unpopular political figures on the right in decades. Trump’s support, I had believed, was purely transactional, a lesser-of-two-evils consideration, because no one on the right wanted Hillary to be our president, a view I could easily understand and also had myself.  

After Trump’s election, I made efforts to work within political realities. I would try and call balls and strikes as I saw them, and focus on ensuring that, what I viewed as the transactional nature of Trump’s presidency, bore fruit.  

But the ground had shifted under me again. The talk show hosts, their listeners, a lot of Republicans and conservatives; they weren’t treating Trump like the lesser-of-two-evils they had said he was. Suddenly, he became the greater good. Instead of expecting and demanding a pivot in rhetoric and style, which they had often talked about leading up to the election, Trump’s brazen actions and words became praised and valued. He hadn’t grown into the office nor been tempered by popular support, he had instead brought the dignity of the office down to his level and the party and movement had become his enablers.  

“No one else could have beat Hillary” was the refrain “This is the man for the hour” they said, “We needed a fighter”, I heard over and over again. 

Trump was essentially released from any responsibility to his voters, and their supposed principles, as unadulterated praise not only became the theme of the American right, but the demand upon all those who saw themselves as conservative. 

But even then, Trump had surrounded himself in the White House with a lot of good people, people I respected. I was especially pleased with the generals he placed on his cabinet, good solid military men like Mattis, McMasters, and Kelly. There were still Senators and Congressman I respected who were willing to speak out on their principles and still seemed to have a broader traditionally conservative vision.  

It’s easy to forget now, but the congressional leadership of Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell had legislative priorities largely disconnected from Trump’s rhetoric and there were many groups, especially the Freedom Caucus in the House, that were more than willing to spit in Trump’s eye if he advocated for things against their values. 

But there was this momentum which seemed insatiable. One by one, the talk show hosts fell in line. People like Beck and Levin, outspoken NeverTrumpers in 2016, became indistinguishable in their content from Hannity and Rush, little more than Pro-Trump propaganda. Republican politicians found ways to make their peace with Trump, trading their independence for a place at the table. 

And with this, the average conservative and Republican voter became numb to Trump’s excesses, and instead their outrage became focused on the Left’s reaction to Trump. For the Right, the overreaction of the media was the story, not what Trump had done or said. If the libs were unhappy, that’s all that mattered. Pass the #MAGA hat and the cup of liberal tears, all is well. 

Meanwhile, I had responded very differently. The “Against Trump” issue of National Review magazine opened my world to political thinkers and intellectuals I hadn’t known before. I especially came to value and appreciate the writings of David French, Jonah Goldberg, and George Will. Their explanations and defenses of conservativism seemed more rooted in a scholarly consistent set of ideals and principles than what I had experienced all those years of listening to talk radio. 

I delved into the writings and works of Buckley, Friedman, Meyer, Kristol, Goldwater, and Hayek. I revisited the Enlightenment writers and the works of the American Founders. It slowly began to dawn on me that I had been spoon fed the watered-down cliffnotes version of conservatism and of American political tradition.  

I came to realize the personalities I had trusted as gatekeepers and viewed as intellectual luminaries were largely entertainers whose brands would change in order to give listeners what they wanted, and who crafted their messages to ensure listeners trusted them as their source of information and truth, instead of empowering their listeners to understand their beliefs and know their own minds. 

My eyes were opened, and I couldn’t unsee what I saw. 

I began to recognize that Trump has simply capitalized on what the conservative movement and the Republican Party had become, something that was decidedly not conservative and not republican. Instead, the movement and party I had belonged to was revealed to be largely a broiling mass of discontented populism and angry nationalism. Instead of a movement of principled patriots, which I had so happily been a part of, I discovered that I was flanked by culture warriors who saw political contests as a duel to the death with opposing viewpoints and lifestyles.  

This wasn’t the live-and-let-live movement I had thought it was. It wasn’t about restoring consitutional values, ensuring liberty, championing freedom, and reeling back the Leviathan that constituted modern governance. All of those considerations easily went out the window given the chance to defeat political foes, to “own the libs”.  

Nor was there the big tent, coalition approach I had come to expect. Suddenly, it didn’t matter if my beliefs and principles were conservative. If I didn’t toe the Trumpian line, I was a traitor. Not even calling balls and strikes was good enough. Abiding loyalty to Trump became the only stance that mattered in terms of purity.  

Interestingly enough, the political literature I was consuming, if anything, had made me more solidly conservative than I had been before and more open to libertarian viewpoints. Yet, more and more I was being called a socialist, a democrat, and a RINO as Trumpism became the leading animus of the movement and the party. The Right was now infused with a similar hostile, all-encompassing political correctness to what I had never liked about the Left. Your principles, your beliefs? Those don’t matter, you had better say the right things, and promote the right talking points, and stand behind our man Trump. 

Now, four years later, I find myself simply not belonging to the movement and party I had so long been a part of. The entire political landscape had changed. I had resisted being termed a centrist for a long time because my views were, and still are, what was traditionally understood to be conservative.  

Over the years, sure, you might find subtle changes and corrections in my viewpoints, the adoption of different approaches to things as a matter of prudence, and certain issues that have faded or become more punctuated in my heirarchy of importance. But my intellectual foundation is unchanged and the cornerstone of my political philosophy is the same as it has always been, albeit more rooted and with greater historical perspective. 

But realities are what they are. I am a new centrist, and quite the reluctant centrist, not because I have changed but because the spectrum of American political thought has been displaced. 

The Right is no longer conservative, but nationalist. The Left is no longer liberal, but progressive. Those of us who are still modern conservatives and classical liberals, the traditional left and right wings of American politics, are now squashed in the middle of two different flavors of authoratarinism. And these two different statist viewpoints are determined to duke it out to the last man, even if the republic goes down in the contest. 

I have to tell you, when the thought came to me to call my podcast The New Centrist, I fought it. I really did not like the idea of branding myself as a centrist. Even now, as I’m talking to you, there’s a part of me that really doesn’t like it. But, for how much that part of me flinches at the idea, I think it’s just the new reality.  

As I said, I no longer have a home in the Republican Party. But, it’s not like the Democratic Party is an option, at all. I am truly now in the center of American politics. But, I think, I can turn that into a positive. The reason I think I eventually gave in to my idea at calling this podcast the New Centrist, is because I myself am trying to come to terms with where I am now. And, from conversations I’ve had with so many, I’m definitely not alone.  

So what’s the theme of this podcast? The theme is my attempt to navigate a political world that, as I’ve mentioned several times already, shifted under our feet, my attempts to understand a political spectrum that has moved and stretched beyond what we understood it to be a few years ago, and learning how to understand and reassert the values of American governance in the midst of all this change, upheaval, and anger. 

All that being said, I’m going to take great care to ensure this podcast doesn’t just become my psychological punching bag for dumping on Trump. One of my biggest gripes about modern politics is how its devolved into cults of personality and anti-personality. Trump Derangement Syndrome is very real, in both its Left and Right iterations. One of the biggest steps those of us who feel politically homeless can take is to put Trump in proper context and to transcend him and move beyond him wherever possible. We’re not going to get anywhere if we let a politician we don’t like live rent free in our heads. 

Unfortunately, he’s a topic we can’t quite fully avoid. He is the president, he is a political personality whose greatest strength is the ability to suck all the oxygen out of the room and make the conversation dwell on him, and, frankly, he’s a powerful catalyst that has accelerated and punctuated where we are as a country, and where I am as budding plebian intellectual.  

Pray for me as I try to channel the better angels of my nature in both my political thought and action.  

As for the structure of the podcast, I don’t plan on having my episodes be very long. The average I’m shooting for will be around thirty minutes, but I won’t fret if my episodes are a little shorter or a little longer than that. I will try to have guests on the podcast, but I won’t have this be a show predominantly oriented around guests. The episodes will be recurring, but probably not always weekly. And, depending on feedback, I may take the opportunity from time to time to share articles I’ve written or that others have written that I think have value. 

But, this is what it is and this is where I’m at. I will very likely not make many people happy, as I’m decidedly non-narrative and very politically independent. If you tune in in the future, I will probably challenge your assumptions and ruffle feathers, especially for those more inclined to be a part of the hyper-partisan slug fests. But I will always be honest about what I believe and where I stand and I will try to explain myself in a reasoned, rational manner. I hope this is something listeners can value, and I look forward to the journey this podcast will be. 

Thanks for listening, and stay free my friends. 

You can find The New Centrist on Spotify, Spreaker, and TuneIn with availability on more podcast platforms coming soon.

Justin Stapley is the owner and editor of The Liberty Hawk and the voice of The New Centrist podcast. As a political writer, his principles and ideas are grounded in the ideas of ordered liberty as expressed in the traditions of classical liberalism, federalism, and modern conservatism. You can follow him on Facebook and on Twitter.