Michael Anton: Flight 93 Election (2016)

Introduction

Although it was first published under a pseudonym, Publius Decius Mus (after a Consul in republican Rome), the following was later claimed by Michael Anton (1969-). Anton has been a speechwriter for Rupert Murdoch, director of communications at Citigroup, and a managing director at BlackRock. He has lectured at Hillsdale College and is a Claremont Institute senior fellow. He also contributed to Project 2025. In this piece, Anton likens the situation faced by citizens wishing to conserve the character of the country in 2016 to the situation faced by passengers of Flight 93 when terrorists took control of the cockpit on September 11, 2001. Failure to act ensures death; acting does not ensure success, but preserves its possibility. The necessary act here is not charging the cockpit, but electing Donald Trump. This article is presumed to have had a great deal of influence on the 2016 election, as it gave conservative intellectuals otherwise wary of Trump a rationale for supporting his candidacy. Its prominence seems to have been largely due to Rush Limbaugh devoting an entire program to reading, analyzing, and praising the argument in September 2016.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

• Do you find the simile between the situation in the 2016 election and the circumstance about Flight 93 to be convincing?
• What is the source of the desperateness, hopelessness Anton sees?
• What is Anton’s understanding of ‘conservatism’? What does it conserve? What does he think is wrong with other understandings of conservatism?
• Granting Anton his simile, how would you judge the success of the ‘cockpit charge’ he advocates?

The Flight 93 Election – Michael Anton

• The Flight 93 Election

Source: Mus, P. D. [Anton, M.]. (2016, September 5). The Flight 93 election. Claremont Review of Books. https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/digital/the-flight-93-election/