Joseph Sobran
Joseph Sobran | |
---|---|
Born | Michael Joseph Sobran Jr. February 23, 1946 Ypsilanti, Michigan, U.S. |
Died | September 30, 2010 Fairfax, Virginia, U.S. | (aged 64)
Alma mater | Eastern Michigan University |
Political party | Constitution Party |
Michael Joseph Sobran Jr. (/ˈsoʊbræn/; February 23, 1946 – September 30, 2010) was a paleoconservative American journalist. He wrote for the National Review magazine and was a syndicated columnist. During the 1970s, he frequently used the byline M. J. Sobran.
In his columns, Sobran was moralistic, opposed to big government, and an isolationist critic of U.S. foreign policy. When he fired Sobran from his longtime job at National Review in 1993, publisher William F. Buckley termed some of Sobran's writings "contextually anti-Semitic". In the early 2000s, Sobran was a speaker for a Holocaust denial group.[1][2][3]
Biography
Early life
Sobran was born in
Columnist
In 1972, while at Eastern Michigan, Sobran published rebuttals of criticisms from other faculty of an upcoming campus visit by William F. Buckley Jr., publisher of the National Review and a prominent conservative. After reading Sobran's comments, Buckley hired him as a columnist at the National Review. After three years, Buckley promoted Sobran to senior editor.[2] They had a long friendship.[1]
Aside from his work at National Review, Sobran spent 21 years as a commentator on the CBS Radio
Firing from National Review
In 1993, in a column in The Wanderer, Sobran attacked Buckley for his support of the
In 1994, he founded "Sobran’s: The Real News of the Month", a newsletter that published until 2007.[2] Sobran was named the Constitution Party's vice presidential nominee in 2000, but withdrew later that year due to scheduling conflicts.[11]
Institute for Historical Review
In 2001, Pat Buchanan offered Sobran a column in Buchanan's new magazine The American Conservative. (After Sobran's death, Buchanan called him "perhaps the finest columnist of our generation".[12]) However, the magazine's editor, Scott McConnell, withdrew the offer when Sobran refused to cancel his appearance before the Institute for Historical Review, a leading Holocaust-denying group.[1]
In 2001 and 2003, Sobran spoke at conferences organized by
In the 2008 presidential election, Sobran endorsed Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin.[16]
Death and legacy
Sobran was twice married and divorced. He had four children. Sobran died in a nursing home in Fairfax, Virginia, on September 30, 2010, of kidney failure due to diabetes.[1][2]
Views
Philosophy
Throughout much of his career, Sobran identified as a paleoconservative like his colleagues
Sobran asserted in the neo-Confederate Southern Partisan magazine that Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream had become an "American nightmare" because civil rights had encouraged, in Sobran's words, "black thugs".[19]
Catholic teachings
Sobran said Catholic teachings were consistent with his opposition to abortion and the Iraq War.[citation needed] Asked to summarize his views, Sobran said once, "I won't be satisfied until the Church resumes burning for heresy" — a remark that Buchanan's biographer Timothy Stanley described as "funny, offensive and honest".[1]
Jews and Israel
Sobran frequently used his columns to criticize
In 2002, Sobran wrote, "My chief offense, it appears, has been to insist that the state of Israel has been a costly and treacherous ‘ally’ to the United States. As of last Sept. 11, I should think that is undeniable. But I have yet to receive a single apology for having been correct."[2] Sobran said he lacked the "scholarly competence" to be a Holocaust denier. He also claimed that the official number of Holocaust victims was inaccurate and that Nazi Germany was not intent on racial extermination.[21][third-party source needed] He said his attitude was not anti-Semitism but "more like counter-Semitism".[22]
Published works
Books
- Single Issues: Essays on the Crucial Social Questions (1983, Arlington House)
- Pensées: Notes for the reactionary of tomorrow (1985, Arlington House)
- Alias Shakespeare: Solving the Greatest Literary Mystery of All Time (1997, Free Press) Sobran espoused the Oxfordian theory that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, wrote the plays attributed William Shakespeare .[2]
- Hustler: The Clinton Legacy (2000, Griffin Communications)
- Sobran's: The Real News of the Month (monthly newsletter)
- Joseph Sobran: The National Review Years (selections of his work during his time at National Review, edited by Fran Griffin, 2012, Griffin Communications)
At the time of his death, Sobran was working on two books, one concerning Abraham Lincoln's presidency and the United States Constitution and another about de Vere's poetry.[citation needed]
Articles and speeches
His essays appeared in The Human Life Review, Celebrate Life! and The Free Market.
- The Church Today: Less Catholic Than the Pope? – National Committee of Catholic Laymen – 1979
- How Tyranny Came to America, Sobran's, n.d.
- Pensees: Notes for the reactionary of tomorrow, National Review, December 31, 1985. (extended essay)
- Power and Betrayal – Griffin Communications – 1998
- Anything Called a Program is Unconstitutional – Griffin Communications – 2001
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-312-58174-9
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Grimes, William (October 1, 2010). "Joseph Sobran, Writer Whom Buckley Mentored, Dies at 64". The New York Times. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
- ^ Rudin, Ken (2010-12-29). "Political Powerhouses: Remembering Those Who Died". NPR. Retrieved 2022-07-11.
- ^ "12 Anti-Semitic Radical Traditionalist Catholic Groups". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2022-07-11.
- ^ "The Free Market | Mises Institute". Mises.org. Retrieved 2016-07-25.
- ^ "Joseph Sobran, 1946-2010". Blog.mises.org. 2010-09-30. Retrieved 2016-07-25.
- ^ McDonald, Michael (June 2011). "Wills Watching". The New Criterion. Retrieved 2011-06-06.
- ^ "In Pursuit of Anti-Semitism," National Review, 16 March 1992.
- ^ Ralph Z. Hallow, "War of words raging at National Review," The Washington Times, October 7, 1993.
- ^ William F. Buckley Jr."In search of anti-Semitism: what Christians provoke what Jews? Why? By doing what? – And vice versa Archived 2006-02-23 at the Wayback Machine", National Review, December 30, 1991.
- ^ "PRESIDENCY 2000". politics1.com. 2000. Archived from the original on 2008-05-10. Retrieved 2008-05-08.
- ^ W. James Antle, III (October 4, 2010). "Remembering Joe Sobran". Enter Stage Right. Retrieved 2011-06-06.
- ^ "For Fear of the Jews". ihr.org. 2002-06-22. Retrieved 2016-07-25.
- ^ Deborah Lipstadt "'Skeptical' on the Holocaust?", The New York Times, October 5, 2010.
- ^ Matthew Scully, "Bard of the Right", National Review Online, October 16, 2010.
- ^ Sobran, Joseph (November 3, 2008). "Joseph Sobran". The American Conservative. Archived from the original on 2008-10-30. Retrieved 2008-11-04.
- ^ "Sobran's - The Reluctant Anarchist". Sobran.com. Retrieved 2016-07-25.
- ^ "Joseph Sobran's Bio". weekendinterviewshow.com. Archived from the original on 2006-11-13. Retrieved 2007-01-15.
- S2CID 243776146, retrieved 2022-07-11
- ^ Jim Naureckas, "The Philadelphia Inquirer's New Spectrum: From Centrism to Anti-Semitism", FAIR, November/December 1995.
- ^ "For Fear of the Jews". Sobran's: The Real News of the Month. Retrieved 2016-07-25.
- ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved 2022-07-11.