Heritage Month Day One: Sam Francis

Happy Sam Francis Day.

I woke up this morning and decided for no reason at all that every day this month I was going to post a celebration of a key figure who either shaped or defended our European and American heritage. We'll say it's Heritage History Month.

Sam Francis was not only a defender of Heritage America in its original framework and historical setting, but he also grappled with the implications of a realist interpretation of power politics. Rather than simply sticking with a dreamy advocacy of "sticking to the Constitution" or "renewing our American principles," Francis realized that an realistic response to the Left's revolution was necessary.

For him, post-Civil Rights America was a rebirth and what was happening in American through things like multiculturalism was the creation of a completely new socio-political order. Today, hundreds of thousands of young conservatives are willing to criticize multiculturalism. Sam Francis did so when it was a trendy phrase, when it was a “god term,” and when it was unheard of to dare question it.

For the courage of standing up against the onslaught of 1980s and ‘90s immigration and the browning of America, Francis was fired from the Washington Times. It is worth noting that the figure who played a key role in this was Dinesh D’Souza, who wrote against Francis in The Washington Post.

But Francis never cowered. He was a defender of Heartland America who recognized early on that if America was to have any meaningful pushback against the New Left and its regime in Washington, it would come from the heartland. He was therefore an early proponent of leveraging populism for political momentum.

Be that as it may, he was not an ideological populist, but an advocate of what we call Elite Theory. He took the Machiavellian contributions of James Burnham and expanded them in original ways in his book Leviathan and its Enemies. He recognized that the Managerial Revolution was a key moment in the collapse of Old America and that this revolution had started a series of events that laid the foundations of the wokification of American political life. Without the managerial revolution, the woke Left we see today would not have had the mechanisms or instruments necessary to capture power. Political society, he recognized, was a clash of elite power structures and none of our wishing for a “return to the Constitution” or dreams of a better more peaceful America could overcome the realities of actual power dynamics.

Francis was a relentless columnist who was completely unafraid to address the sacred cow questions of his day. Not only immigration and the effects it would have on American culture, but also diving headfirst into pure racial questions and the meaning of America and racial consciousness in a world where only the Left is allowed to be racially conscious. This meant that part of his posture was to be a vicious opponent of the official Conservative Moment that booted him. The Conservative Movement functioned to absorb all the possible energy, money, and political resources so that the Regime would have no real opposition. It punched to its right and kneeled to its left. Conservative Inc, for Francis, was a network of hucksters specializing in losing elegantly and pulling the rug from under those with an actual will to fight.

Francis was the originator of the increasingly popular phrase “anarcho-tyranny.” He understood that the Regime would lavish benefits on its friends and pain on its enemies, regardless of what the law said. Power was above law, interpreting and applying it in accordance with its own priorities and political objectives. This meant that the Good Citizen of prewar America must be crushed while the mobs and revolutionaries and assets of the Regime must be upheld and legally subsidized.

On this February 1st 2024, we remember and honor the legacy and contributions of Samuel T Francis!