Bill Kauffman

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 would 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, after which he and his family returned to Batavia. He is now a contributing editor to Chronicles and Liberty, and he has also written frequently for The American Conservative, The American Enterprise, The Wall Street Journal, and CounterPunch.

Although he is 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; and 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. He also edited A Story of America First (2003), a memoir by the America First Committee's congressional liaison, Ruth Sarles. His latest book, Look Homeward America: In Search of Reactionary Radicals and Front-Porch Anarchists, was published in 2006 by ISI Books.

A devout Roman Catholic, Kauffman is also an intimate correspondent of Gore Vidal, with whom he shares many ideological similarities.

External links

• Reactionary Radicals Blog
• Biography from Advocates for Self-Government
• Democracy in Vermont by Bill Kauffman
• Heil to the Chief by Bill Kauffman
• Free Vermont by Bill Kauffman
• Come Home, America by Bill Kauffman
• Disappearing Democrats by Bill Kauffman
• Mr. Jefferson Comes Home by Bill Kauffman
• The Patriot by Bill Kauffman
• Back to Batavia by Bill Kauffman
• New York vs. New York by Bill Kauffman
• Henry and Louise in the Lair de Clune by Bill Kauffman
• Warren Hunting Smith: The Quintessential Genevan by Bill Kauffman
• Walter Edmonds: Our Stalwart by Bill Kauffman
• Ed Harris: Thanks for the Memoirs by Bill Kauffman
• My America vs. the Empire: Why I'm Not Ashamed to be an American by Bill Kauffman
• George Bush, the Anti-Family President: An Empire of Widows and Orphans by Bill Kauffman
• Hey, Ralph! Why Not Another Party of the People? by Bill Kauffman
• Nader v. Bush: Why an Underdog May be the Best Antidote to the Neo-Cons by Bill Kauffman
• Think Locally, Act Locally, Live Locally by Bill Kauffman
• I Laughed. And I Was Ashamed. by Bill Kauffman
• Anarchism by Bill Kauffman
• Bye-Bye, Ms. American Empire by Bill Kauffman
• An Interview with Eldridge Cleaver by Lynn Scarlett and Bill Kauffman
• An Interview with Clarence Thomas by Bill Kauffman
• The Way of Love: Dorothy Day and the American Right by Bill Kauffman
• A Review of Look Homeward, America by Bill Treichler
• Reactionary Radicals, Unite by Brian Doherty
• All American Anarchists by Rod Dreher
• Bill Kauffman: American Anarchist by Laurence M. Vance
• Paradise Lost by John McClaughry
• A Stand Against Empire by Robert C. Cheeks
• Five-part interview with Bill Kauffman: IntroductionPart One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five