Steven F. Hayward - M. Stanton Evans: Conservative Wit, Apostle of Freedom

EVANS

CONSERVATIVE WIT, APOSTLE OF FREEDOM

STEVEN F. HAYWARD

New York London

2022 by Steven F. Hayward

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FIRST AMERICAN EDITION

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Names: Hayward, Steven F., author.

Title: M. Stanton Evans: Conservative Wit, Apostle of Freedom
Steven F. Hayward. Description: New York: Encounter Books, 2022.
Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021033848 (print) | LCCN 2021033849 (ebook)
ISBN 9781641771764 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781641771771 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Evans, M. Stanton (Medford Stanton), 1934-2015.
ConservativesUnited StatesBiography. | JournalistsUnited
StatesBiography. | ConservatismUnited StatesHistory20th century.

ConservatismUnited StatesHistory21st century.

Classification: LCC JC573.2.U6 H3925 2022 (print) | LCC JC573.2.U6
(ebook) | DDC 320.52092 [B]dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021033848

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021033849

M. STANTON EVANS
Conservative Wit, Apostle of Freedom

Stan always played the long game. He wasnt interested in quick whimsical ideas that came and went. He was more interested in changing the culture, changing peoples ideas. But he knew that was a long-term undertaking and he was willing to do it.

ALFRED REGNERY

A few days into the new year in January 1981, I loaded up my compact car with a few books, an electric typewriter, my Gerald Fordera three-piece suit, two sport coats, and whatever remaining presentable clothing I owned and struck out from my family home in suburban Los Angeles for Washington, DC. I was taking up as an intern for M. Stanton Evans at his recently established National Journalism Center. Although the formal program only lasted twelve weeks, it turned out to be a decisive, life-altering journey.

The context of that moment helps in appreciating fully the intellectual and political portrait that follows. I had graduated from college the previous spring and spent the summer backpacking around Europe and the fall lounging around my parents spacious house like Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate (which was actually set in my hometown in the novel) looking for a job in a tough market for recent graduates. I didnt turn up much beyond a couple of sketchy entry-level sales prospects. I really wanted to be a writer or journalist but had no idea how to go about starting such a career.

So my eyes perked up when I spotted a small classified ad in National Review about internships at the National Journalism Center (hereafter NJC). Twelve weeks, lodging, and $100 a week! Interest became excitement when I focused on the fact that M. Stanton Evans was the impresario of NJC. I was familiar with Evanss writing through his syndicated column that amazingly appeared in the Los Angeles Times (I was such a nerd as a teen that I read the Times op-ed page before the sports page every morning), but I was also familiar with him from his articles in Human Events and National Review as I subscribed to both. The most distinct impression, however, came from hearing his brief radio commentaries for CBS Newss Spectrum series, which Id heard as a teen when driving around with my father, who listened exclusively to news radio. More than once I recall reaching a destination but remaining in the car to hear the end of Stans commentary. Along with the cogency and seriousness of his commentaries, what most struck me about Evans was his deep baritone voice. His best friend and fellow journalist, Ralph Bennett of Readers Digest, ably described Evans as having an enviably sonorous voice, with a finely civilized gravel to it. There was a whisper of Texas, Tennessee, and tobacco. It has that flat timbre of the Midwest, and a hint of Mississippi in the exit when he was relaxed and talking about basketball or rock and roll.

The opening weeks of 1981 coincided with the arrival of Ronald Reagan to begin the Reagan Revolution. Anyone who came of age in the late 1970s, when the conservative intellectual movement was alive with fertile creativity and new expression, couldnt help but sense the building critical mass that culminated in Reagans landslide election. To paraphrase Wordsworth, Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive / But to be a young conservative was very heaven. The more so in the company of similarly situated young conservatives starting out in the worldfellow NJC interns in my class included John Fund, Martin Morse Wooster, and John Barnesunder the tutelage of one of the key figures in the conservative movement.

The first thing you learned about Stan Evans upon meeting him was his genuine warmth and casual friendliness. There was nothing standoffish or elitist about this highly accomplished, Phi Beta Kappa, Yale-educated man. In fact elitist is the last adjective youd ever attach to Stan Evans. In those days he seldom wore a conventional business suit or necktie, though he did own a tie that played the University of Indiana fight song. Stan preferred more casual attire, especially turtlenecks, going directly against the competitive sartorial conventions of Washington, which has the strictest dress code this side of Starfleet Academy. Daniel Oliver called Evans everymans Bill Buckley. One of his most famous quotes was his summary of how his thinking was the same as the farmers youd find in Seymour, Indiana. (See .)

If you only knew Stan Evans through his newspaper columns, radio commentaries, or books, you had no idea how darn funny he was. Had he not been a serious man, he could have had a career as a stand-up comic. He fully internalized Churchills axiom that a joke is a very serious thing. As with brand-name comics taking the stage, you smiled and suppressed a laugh before he began speaking. M. Stanton Evans had only to stand before a microphone to bring smiles to an expectant conservative audience, Lee Edwards recalls. The libertarian legal scholar Roger Pilon said, Whoever said conservatives were no fun didnt know Stan.

His writing style was workmanlike and direct and seldom included a hint of his sardonic wit. Partly this owes to his philosophy of journalism, which emphasized facts, objectivity, and direct-to-the-point declarative reporting over the idiosyncratic stylings of William F. Buckley Jr. or George Will. His fellow