Melvin E. "Mel" Bradford was a conservative political commentator and professor of literature at the University of Dallas. Conservatism is a political philosophy that usually favors traditional values and strong foreign defense. ... The University of Dallas is a co-educational Roman Catholic university which, despite its name, is located in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas. ...

Bradford is seen as a leading figure of the paleoconservative wing of the conservative movement. He died just as the term paleo-conservative was being coined and preferred the term traditional conservative. In his preface to Reactionary Imperative he wrote "Reaction is a necessary term in the intellectual context we inhabit in the twentieth century because merely to conserve is sometime to perpetuate what is outrageous." The term paleoconservative (sometimes shortened to paleo or paleocon when the context is clear) refers to an American branch of conservative Old Right thought that is frequently at odds with the current of conservative thought as espoused by the Republican Party elite. ... The term paleoconservative (sometimes shortened to paleo or paleocon when the context is clear) refers to an American branch of conservative Old Right thought that is frequently at odds with the current of conservative thought as espoused by the Republican Party elite. ...

Bradford's conservativism was rooted within the heritage and traditions of the American South. Although from the Southwest, he saw himself as part of the greater Southern cultural milieu. He wrote his doctoral thesis under the Southern Agrarian and Fugitive Poets Donnald Davidson, and thus was admitted to the succession of this movement to recover the Southern tradition. Regional definitions vary from source to source. ...

He was first and foremost a literary scholar and a student of rhetoric. He was known in literary circles for his work on William Faulkner, where Bradford stressed the importance of the Southern setting and the primacy of community in understanding the action of the novels and stories. Outside of literature he wrote extensively on the subjects of history, literature, and culture. Bradford specialized in the history of the American founding and Southern history in the United States. Bradford also advocated the constitutional theory of strict constructionism. Rhetoric (from Greek , rhêtôr, orator, teacher) is generally understood to be the art or technique of persuasion through the use of oral or written language; however, this definition of rhetoric has been contested since rhetoric emerged as a field of study in Universities. ... William Cuthbert Faulkner (September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American novelist and poet whose works feature his native state of Mississippi. ... Strict constructionism is a philosophy of judicial interpretation and legal philosophy that limits judicial interpretation to the meanings of the actual words and phrases used in law, and not on other sources or inferences. ...

Bradford also frequently wrote for Chronicles magazine and Southern Partisan magazine. Chronicles is a U.S. monthly magazine published by the paleoconservative Rockford Institute. ... Southern Partisan is a controversial neo-confederate magazine. ...

NEH Nomination

In 1980, Bradford was initially tapped by President-elect Ronald Reagan for chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The selection met with intense objections from neo-conservative figures, centering primarily on Bradford's criticisms of President Abraham Lincoln. They circulated quotes of Bradford calling Lincoln "a dangerous man," and saying, "The image of Lincoln rose to be very dark" and "indeed almost sinister."^[1] Their choice, William Bennett replaced him on November 13, 1981.^[2] Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967–1975). ... The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 (Pub. ... Neoconservatism describes several distinct political ideologies which are considered new forms of conservatism. ... Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American politician elected from Illinois as the 16th President of the United States (1861 to 1865), and the first president from the Republican Party. ... William Bennett on NBCs Meet the Press William John Bennett (born July 31, 1943) served as United States Secretary of Education from 1985 to 1988. ...

A letter supporting Bradford’s nomination, sent to President Reagan during the controversy, was signed by John East, Jesse Helms, John Tower, Strom Thurmond, Orrin Hatch, Jeremiah Denton, Dan Quayle and James McClure and eight other Republican senators. "Russell Kirk, Jeffrey Hart, Bill Buckley, Gerhart Neimeyer, M. Stanton Evans, Andrew Lytle, Harry Jaffa, and dozens of others” were also named as supporters.^[3] Irving Kristol, Michael Joyce and William Simon were among Bennett's supporters.^[4] Over two decades after the fact, the rift over Bradford's NEH nomination continues to be a major point of contention between paleo- and neo-conservatives. Neoconservatism describes several distinct political ideologies which are considered new forms of conservatism. ...

Bibliography

• A Better Guide than Reason: Studies in the American Revolution (1979)
• Worthy Company: Brief Lives of the Framers of the Constitution (1982)
• Remembering Who We Are: Observations of a Southern Conservative (1985)
• The Reactionary Imperative: Essays Literary and Political (1989)
• From Eden to Babylon : The Social and Political Essays of Andrew Nelson Lytle (1990)
• Religion and the Framers: Biographical Evidence (1991)
• Original Intentions: On the making and ratification of the Constitution (1993)

Andrew Nelson Lytle (1902-December 12, 1995) was an American poet, dramatist, and professor of literature. ...

Sources

• A Defender of Southern Conservatism: M.E. Bradford and his Achievements (1999) by Clyde N. Wilson (ISBN 0-8262-1208-5)
• "Culture Clash on the Right" by David Frum, Wall Street Journal June 2, 1989

Clyde N. Wilson Clyde N. Wilson is a professor of history at the University of South Carolina, a paleoconservative political commentator, and an occasional contributor to the National Review. ...

References

1. ^ Briefing, The New York Times October 22, 1981
2. ^ Scholar Chosen as Humanities Chief, The New York Times November 14, 1981
3. ^ ”Bradford's Boosters” The Washington Post October 20, 1981
4. ^ “The Amazing Endowment Scramble” The Washington Post, December 13, 1981.