M. Stanton Evans, Prophet of Our Moment

The essay is adapted from "M. Stanton Evans: Conservative Wit, Apostle of Freedom," by Steven F. Hayward (Encounter, 400 pages, $33.99).

It is always worthy to celebrate the legacies of our heroes, and there is much more of this capacious man that we can learn from today. 

By Steven F. Hayward

March 11, 2022

Although M. Stanton Evans passed on only seven years ago, he is already being forgotten by the current generation of conservatives and is wholly unknown to a rising generation of young conservatives. This is a shame, not only because he deserves to be remembered on his merits alone, but because in many ways he anticipated both the conservative populism that finally expressed itself with the arrival of Donald Trump, and a deep antipathy toward our foreign and defense policy elites that is also a highly salient conservative disposition of today. Stan perceived both things more than 50 years ago, and can be said to have anticipated—and approved of—national conservatism before anyone else.

Evans was a remarkable figure who was in the middle of key moments of the conservative movement since shortly after he graduated from Yale in 1955. A working journalist for more than 40 years, he also found time to be the principal author of the Sharon Statement that marked the founding of the Young Americans for Freedom. He wrote the statement of the “Manhattan 12” that declared a “suspension” of conservative support for President Nixon in 1971. As chairman of the American Conservative Union in the mid-1970s, he founded the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that is now the veritable Woodstock for any ambitious conservative politician. 

His work with the American Conservative Union extended to organizing independent expenditures on behalf of Reagan’s campaign against Gerald Ford in 1976, which arguably rescued the campaign when it was on the brink of collapse. Jameson Campaigne, Jr. commented, “Without Stan Evans, it is quite likely there would have been no Ronald Reagan in 1980.” His personal fondness for Reagan, however, didn’t restrain him from bracing criticism of the Reagan Administration in his column, and it was Evans who was called upon in 1982 to write a collective statement of conservative leaders expressing dismay at compromises and shortcomings of the Reagan White House...........To Read More.....