National Review: Current News and Politics, from a Conservative Standpoint

Do you like to read about news and politics? I certainly do, and there are a number of magazines and other periodicals that I am likely to reach for when a spare moment arises. Magazines that are political in scope are generally enjoyable, even when I don’t agree with the commentary inside. One example is National Review, a magazine dedicated to conservative thought.

Basic Contents of This Magazine:

National Review is issued bi- weekly and contains about 50 to 55 pages per issue. Some of the regular departments include:

Letters- These are letters to the editor.

For the Record- This department includes a quick wrap- up of some of the better political quotes made during the past couple of weeks.

The Week- Similar to “For the record” except this time, the department consists of short, one- paragraph summaries of political happenings.

Notes and Asides- Similar to Letters to the Editor, except these include responses.

Help!- Here, readers will find some amusing political cartoons.

Books, Arts, and Manners- Reviews of conservative books, with some poetry inserted between the columns.

The Long View- This is a collection of comments sent in from organizations or individuals in response to previous articles.

On the Right- This department covers a couple of pages and includes some commentary on usually three different topics.

Happy Warrior- This is the closer to each issue; another piece of commentary on a specific issue/topic.

In the remaining pages of each issue, National Review manages to squeeze in about seven featured articles; all political in nature and all focusing on one of several key topics of interest at the moment.

Cost to Subscribe:

National Review sells for a base subscription price of about $29.00, but the price varies from one on-line store to the next. The one- year price includes 24 issues (issued every two weeks with the exception of year end) and saves the subscriber about seventy percent off the cover price.

Magazine Website/Customer Service:

The web page for this magazine is nationalreview.com. In the web site, curious visitors can read some columns by some of the National Review staff, lookup classified ads, and find out about newly published books. Contacting customer service requires an e-mail or a call to 815-734-1232.

Final Thoughts:

National Review is an intelligent magazine that was founded back in 1955 by conservative commentator William F. Buckley, Jr. It has been going strong ever since, with a bi- weekly offering of articles that are timely, direct, and almost always one- sided in their defense of all things conservative.

This magazine starts off with Letters, For the Record, and The Week: Three departments that are intended to keep readers up to date on the latest happenings in the world of politics. The Week is my favorite among the three, because it includes a nice outline of the important issues/topics in politics that have surfaced over the past two weeks.

National Review is great for those who enjoy politics presented in an intellectual and respectable manner. Yes, most every article contained in National Review is written from a conservative standpoint and the positions taken are almost always in favor of the conservative view. This ranks National Review among the least balanced of all news/political magazines. You won’t find a sympathetic article about the Hillary Clinton run for the White House or a balanced article about socialized health care. No, what you read in National Review is 100 percent conservative and it rarely sways from its political course.

One criticism that has been leveled at National Review from conservatives, however, is its slightly altered direction. It often departs from its traditional conservative stand to one more inclined to support the neo- conservatism of George W. Bush and others like him. This is partially true, and I do get a little irritated with National Review’s tendency to support Bush, Cheney, and other neocons regardless of the facts; most important among them the fact that neocons support much larger government. This is something that Buckley and company traditionally abhorred, but yet they continue to support the Bush administration and its policies. I don’t know if the magazine has given in and accepted the current political climate as a fact of life and sided with the lesser of two evils for the time being or if there has been a slight shift of ideology at National Review. Whatever the reason, I can see why traditional conservatives are somewhat dismayed at National Review and its support of neocons and their followers.

The various departments and features in National Review are well- written and flawlessly edited. I like the intellectual angle offered by the articles, even though I don’t always agree with the position taken by the National Review staff, especially when they side with the bush administration. It would be nice to read a balanced article in National review that presents different sides of an issue, but balance isn’t part of the National Review style. That doesn’t mean the National Review is a rubber stamping operation that backs everything conservative in nature. One example is the book review section. If a book is essentially flawed in some way, National Review is quick to point this out and decline to recommend it, even if the book’s premise is conservative.

One other thing I like about National Review is the lack of advertisements. Ads cover only about 20 percent of the pages, and considering that each issue is only about 50 pages in length, that translates into only about ten pages of advertisements. National Reviews keeps the ads to a minimum. It is a reader’s magazine, with plenty of direct articles on current events packed into a small number of pages.

Overall, National Review is a very good political magazine that is devoted to conservative thought with some good, intellectual reading about politics and the political leaders who make the news on a weekly basis. Like I have repeated many times, I do not always agree with the positions taken by National Review. But I like the presentation, the respectable dialogue, and the intellectual angle of this magazine. It makes for some good, thoughtful reading when you’ve got some time on your hands and want a little mental stimulation on current events.