Welcome to a place where you can feel normal

This article was first published in the Right to the Point newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each week.
I once asked my oldest son what he liked most about Jordan Peterson, and he said something that has stuck with me. “He makes me feel normal,” he said.
That’s a hard feeling to come by in today’s culture, particularly if you lean right or straddle the center politically and culturally. The loudest voices are usually the most extreme, and if you spend any time on social media, you can come away thinking that you are the only person in the world who thinks the way you do. The internet can be a lonely place until you find the right communities.
The good news is that there’s more of us in the center or center-right space than you might think.
According to Pew Research Center, 32% of voters this past spring identified as Republican, 33% as Democrats and — significantly — 35% as “independents or something else.”
Which makes perfect sense, because few of us align perfectly with a political party. We might lean a little to the left on immigration and veer hard right on government spending, and have no opinion whatsoever about tariffs, and still consider ourselves center-right. That’s what happens when thoughtful people make decisions based on their principles, not rigid partisanship.
But too often, people on the right have been made to feel out of step politically and culturally with the prevailing extremes. And the echo chambers of social media can be uncomfortably loud and agenda-driven.
And so we introduce “Right to the Point,” a place where conservative-leaning folks can feel “normal,” like my son said, and get a concise roundup of center-right news and opinion, and also — if my editors allow — maybe have just a smidgeon of fun.
I’ll be your host, but hope you will be a participant in this community.
If we haven’t yet met, here’s what to know about me: I’ve been a journalist for most of the past four decades, the past nine years at Deseret News, with intermissions to care for children (I have four) and to work as a press secretary. Polls have repeatedly shown that most journalists identify as Democrats; I’m not one of them — I’ve been a conservative opinion writer for The Boston Globe and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, have written for National Review Online, and worked for a Republican attorney general in South Carolina. Also, I own two donkeys, which I sometimes refer to as “my pet Democrats.”
That said, my best friend and my mother are blue dog Democrats, and I’ve somehow managed to raise a couple of kids who are socialists, so I need the support of this community, too. Please send your thoughts and your ideas to me at [email protected]. Thank you for reading.
“Hitler getting a lot more meeting requests than I would’ve thought.”
— CNN pundit Scott Jennings, on news that MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski met with President-Elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago last week.
This week marks the release of two long anticipated books that will appeal to vastly different audiences: “Citizen” by former President Bill Clinton (Knopf, 464 pages) and “We Who Wrestle With God” by Jordan Peterson (Portfolio, 576 pages).
The authors have been dueling it out in presales for weeks in advance of the official publication date, Nov. 19. As of this writing, Peterson has a strong lead — he’s in 18th place among all books on Amazon, compared to Clinton at No. 325.
That will likely tighten. But it will be interesting to watch the bestseller lists as the holidays approach, and to see how The New York Times ranks them next week. I would promise to read both books so you don’t have to (and I already have Peterson’s in hand), but that may be a promise I can’t keep, given the combined 1,040 pages.
By the way, the paperback version of J.D. Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy” — published in 2016 — is also outperforming presales of Clinton’s “Citizen.” As is Melania Trump’s memoir, released in October. The red wave wasn’t just at the ballot box.
This Utah entertainer performed at Trump rallies — and paid the price.
This is a great read by Lee Benson about how Jason Hewlett came to be part of the Tucker Carlson tour, thanks in part to his proud dad.
Will the pollsters ever get it right?
Ann Selzer got all the pundits talking when she predicted that Iowa would go for Kamala Harris; it did not, and she has since retired after admitting “a big miss.” Renae Cowley and Frank Pignanelli consider the future of everyone else in the business.
Trump announces support of plans to eliminate gender ideology
Deseret contributor Valerie Hudson looks at what the incoming administration means for transgender medical treatment and the changes proposed to Title IX by the Biden administration.
It’s not too soon to start speculating about who Time magazine will name 2024’s Person of the Year. Last year, you may recall, it was Taylor Swift. It’s hard to imagine a universe in which the Person of the Year wouldn’t be Donald Trump, but it’s also hard to imagine that Time would go there. But it’s got to be either Trump or Elon Musk unless they go outside the U.S. in order to avoid those obvious choices. Disagree? Send me your prediction.
Finally, meet my pet Democrats, Foghorn and Jo-Jo. Yes, they almost always eat like this, face to face. It’s one of the most endearing things about donkeys.
Now it’s your turn. Show us your pets! Email me a photo of your animal companion, and tell me a little bit about them, for the chance to be featured in an upcoming newsletter. Preference given to elephants, of course.