NRA president lectures in Citadel seminar

CHARLESTON, SC – David Keene speaks on Buckley, Fusionism and Conservatism National Rifle Association President David Keene will deliver a lecture Wednesday, March 7, entitled William F. Buckley, Jr., Fusionism and the Three-Legged Stool of Conservatism.

Keene’s lecture is the eighth lecture in a cutting-edge new course being offered at The Citadel this spring called the Conservative Intellectual Tradition in America. Led by Mallory Factor, the John C. West Professor of International Politics and American Government, the class brings in national leaders each week, including former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese and former Reagan economic advisor Arthur Laffer. 

“David Keene has been a vital force in the conservative movement for more than four decades,” said Factor. “His zeal and his considerable influence will enliven the discussion on politics in America.”

Keene is an attorney, columnist and political activist. His involvement in politics began in the 1960s when he worked in the White House as a political assistant to Vice President Spiro Agnew and in Congress as executive assistant to Senator James L. Buckley. He served as chairman of the American Conservative Union from 1984 to 2011. 

The Conservative Intellectual Tradition in America is a survey of the political tradition of modern conservatism in the United States with some consideration of its roots in the broader Western political tradition, and specific attention is given to the development of the tradition in the 20th and 21st centuries.