Bill Kristol
Until Trump’s election, Bill Kristol had stood at the center of the conservative wing of the Republican Party. For decades he helped shaped debate with essays, speeches and television commentary. What makes Kristol unusual is that he had the courage to take on his former tribe when it went down a dark path. Rather than acquiesce to the new direction of his former political party, he organized opposition aimed at protecting democratic institutions and the rule of law.
Kristol’s conservative credentials are impressive. During the Reagan administration, he served as Chief of Staff to Attorney General Edwin Meese; in the George H.W. Administration he served as Chief of Staff to Vice President Dan Quayle. In the Clinton years, Kristol was an architect of Republican strategy opposing the administration’s health care and welfare initiatives. In 1995, he co-founded The Weekly Standard, an influential conservative magazine. In 2018, he co-founded Defending Democracy Together - devoting his time to preserving American democratic norms and institutions.
Most impressive is the critical role played in the struggle to preserve democracy by The Bulwark, originally a creation of Bill Kristol, Sarah Longwell, and Charles Sykes. The Bulwark monitors newsworthy developments and provides political analysis free from the constraints of tribal prejudices.
Kristol has long argued for strong U.S. alliances abroad and democratic solidarity internationally. He maintains that the world order established by the United States at the end of World War II contributed to the strengthening of democracies and developed a trade and economic order that brought millions out of poverty.
In recent years, Kristol has been indefatigable in his opposition to Trump’s policies, tactics, and style. He asserts that the “Trumpists” are modeling their actions on 1950’s vintage Southern segregationists and Soviet-bloc communists before them. He decries their mobilization of the executive branch and associated organizations behind crude propaganda, intimidation, and deplorable actions. Success in preserving American liberty against this assault, he believes, will only come from a massive bottom-up effort. Kristol stresses that only widespread citizen activism and resistance will make a difference because the elites and the establishment are unlikely to be of much use.
“We need citizens acting in many ways and at all levels. We need protests and organizing, but we also need more forms of resistance from within big organizations, sometimes publicly, sometimes privately, and yes, sometimes surreptitiously.”
WASHINGTON, DC – AUGUST 29, 2026