The Republican Party Left Me: An “Independent Thinkers” Conversation with Bret Stephens

The New York Times columnist Bret Stephens is a conservative who’s clear-eyed and candid about the fact that the Republican Party broke with conservatism when it embraced Donald Trump. In 2024, he voted for Kamala Harris, all the while taking pointed issue with some of the Democratic Party’s priorities and its cultural estrangement from many Americans. He’s passionate about the protection of Jewish people, but a recent speech about their miscalculations in the fight against antisemitism generated fierce debate among them.

What’s it like to take positions that leave you outside the full embrace of any of today’s tidy ideological cliques and partisan tribes? And how many other Americans have similar experiences and a heterodox approach not easily accommodated by our country’s politics? Please join Frank Bruni, a Duke professor and Bret’s sparring partner in the popular Times feature “The Conversation,” for a robust discussion, part of Frank’s “Independent Thinkers” series, on Monday, March 30 at 6 pm in Penn Pavilion 1 on Duke’s campus.

Bret has been an Op-Ed Columnist for the Times since 2017. Before then he was a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, where he won the Pulitzer Prize in commentary, and before then the editor in chief of The Jerusalem Post. He has reported from all over the world. In addition to his writing for the Times, Bret is the editor in chief of Sapir, a quarterly journal of “ideas for a thriving Jewish future.” He is also on the board of advisers for the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics.

Frank teaches at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy as part of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy. He’s also a longtime writer for The New York Times and the author of five bestselling books, including, most recently, The Age of Grievance, about the sources of – and remedies for – America’s political divisions.

Frank’s “Independent Thinkers” conversations with public figures who defy reductive political labels are part of the Provost’s Initiative on Pluralism, Free Inquiry and Belonging.

For attendees needing parking accommodations, please use the Bryan Center Parking Garage located at 136 Science Drive, Durham, NC 27710.