Andrew Michael Sullivan (born August 10, 1963) is an English author, editor, political commentator and
blogger. He identifies as a
political conservative. He has focused on American political life.
Sullivan is a speaker at universities, colleges, and civic organizations in the United States. He has been a guest on national news and political commentary television shows in the United States and Europe. Born and raised in England, he has lived in the United States since 1984 and currently resides in Washington, D.C. and Provincetown, Massachusetts. He is an openly gay Catholic.
Sullivan is sometimes considered a pioneer in political weblog journalism, being one of the first prominent political journalists in the United States to start his own personal blog. He is a former editor of The New Republic and the author of five books.
Personal life
Sullivan was born in
South Godstone,
Surrey, England, to a
Roman Catholic family of Irish descent, and was brought up in the nearby town of
East Grinstead,
West Sussex. He was educated at
Reigate Grammar School, and studied at
Magdalen College, Oxford, where he took a first-class degree (B.A.) in modern history and modern languages. In his second year, he was elected president of the
Oxford Union, with substantial support from the members of the Winnie-the-Pooh Society, a university club he had founded in his first year. Sullivan held office in the club as Piglet.
Sullivan earned a Master in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, as well as a Ph.D. in government from Harvard, where he wrote his dissertation on the conservative British philosopher Michael Oakeshott. His adviser at Harvard University was political philosopher Harvey Mansfield.
Sullivan, in 2003, wrote a Salon article identifying himself as a member of the gay "bear community". On August 27, 2007, Sullivan married his partner Aaron Tone in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Sullivan has often expressed his desire to become a U.S. citizen, but was barred for many years from applying for citizenship because of his HIV-positive status. Following the statutory and administrative repeals of the HIV immigration ban in 2008 and 2009, respectively, Sullivan announced his intention to begin the process of becoming a permanent U.S. resident and citizen.
Politics
Sullivan describes himself as a conservative and is the author of The Conservative Soul. He supports a broad range of traditional conservative positions. He favors a
flat tax,
limited government, privatization of
social security, and a strong military, and opposes
welfare state programs. However, on a number of controversial public issues, including same-sex marriage, the conduct of torture in the US, and capital punishment, he takes a position typically shared by those on the
left of the U.S. political spectrum. His position on
abortion is mixed; he says that he personally finds it immoral and favors overturning
Roe v. Wade, but can accept legal abortions in the first trimester.
Sullivan supported G.W. Bush in the 2000 election. In 2004, he gave late endorsment to John Kerry, primarily as a vote against what he saw as severe problems with the Bush administration. In 2006, he supported the Democratic Party. Sullivan endorsed Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic Nomination in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election, and Rep. Ron Paul for the Republican nomination. Sullivan endorsed Obama for President on the eve of the election.
In January 2009, Tunku Varadarajan, Elisabeth Eaves and Hana R. Alberts, writing in Forbes magazine, ranked Sullivan #19 on a list of "The 25 Most Influential Liberals In The U.S. Media", writing that he "he clings unconvincingly to the 'conservative' label even after his fervent endorsement of Obama. His advocacy for gay marriage rights and his tendency to view virtually everything through a 'gay' prism puts him at odds with many on the right."
Sullivan rejected the "liberal" label, on the grounds that he supports a flat tax, rejects progressive taxation as unjust and counter-productive, is skeptical of universal healthcare and supports a free market in healthcare and pharmaceuticals, strongly supports "fighting a war against Jihadist terror", and therefore does not meet Forbes magazine's own criteria for a "liberal", which include support for progressive taxation and universal healthcare and "a certain queasiness about the war on terror." He argued that Forbes writers, including Tunku Varadarajan, whom he called "smart and decent", consider him a liberal because he is "openly and proudly gay" and because "conservatism has become a religious movement" while he does "not believe that any specific form of religion has a veto in determining who is or is not a political conservative in a secular society."
Editor and writer
In 1986, Sullivan began his career with
The New Republic magazine, serving as its editor from 1991 to 1996. In order to appease them, Sullivan included lengthy rebuttals from 19 writers and contributors. Sullivan has continued to speak approvingly of the research and arguments presented in
The Bell Curve: "the book... still holds up as one of the most insightful and careful of the last decade. The fact of human inequality and the subtle and complex differences between various manifestations of being human – gay, straight, male, female, black, Asian – is a subject worth exploring, period."
Sullivan began writing for The New York Times Magazine in 1998, but was fired by editor Adam Moss in 2002 under instructions from executive editor Howell Raines. Jack Shafer writes in Slate magazine that he asked Moss via e-mail to explain this decision, but that his e-mails went unanswered, adding that Sullivan was not fully forthcoming on the subject. Sullivan wrote on his blog that he was told that his presence at the Times made Raines "uncomfortable", but defended Raines's right to sack him. Sullivan suggested that Raines had fired him in response to his criticism of the Times on his blog, and acknowledged that he had expected that his criticisms would eventually anger Raines.
Religion
Sullivan identifies himself as a faithful Catholic while disagreeing with some aspects of the Vatican's position. In
Virtually Normal (ISBN 0-679-42382-6), he argues that the Bible forbids same-sex sexual activity only when it is linked to prostitution or pagan ritual. During an appearance on
Real Time with Bill Maher on September 19, 2008, Sullivan described himself as a "religious secularist", and challenged Maher on criticisms of religion and people of faith, saying, "To dismiss all religious people based on the actions of the most literalist dumb ones, I think is bigotry."
His views led him to have concerns about the election of Pope Benedict XVI. In Time Magazine for April 24, 2005 in an article entitled, "The Vicar of Orthodoxy", Sullivan stated his criticisms of the new pope. He expressed his view that the current pope is opposed to the modern world and women's rights, and deems gays and lesbians to be innately disposed to evil. He has, however, agreed with Benedict's assertion that reason is an integral element of faith.
Sullivan takes a moderate approach to religion; as such he vocally rejects fundamentalism of any kind, including both fundamentalist Christianity and Islam, and describes himself as a "dogged defender of pluralism and secularism". He defended religious moderates in a series of exchanges with atheist Sam Harris in which Harris maintained that religious moderates provide cover for fundamentalists and make it impossible for anyone to effectively oppose them.
In a blog entry on March 12, 2009, Sullivan summarised his faith journey to date in this way:
Perhaps the institution dearest to me, the Catholic church, greeted the emergence of gay people in a way that never truly reflected the compassion of Jesus or the good faith arguments many of us offered as a way forward. This was sad to me, but not life-changing. I know the Holy Spirit takes time, as James Alison reminds us. But then came the sex abuse crisis. Like many others, the truth about the evil in the heart of the church, and the cooptation and enabling of that evil, and the refusal to take real responsibility for the evil, simply left me gasping for air. I realize now that my Catholic identity never recovered, even if my faith endures in a far more modest and difficult way.
Blogging
In late 2000, Sullivan began his blog,
The Daily Dish. In the wake of
September 11, 2001, attacks, it became one of the most popular political blogs on the Internet. By the middle of 2003, it was receiving about 300,000 unique visits per month. Between starting his blog and ending his
New Republic editorship, Sullivan wrote two works on homosexuality, arguing for its social acceptance on libertarian grounds. His writing appears in a number of widely-read publications. He currently serves as a columnist for
The Sunday Times of London.
The core principles of Sullivan's blog have been the style of conservatism he views as traditional. This includes fiscal conservatism, limited government, and classic libertarianism on social issues. Sullivan opposes government involvement with respect to sexual and consensual matters between adults, such as the use of marijuana and prostitution. Sullivan believes recognition of same-sex marriage is a civil-rights issue but is willing to promote it on a state-by-state legislative federalism basis, rather than trying to judicially impose the change. Most of Sullivan's disputes with other conservatives have been over social issues, such as these, and the handling of postwar Iraq.
Because of the tone of Sulivan's coverage of Israel, journalist Lee Smith describes Sullivan as having segued from mainstream journalism to a new career as an online "Jew-baiter," as part of "the anti-Israel blogosphere."
Sullivan reluctantly decided to support John Kerry's presidential campaign, due to his dissatisfaction with the handling of the postwar situation in Iraq by the Bush administration, their views on gay rights, and their fiscal policy. Sullivan is a supporter of Arnold Schwarzenegger and other like-minded Republicans. Sullivan has blogged sympathetically about Republican candidate Ron Paul, endorsing him for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.
Sullivan gives out "awards" each year on various public statements that parody those of people the awards are named after. Throughout the year, "nominees" for these awards are mentioned in various blog posts. The readers of his blog vote the "winner" at the end of the year.
These awards include:
the Hugh Hewitt Award, introduced in June 2008 and named after a man Sullivan describes as an 'absurd partisan fanatic', is for the most egregious attempts to label 2008 Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as un-American, alien, treasonous, and far out of the mainstream of American life and politics.
the John Derbyshire Award is for egregious and outlandish comments on gays, women, and minorities.
the Paul Begala Award is for extreme liberal hyperbole.
the Michelle Malkin Award is named after blogger Michelle Malkin. It is for shrill, hyperbolic, divisive and intemperate right-wing rhetoric. (Ann Coulter is ineligible for this award so that, in Sullivan's own words, "Other people will have a chance.")
the Michael Moore Award is named after film-maker Michael Moore. It is for divisive, bitter and intemperate left-wing rhetoric.
the Matthew Yglesias Award is for writers, politicians, columnists or pundits who actually criticize their own side, make enemies among political allies, and generally risk something for the sake of saying what they believe.
the "Poseur Alert" is awarded for passages of prose that stand out for pretension, vanity and really bad writing designed to look like profundity.
the "Von Hoffman Award" is for stunningly wrong cultural, political and social predictions.
In February 2007, Sullivan took his blog from Time to the Atlantic Monthly magazine, where he had accepted an editorial post. Since then, his presence has increased traffic by 30% for Atlantic's website.
In 2009, The Daily Dish won The 2008 Weblog Award for Best Blog.
In April 2010, Sullivan was reported to be considering giving up his blog. However, Sullivan stated that he would continue blogging if he could obtain an extra staffer.
LGBT issues
Authors
Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen write in
After the Ball, a book published in 1989, that Sullivan complained in
The New Republic that American advertising was becoming "infected" with displays of "homosexual erotica and the milder forms of sadomasochism".
Sullivan has largely supported a classical liberal definition of gay rights, which he articulated in his book . In it, Sullivan examines and criticizes mainstream liberal, conservative, and the "prohibitionist" (far right) and "liberationist" (far left) political views on homosexuality. He argues for a policy that supports privacy rights and equal government treatment, but does not support private sector anti-discrimination laws.
Sullivan has been critical of civil unions, which he has dubbed "marriage lite." He has argued that civil unions will only serve to weaken the unique status of marriage, both for gays and lesbians and heterosexuals.
In the 2004 election, Sullivan criticized the Republican Party for what he saw as its political exploitation of a despised minority:
:I've been trying to think of what to say about what appears to be the enormous success the Republicans had in using gay couples' rights to gain critical votes in key states. In eight more states now, gay couples have no relationship rights at all. Their legal ability to visit a spouse in hospital, to pass on property, to have legal protections for their children has been gutted. If you are a gay couple living in Alabama, you know one thing: your family has no standing under the law; and it can and will be violated by strangers. I'm not surprised by this. When you put a tiny and despised minority up for a popular vote, the minority usually loses.
While he has long advocated same-sex marriage, Sullivan has drawn criticism for his 2006 dismissal of monogamy
:For me the interesting point came when Dan and I agreed that moderate hypocrisy—especially in marriages—is often the best policy. Momogamy (sic) is very hard for men, straight or gay, and if one partner falters occasionally (and I don't mean regularly), sometimes discretion is perfectly acceptable. You could see Jong bridle at the thought of such dishonesty. But I think the post-seventies generation—those of us who grew up while our parents were having a sexual revolution—both appreciate the gains for sexual and emotional freedom, while being a little more aware of their potential hazards.
Sullivan opposes hate crime laws, arguing that they undermine freedom of speech and equal protection. He also opposes the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, arguing that it will, "not make much of a difference" and stated that the "gay rights establishment" was wrong to oppose a version of the bill that did not include gender identity.
War on terror
Sullivan supported the
2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States, and was initially hawkish in the
war on terror, arguing that weakness would embolden terrorists. In an October 14, 2001 post, Sullivan announced that recent
anthrax attacks had sealed his support for war on Iraq, including the possible use of
nuclear weaponry by the United States.
However, Sullivan harshly criticized the Bush administration for its prosecution of the wars, especially regarding the numbers of troops, protection of munitions, and treatment of prisoners. Sullivan strongly opposes the use of torture against detainees in U.S. custody and has had heated disputes with Heather MacDonald and fellow British-American John Derbyshire, among others, on that issue. Though Sullivan believes that enemy combatants in the war on terror should not be given status as prisoners of war because "terrorists are not soldiers," he believes that the U.S. government must abide by the rules of war—in particular, Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions—when dealing with such detainees.
In recent times, Andrew Sullivan has changed his position on the Iraq war and described it as a mistake. On the October 27, 2006 edition of Real Time with Bill Maher, he described conservatives and Republicans who refused to admit they had been wrong to support the Iraq War as "cowards." On February 26, 2008 he wrote on his blog: "After 9/11, I was clearly blinded by fear of al Qaeda and deluded by the overwhelming military superiority of the US and the ease of democratic transitions in Eastern Europe into thinking we could simply fight our way to victory against Islamist terror. I wasn't alone. But I was surely wrong."
Sullivan authored an opinion piece featured as the cover article of the October 2009 edition of The Atlantic magazine ("Dear President Bush"). This piece called upon former President Bush to take personal responsibility for the incidents and practices of torture that occurred during his administration as part of the "War on Terror".
On Israel
In February 2009, Sullivan wrote that he could no longer take neo-conservatism seriously:
In January 2010, Sullivan blogged that he is "moving toward" the idea of "a direct American military imposition" of a two state solution on Israel, with NATO troops enforcing "the borders of the new states of Palestine and Israel". He commented, "I too am sick of the Israelis[...] I’m sick of having a great power like the US being dictated to". His post was criticized by Noah Pollak of Commentary, who referred to it as "crazy", "heady stuff" based on "hubris".
War on drugs
Sullivan has written blog entries criticizing the excesses of the
War on Drugs. He argued that studies showed alcohol is more dangerous than
cannabis, yet the former is legal and the latter is illegal. He gave examples purporting to show that the government has used
torture in the War on Drugs. Regarding the
cannabis prohibition, he wrote,
:For my part, I find the attempt to ban any naturally growing plant to be an attack on reality, and a denial of some of the most basic freedoms. I guess that's why today's GOP is so in favor of it.
On July 13, 2009, Sullivan was arrested within the Cape Cod National Seashore for possession of marijuana, but the case was dismissed the following month. This has led to accusations of preferential treatment.
Iran
Sullivan devoted a significant amount of blog space to covering the allegations of fraud and related protests after the
2009 Iranian presidential election. Francis Wilkinson of
The Week stated that Sullivan’s “coverage—and that journalism term takes on new meaning here—of the uprising in Iran was nothing short of extraordinary. ‘Revolutionary’ might be a better word.”
Sullivan was inspired by the Iranian people’s reactions to the election results and used his blog as a hub of information. He repeatedly spoke of the significance of the moment in history. Among them:
This is an immense story of human freedom in a critical part of the world. After Obama's election, it is the biggest event in world history this year. And letting these courageous protestors know that we are with them is vital. Telling the world of their integrity and bravery against the thuggery of these theocratic despots is God's work. The blogosphere can lead the way, but the MSM is catching on.
Because of the media blackout in Iran, Iranian Twitter accounts were a large source of information. Sullivan frequently quoted and linked to Nico Pitney of The Huffington Post.
Sarah Palin
Sullivan has been a vocal critic of former Alaska governor and possible
2012 presidential candidate Sarah Palin since
John McCain named her as his running mate in
2008. During an appearance on
Real Time with Bill Maher on September 18, 2008, Sullivan called Palin's nomination "a joke and a farce" and "something that should be dismissed out of hand as the most irresponsible act any candidate has ever made in the history of this country." He frequently accused John McCain of poor judgment in his selection and his campaign of inadequate vetting of her.
Sullivan contends that Palin is a habitual liar, which he has chronicled in a series entitled “The Odd Lies of Sarah Palin.” As of June 30, 2009, Sullivan has claimed that his blog had refuted 29 public statements made by Palin. Of Sullivan’s perceived “odd lies” of Palin, he states on his blog:
But I did learn of several new odd lies – in the same classic pattern of categorically denying things that are categorically and patently and verifiably true. This is not, as this blog noted in the campaign, the typical political lie, the Clintonian parsing of truth or lying when the truth cannot easily be discovered. It is the statement that it is night when it is clearly, by universal aggreement [sic], three o'clock in the afternoon.
Advertisements soliciting unprotected sex
In June 2001, Nation columnist Richard Kim wrote that Sullivan, despite being HIV positive, had posted anonymous advertisements for bareback sex on Barebackcity.com, a website that describes itself as the "one stop source for bareback sex". The American journalist and activist Michelangelo Signorile wrote in a Salon.com column that he had discussed the advertisements in an article in the New York gay publication LGNY, that Sullivan had confirmed that he had placed them, and that despite the criticism he had received for doing so, he considered his story ethical, on the grounds that Sullivan's statements that the AIDS crisis is over had been "devastating", prompting the media to reduce its coverage of the epidemic.
Cliff Rothman wrote in a June 2001 Salon.colum that it was a violation of Sullivan's privacy to publish information about his sex life, and that Sullivan's critics were attempting to punish him for his political views.
Journalist David Talbot wrote in an October 2001, Salon.com column that Sullivan's liberal gay critics considered him a hypocrite for "engaging in risky sexual practices after attacking President Clinton for his own incautious behavior."
Palin pregnancy rumor
On August 31, 2008, Sullivan posted on his "Daily Dish" blog about a wide-spread rumor circulating on the Internet that Palin faked her fifth pregnancy, the baby was actually her daughter's, and that this was done for political gain. Eventually, a photograph surfaced in which she appeared to be pregnant in the appropriate time period. After the photo became publicized, Sullivan admitted that she was most likely pregnant, but "not in the last year" (31 Aug/2008, the same day he cited his theory that various medical personnel conspired to hide the real mother of the child,) and has continued with questions about whether she actually gave birth to Trig.
The Politico has called him "a man possessed" in his support for the theory, noting that over a two-day span, he made more than two dozen Palin-related posts on his blog. The Wall Street Journal reported that according to people familiar with discussions among Palin's advisers, she considered a libel suit against him over the issue, but eventually decided against it.
In a post on February 3, 2010, Sullivan referred to Trig Palin as "the child of miraculous provenance" and rhetorically asked whether it was not "perfectly possible" that Sarah Palin had named him "Trig" to mock his medical condition, Down Syndrome, "Tri-g" being common medical slang for Trisomy G, another name for Down Syndrome. According to New York Daily News, the name "Trig" "is Norse for 'true' or 'strength'".
Accusations of bias against Israel and Jews
On February 8, 2010, Leon Wieseltier wrote an article for The New Republic, suggesting that his former friend and colleague Sullivan has a "venomous hostility toward Israel and Jews." He wrote that Sullivan is a "Buchanan of the left", and someone who is "either a bigot, or just moronically insensitive" about Jews. A number of commentators and bloggers, including Jonathan Chait, Brad DeLong, David Frum, Glenn Greenwald, Ron Kampeas, Glenn Reynolds, and Matthew Yglesias wrote about the issue. While many defended Sullivan, others at least partly supported Wieseltier. On the opposite sides of the political spectrum, Joe Klein wrote that "[Wieseltier] owes Andrew an apology", while Sullivan's colleague at The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, wrote, "I agree with Andrew that he's not anti-Semitic," while going on to add that Sullivan's "analysis of the Middle East crisis is consistently and rather wildly one-sided." In a "reply to Andrew Sullivan’s reply," Wieseltier writes that "I did not propose that [Sullivan] is an anti-Semite," and further expands on his accusations.
Works
Sullivan, Andrew (1995). . Knopf. ISBN 0-679-42382-6.
Sullivan, Andrew (1997) (as editor). Same-Sex Marriage Pro & Con: A Reader. Vintage. ISBN 0-679-77637-0. First edition
Sullivan, Andrew (1998). Love Undetectable: Notes on Friendship, Sex and Survival. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-45119-6.
Sullivan, Andrew (2004) (as editor). Same-Sex Marriage Pro & Con: A Reader. Vintage. ISBN 1-4000-7866-0. Second edition
Sullivan, Andrew (2006). The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How to Get It Back. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-018877-4.
Sullivan, Andrew (2007). Intimations Pursued: The Voice of Practice in the Conversation of Michael Oakeshott. Imprint Academic. ISBN 978-0907845287
Sullivan, Andrew (2009) (as editor). The View From Your Window: The world as seen by readers of one blog. Blurb.com
See also
Obama Republican
References
External links
Andrew Sullivan's blog, The Daily Dish
Andrew Sullivan's own biographical statement
Andrew Sullivan, Why I Blog, The Atlantic, 2008-10-20
LGBT Catholics
Category:Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford
Category:The Atlantic (magazine) people
Category:English bloggers
Category:English columnists
Category:English expatriates in the United States
Category:English magazine editors
Category:English political writers
Category:English people of Irish descent
Category:English Roman Catholics
Category:HIV-positive people
Category:John F. Kennedy School of Government alumni
Category:LGBT Christians
Category:LGBT journalists
Category:LGBT rights activists from the United Kingdom
Category:LGBT writers from the United Kingdom
Category:New Republic people
Category:Old Reigatians
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Category:The Sunday Times people
Category:Writers from Washington, D.C.
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Category:Living people
Category:Online journalists
Category:People from Provincetown, Massachusetts
