Andrew Michael Sullivan (born August 10, 1963) is a prominent blogger, author, and political commentator. He is a British citizen.
Sullivan is a speaker at universities, colleges, and civic organizations in the United States, and 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.
Sullivan is known for his distinctive personal-political identity. He is gay, and considers himself to be a classical libertarian conservative who is often at odds with other conservatives in the U.S., a Roman Catholic, and a non-U.S. citizen who focuses on American political life. Sullivan has said that he would like to become a U.S. citizen but is barred because of his HIV-positive status.
Sullivan is sometimes considered a pioneer in political weblog journalism, since he was one of the first prominent political journalists in the United States to start his own personal blog. Sullivan wrote his blog for a year at Time Magazine, shifting on 1 February 2007 to the Atlantic Monthly, where it received approximately 40 million page views in the first year. He is the former editor of The New Republic and the author of five books.
Sullivan is a classical libertarian conservative who has argued that the Republican Party has abandoned true conservative principles. He views true conservatism as classical libertarian conservative, where economic control of a citizen’s daily life by the government is very limited. However, this style of conservatism differs from classic libertarianism in that some governmental control or regulation is acceptable; in order to preserve a functional society as it currently exists. Stances on social or cultural issues, under this style of conservatism, resemble the stances of classical libertarianism or modern U.S. liberalism. While stances on foreign policy are more hawkish than classic libertarianism, this style of conservatism differs from current neo-conservatism and arguably more closely resemble U.S. liberalism from the early 1930’s up until the late 1960’s. In the foreign policy sphere, Sullivan's foreign policy views have become somewhat less hawkish following the difficulties of the Iraq War.
After supporting George W. Bush in the 2000 Presidential election, he endorsed Senator John Kerry for President in 2004. In 2006, he supported the Democratic Party's takeover of Congress. His political philosophy includes a broad range of traditional conservative positions: He favors a flat tax, limited government, privatization of social security, and a strong military, and he opposes welfare state programs such as socialized medicine. However, on a number of controversial public issues, including same-sex marriage 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 more mixed; saying that he personally finds it immoral and favors overturning Roe v. Wade, but he can accept legalized abortions in the first trimester. Sullivan endorsed Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic Nomination in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election, and Rep. Ron Paul for the Republican nomination. For the general election Sullivan says he will wait and see whether to endorse Obama or Senator John McCain, though his post-primary election coverage has generally been highly favorable towards Obama.
(read less)Andrew Michael Sullivan (born August 10, 1963) is a prominent blogger, author, and political commentator. He is a British citizen.
Sullivan is a speaker at universities, colleges, and civic organizations in the United States, and 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.
Sullivan is known...
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