Hi Roger,

Why would the editor of The New Criterion deign to write a column about the comments sections of an article in his journal? Why would the editor of The New Criterion publish an article and write an op-ed about someone as inconsequential as Ayn Rand? Why would the editor of The New Criterion appear so nervous, edgy and defensive? It’s unprecedented? It’s also a sign of the times. It’s a sign of the decline and fall of a once interesting journal.

Twenty years from now, historians will look back at the Daniels’ piece and your defense of it as signal moment when The New Criterion began its descent into irrelevance. The fact that you would write this essay–so full of haughty invective and so obviously a reflection of your panic–is symbolic of the decline and fall of the conservative intellectual establishment.

The nattering nabobs of the conservative establishment just don’t get it. What you’ve written demonstrates a radical disconnect between the conservative intellectual establishment (all unprincipled pragmatists at heart) and the millions of ordinary, everyday Americans who support the principles of individual rights, limited government, and capitalism. What you’ve written demonstrates that you have no principled arguments to challenge Ayn Rand, only infantile slurs. What you’ve written demonstrates the degree to which you and the conservative intellectual establishment have become unhinged by the growing influence of Ayn Rand on the Tea Party Movement. What you’ve demonstrated is just how irrelevant you and your friends have become to the new grassroots movement in defense of a free society.

Your time is up. A new generation of principled intellectuals is rising and ready to lead the movement to restore the original spirit of American liberty.

Au revoir, Roger.