IN THE HOT SEAT

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The Confluence of Classic Literature and the Mets

One of my favorite people at TheBlaze is the editor of our Books section, Ben Weingarten. Prior to

joining TheBlaze, Ben worked as a f inancial advisor specializing in bankruptcies and restructuring. He has contributed to many outlets, including the Breitbart sites and the Ludwig von Mises Institute. A graduate of Columbia University where he majored in economics-political science, Ben grew up in New Jersey and is a long-suffering Mets fan. For all of these reasons, we put him in the Hot Seat to kick off the New Year.

BY MIKE OPEKA

What are you reading now? (I felt it too personal to ask, “What’s on your night stand?”)

“Suicide of the West” by James Burnham.

“Putin’s Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia?” by Karen Dawisha.

“Men on Strike: Why Men Are Boycotting Marriage, Fa-therhood, and the American Dream—and Why It Matters” by Helen Smith.

“The Pity Party: A Mean-Spirited Diatribe Against Lib-eral Compassion” by William Voegeli.

In your learned opinion, what was the best book of 2014?

Assuming we’re going to exclude our boss’s titles here, I believe Dinesh D’Souza’s “America” was the best book of the year, not because I think he makes every argument flaw-lessly, though he always makes a compelling case, but because he systematically dismantled the leftist worldview as ex-plained by its leading propo-

nents, on the Left’s own terms. He also converted it into a powerful movie, a medium that conservatives have tradi-tionally not been successful in.

Honorable mention goes to Jason Riley’s fearless “Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make it Harder for Blacks to Succeed,” which you need to read along with Thomas Sow-ell’s “Black Rednecks and White Liberals.”

Three authors (living or dead) you would invite for a long dinner and discussion.

Aristotle for the philosophy.Winston Churchill for the

wisdom, courage and heart.Antonio Gramsci for the

strategy and how to defeat it.

As the “Books Editor” for TheBlaze, do you and Glenn agree on book choices? Have you ever disagreed with one of Glenn’s favorites?

Glenn and I share a very similar worldview, and not surprisingly a lot of the same loves of especially classic

books. But we do have differ-ent tastes in genre: Glenn loves to read fiction/thrillers, and while I appreciate a great novel and love [Showtime’s] “Home-land,” I prefer the more dry non-fiction stuff, or say, Rus-sian literature.

Note that I think Glenn’s love of stories is part of what makes him such a great and ef-fective storyteller himself. Sto-ries have a far greater impact on the culture than all the philosophical treatises in the world. Great ideas matter, but the packaging matters too.

You’re going to Las Vegas to put a bet on the 2016 political race. Who do you think ends up on the Democratic and GOP tickets?

Well, let me just preface this by saying that, if I’m going to Vegas, I’m going to play poker. Also, I’d urge readers to never put in print their political bets two years in advance of an election. That said, if I’m gam-bling today, I’m betting on the political establishment, and

praying that I am wrong: Hill-ary Clinton/Cory Booker ver-sus Jeb Bush/Susana Martinez.

My dream matchup that will never happen? Elizabeth Warren/Bernie Sanders versus Ted Cruz/Mike Lee. I’d be thrilled if half of each of those tickets worked out.

If I could eat only one food for the rest of my life, it would be …

… veal parmigiana.

TheBlaze readers and fans would be most surprised to learn that I ...

… consider a Democrat one of America’s great presi-dents. That president is Grover Cleveland.

If you could have just one su-perpower (strength, ability to fly, invisibility, etc.) to use for one hour each day, what would it be?

The ability to consistently throw a baseball over 100 mph. That way I could at the very least be a closer and help the Mets win a World Series.

You can save only three books to hand to future genera-tions—those three books would be:

The Bible.“The Iliad/Odyssey” by

Homer.“The Law” by Frédéric

Bastiat.

I never leave home without ... … my cell phone.

Will the Mets ever win a World Series in your lifetime?

Myself and my fellow Mets fans may be pessimistic mas-ochists, but we’re also ulti-mately dreamers, and I can confidently say that the ulti-mate dream will be fulfilled, and we will win a World Series in my lifetime. (I’ve got good genes—my great grandma lived to be 108.)