> Some seem to think that Donald Trump's lead in the polls and in the New Hampshire primary make him the most electable candidate, even if he often acts like an overgrown spoiled brat.
Secondly:
> opposition to criminal justice reform and particularly decarceration,
is a common position amongst blacks in America. Many civil rights advocates fought for tougher criminal sentencing in the 80s and 90s, including many in Congress, such as Charlie Rangel. In this regard, Sowell's position is more in line with the views of African Americans of a certain age, instead of his conservative beliefs (recall, many libertarians were against the war on drugs: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/praise-imp...)
> a spicy "Brown v. Board of Education was decided wrongly" take
Here is Sowell's opinion: http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/5160. As someone who himself went to a segregated school, I feel he is entitled to his opinion on whether or not the children who went there feel inferior, which is the reasoning behind Warren's majority opinion. That being said, Sowell is extremely pro-school-choice and generally against publicly run schools, so in Sowell's America schools would have been naturally desegregated due to market forces.
He opposed Trump in the primaries, like many conservatives, and supported him in the general, like most conservatives.
Supporting Trump isn't some weird mark of shame or anything; it's not my point that he's worth dismissing because he tolerates Donald Trump. Rather: he's worth dismissing because he has practically no interesting perspectives. He's a US-style right wing conservative in the most conventional possible sense. That doesn't make him a bad person, but it does make him a weird topic for an HN discussion.
Later
You expanded your comment (which is fine, so did I!) and I just want to say: I'm not so much interested in debating the merits of Sowell's positions --- which would make for a boring political argument --- so much as just recognizing that he has them, and that they're the standard-issue intellectual uniform of 1990s American conservativism.
If you want to rebut the point I'm making, I think the most effective way to do so would be to spot some position Sowell has taken that is far outside the mainstream of the Hoover Institution. Then we'd be discussing what makes Sowell interesting, rather than relitigating the most boring debate in American politics.
> He opposed Trump in the primaries, like many conservatives, and supported him in the general, like most conservatives.
I feel using the final election to say someone 'supports' a particular candidate is not really a good metric in the American voting system. Primaries are better since there is more policy choice.
Obviously, Sowell would support Trump over Hillary even if he didn't like Trump as a candidate, or even if he thought Trump was not the best candidate. Sowell is very conservative, and believes in school choice, free market healthcare, deregulation, etc. Clinton didn't want any of that. Like many people, Sowell's 'support' of Trump (I don't believe he ever even endorsed him specifically) in 2016 (and likely in 2020) is a vote against the other candidate.
> but it does make him a weird topic for an HN discussion.
Because they're same positions every mainstream conservative shares. They're the essence of what the guidelines refer to when they say "Off topic: most stories about politics".
Um no.. Sowell endorsed Ted Cruz in the primaries and wrote quite the scathing critique of Donald Trump:
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/02/16/traged...
In Sowell's own words:
> Some seem to think that Donald Trump's lead in the polls and in the New Hampshire primary make him the most electable candidate, even if he often acts like an overgrown spoiled brat.
Secondly:
> opposition to criminal justice reform and particularly decarceration,
is a common position amongst blacks in America. Many civil rights advocates fought for tougher criminal sentencing in the 80s and 90s, including many in Congress, such as Charlie Rangel. In this regard, Sowell's position is more in line with the views of African Americans of a certain age, instead of his conservative beliefs (recall, many libertarians were against the war on drugs: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/praise-imp...)
> a spicy "Brown v. Board of Education was decided wrongly" take
Here is Sowell's opinion: http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/5160. As someone who himself went to a segregated school, I feel he is entitled to his opinion on whether or not the children who went there feel inferior, which is the reasoning behind Warren's majority opinion. That being said, Sowell is extremely pro-school-choice and generally against publicly run schools, so in Sowell's America schools would have been naturally desegregated due to market forces.