Top 10 Conservative Columnists

With so many great conservative columnists and writers in the world today, it can be hard to know who to read. This list offers a mix of writers with different writing styles ranging from the serious to the humorous. Each of the famous conservative columnists here write on a number of important right wing issues, including economics and the free market, foreign policy, American politics, and current events. Feel free to bookmark this list to keep this mix of authors handy. Also be sure to check out our Top Conservative Movies and Top Conservative Websites lists for a deeper look into conservatism.

Jonah Goldberg

Jonah Goldberg speaking at CPAC in Washington D.C. on February 10, 2012.

 Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons

Jonah Goldberg is the founding editor of National Review Online, one of our top conservative website reads. He writes on contemporary political themes and focuses on politics and elections, often writing with a humorous tilt. A style sampling to expect: “Watching Bill Clinton act as Barack Obama’s “No. 1 surrogate”… is as exquisitely painful as watching a runaway monkey with a paintball gun at a museum.”

Mark Steyn

Regular listeners of the Rush Limbaugh radio show will be familiar with Mark Steyn, a regular fill-in host for the country’s most listened to talk show. A Canadian citizen who resides in the US, Steyn regularly opines on American exceptionalism, European statism, jihadism, and the Obama administration. Steyn also employs a unique writing style that makes his columns both informative and entertaining.

Andrew Stiles

The Washington Free Beacon columnist is one of the most entertaining reads on the right. While much of his work dives into the satire pool, he often just illustrates absurdity by being absurd.

Victor Davis Hanson

Victor Davis Hanson, a military historian, is one of the most prolific conservative writers today, often churning out multiple columns per week. His writings tend to focus on international themes, modern warfare, and the Obama presidency. Style Sampling: “ It is not that we need social networking and Internet searches more than food and fuel, but rather that we have the impression that cool zillionaires in flipflops are good while uncool ones in wingtips are quite bad.”

Michelle Malkin

One of the most successful new media entrepreneurs, Malkin pens a regular column that focuses on corruption within government, cronyism, illegal immigration, and general left-wing malfeasance. In 2012, she started twitchy.com, which also made the list of top conservative and tea party websites for 2012. Malkin also serves as a leading voice against the establishment within the Republican Party and enthusiastically promotes tea party candidates to battle entrenched moderate incumbents.

Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell is an American economist, professor, and widely-read political thinker. His writings focus on economics, racial politics, and education, often intertwining the three subjects. Sowell is also a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, a Stanford University-based conservative-libertarian think-tank focusing on free markets and personal freedom. Style Excerpt: “People who lack the skills to take on more prestigious jobs can either remain idle and live as parasites on others or take the jobs for which they are currently qualified, and then move up the ladder as they acquire more experience.”

Charles Krauthammer

Fox News staple and Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer offers some of the most analytical and insightful writings on politics. He regularly opines on the motives and political calculations of politicians and candidates, and whether or not their strategy will work. Krauthammer offers a contrast to many on this list by sticking mainly to a fact-based style of writing that is generally not combative with opposing ideologies.

Walter E. Williams

Dr. Walter E. Williams is an economics professor at George Mason University and, not surprisingly, focuses his writings on economic liberty. He also writes heavily on issues related to race and the liberal policies that continue to have negative effects on Black communities. In his economic pieces, Williams succinctly breaks down complicated economic positions into an easy-to-read format.

Ann Coulter

Though regularly dismissed as a rhetorical flamethrower and troublemaker, Ann Coulter delivers a weekly column that is one part substance and one part sarcastic delight. Her column typically covers the hottest topic of the week, no matter the subject, always with the goal of tweaking liberal ideology. Sure, Coulter’s columns and writing style might not be for everyone, but to you folks, we say: lighten up. Have a little fun while getting a few facts you probably haven’t heard yet.

John Stossel

John Stossel is probably the most high-profile libertarian-conservative in media today. He is a fierce advocate of economic and personal freedom and focuses on the absurdities and abuses of big government. Stossel is a former co-anchor of 20/20 and has his own self-titled show on Fox Business Network.

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Hawkins, Marcus. "Top 10 Conservative Columnists." ThoughtCo, Sep. 1, 2021, thoughtco.com/top-conservative-columnists-3303483. Hawkins, Marcus. (2021, September 1). Top 10 Conservative Columnists. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/top-conservative-columnists-3303483 Hawkins, Marcus. "Top 10 Conservative Columnists." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/top-conservative-columnists-3303483 (accessed March 29, 2024).