Yesterday, a line from one of the principals at a new outfit dedicated to cultivating “a younger crop of ” set me off: “Old ideas are for old people,” ’s Vice President Jackson Hines said.

That sounds pretty foolish to me. If there is an ur-bad idea — the bad idea from which all other bad ideas spring — it’s the notion that the generations that came before us have nothing to teach us, no wisdom to offer.

Obviously, American Ascent disagrees. So, yesterday afternoon, the ’s Cabot Phillips invited me and the organization’s vice president of strategic communications, Bradley Devlin, onto his program for a debate. It was a spirited, productive conversation. I’m grateful to Devlin for joining and to Phillips for hosting: