Debating the Once and Future Conservatism (A thread) tws.io/2Pa40Qj
Distinctions are important here; it is unhealthy and intellectually sloppy to gloss over the fundamental differences between the conservatism of a Milton Friedman and the nationalist protectionism of a Steve Bannon...
... just as it is intellectually dishonest to confuse the progressivism of Adlai Stevenson with Che Guevera. Ben Sasse does not represent the same tradition as, say, Steve King. Nuance matters.
While it’s easy (and tempting) to define a political movement by its worst aspects, it bears noting that modern conservatism also gave rise to Charles Krauthammer, Peter Wehner, George Will, Bill Kristol, and Jeff Flake. In other words, it didn’t have to be this way....
Trump has more in common with populist demagogues like Father Charles Coughlin, George Wallace, and Pat Buchanan than with conservatives like Buckley or Ronald Reagan.
Until the last election conservatives had the good taste, sound judgement and the wisdom to reject and even marginalize those uglier voices on the right.
Perhaps the best way to think about Trump’s populist nativism is to see it as a recessive gene in conservatism, but one that had been kept in check for generations. That also suggests another tradition exists, even if it is now in eclipse.
