The terms neoconservative and paleoconservative were coined following the outbreak of the
Vietnam War and a divide in American conservatism between the
interventionists and the
isolationists. Those in favor of the Vietnam War then became known as the neoconservatives (interventionists), as they marked a decisive split from the nationalist-isolationism that the traditionalist conservatives (isolationists) had subscribed to up until this point.[6][7][8] Paleoconservatives press for restrictions on immigration, a rollback of multicultural programs and large-scale demographic change, the
decentralization of federal policy, the restoration of
controls upon free trade, a greater emphasis upon
economic nationalism and non-interventionism in the conduct of American foreign policy.[9]
Historian George Hawley states that although influenced by paleoconservatism,
Donald Trump is not a paleoconservative, but rather a right-wing nationalist and populist.[10] Hawley also argued in 2017 that paleoconservatism was an exhausted force in American politics,[11] but that for a time it represented the most serious right-wing threat to the mainstream
conservative movement.[11] Regardless of how Trump himself is categorized, others regard the movement known as
Trumpism as supported by,[12] if not a rebranding of, paleoconservatism. From this view, the followers of the old right did not fade away so easily and continue to have significant influence in the Republican Party and the entire country.[13]
Terminology
The prefix paleo derives from the
Greek root
παλαιός (palaiós), meaning "ancient" or "old". It is somewhat
tongue-in-cheek and refers to the paleoconservatives' claim to represent a more historic, authentic conservative tradition than that found in
neoconservatism. Adherents of paleoconservatism often describe themselves simply as "paleo".
Rich Lowry of National Review claims the prefix "is designed to obscure the fact that it is a recent ideological creation of post-Cold War politics".[14]
Samuel T. Francis,
Thomas Fleming, and some other paleoconservatives de-emphasized the conservative part of the paleoconservative label, saying that they do not want the status quo preserved.[15][16] Fleming and
Paul Gottfried called such thinking "stupid tenacity" and described it as "a series of trenches dug in defense of last year's revolution".[17] Francis defined authentic conservatism as "the survival and enhancement of a particular people and its institutionalized cultural expressions".[18][19]
Paleoconservatism differs from neoconservatism in opposing
free trade and promoting
republicanism. Paleoconservatives see neoconservatives as
imperialists and themselves as defenders of the republic.[21][22]
Paleoconservatives believe that tradition is a form of reason, rather than a competing force.
Mel Bradford wrote that certain questions are settled before any serious deliberation concerning a preferred course of conduct may begin. This ethic is based in a "culture of families, linked by friendship, common enemies, and common projects",[24] so a good conservative keeps "a clear sense of what Southern grandmothers have always meant in admonishing children, 'we don't do that'".[25]
Pat Buchanan argues that a good politician must "defend the moral order rooted in the
Old and
New Testament and
Natural Law"—and that "the deepest problems in our society are not economic or political, but moral".[26]
Southern traditionalism
According to historian Paul V. Murphy, paleoconservatives developed a focus on
localism and
states' rights. From the mid-1980s onward, Chronicles promoted a Southern traditionalist worldview focused on national identity, regional particularity, and skepticism of abstract theory and centralized power.[27] According to Hague, Beirich, and Sebesta (2009), the
antimodernism of the paleoconservative movement defined the
neo-Confederate movement of the 1980s and 1990s. During this time, notable paleoconservatives argued that
desegregation, welfare, tolerance of
gay rights, and
church-state separation had been damaging to local communities, and that these issues had been imposed by federal legislation and think tanks. Paleoconservatives also claimed the
Southern Agrarians as forebears in this regard.[28]
^Morris, Edwin Kent (December 24, 2018). "Inversion, Paradox, and Liberal Disintegration: Towards a Conceptual Framework of Trumpism". New Political Science. 41 (1): 21.
doi:
10.1080/07393148.2018.1558037.
S2CID149978398.
^Bradford, M. E. (1990). The Reactionary Imperative: Essays Literary and Political. Peru, Illinois: Sherwood Sugden. p. 129. Quoted in
Murphy 2001, p. 233.
^Bradford, M. E. (1990). The Reactionary Imperative: Essays Literary and Political. Peru, Illinois: Sherwood Sugden. pp. 119, 121. Quoted in
Murphy 2001, p. 233.
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