The Intellectual Vacuity of the National Conservatives

"National conservatism, the post-liberal movement that theorized the use of state power to wage right-wing culture war, stands historically triumphant. And yet, as the natcons met last week in downtown Washington to celebrate their conquest and stomp on the face of liberal democracy, they encountered a nettlesome problem. It was the same one that has popped up recurrently in right-wing nationalist movements over the centuries: what to do about the Jews."

"The big secret of intellectual right-wing authoritarianism is that it's just not very intellectual. At the conference, opposing views appeared only as straw men. With one exception-a panelist at a forum on higher education who attacked John Stuart Mill's classical argument for free speech-I heard zero attempts to articulate liberal ideas, even if just to rebut them. Likewise, with one major exception, I heard no attempts to define any limiting principles to the natcons' enthusiasm for crushing the opposition with any weapon available."

"This is not a small problem. Liberalism constitutes the idea that governments must be bound by neutral rules designed to protect the rights of the individual. The most charitable reading of the national-conservative point of view is that, because the left constitutes an existential danger to liberty and is itself illiberal, the right is entitled, indeed obligated, to destroy it using any means necessary."

National conservatism has achieved political ascendancy while grappling with a persistent historical dilemma about how to treat Jews. The movement convened a broad array of right-wing figures and emphasized using state power to wage a culture war against the left. Intellectual rigor was scarce: opposing views were presented as straw men and liberal principles received almost no defense. Few participants articulated limiting principles on the use of power, endorsing aggressive measures to crush ideological opponents. Liberalism is identified as rule-bound protection of individual rights, while national conservatives argue that the left's illiberal threat justifies any means. New boundaries around anti-Semitism remain unresolved.

Read at The Atlantic