Know Your Enemy

The first National Conservatism conference was convened at the Ritz Carlton in Washington D.C. two weeks ago. It was a coming out party for the rising nationalist wing of the conservative movement, with attendees laying the groundwork for a more intellectual version of Trumpism. Many mainstream conservatives were in attendance, along with paleoconservatives, figures from the religious right, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, and a popular Fox News host. In the era of Trump, mainstream conservatism is making room for hardcore nationalists, economic populists, illiberal theocrats, and others—this conference was a chance for them to find common ground.

Matt and Sam discuss the conference, what it means for the present and future of conservative politics, and how the left can combat the nationalists' appeal—which is, in many ways, much more powerful than that of the dying Reaganite consensus.

Here's what we read and watched:

Interested in the background reading we did for this episode? There's a lot of it. But we want to show our work and give you the chance to dig deeper. Below are the articles we referenced, read, or drew upon for our conversation on the illiberal right.

Primary Sources:

Against the Dead Consensus, First Things

Sohrab Ahmari, Against David French-ism, First Things

David French, What Sohrab Ahmari Gets Wrong, National Review

R.R. Reno, What Liberalism Lacks, First Things

Romanus Cessario, O.P., Non Possumus, First Things

Edmund Waldstein, O. Cist., Integralism in Three Sentences, The Josias

Ross Douthat, What are Conservatives Actually Debating?, New York Times

Rod Dreher, The Meaning of the Benedict Option, The American Conservative

Adrian Vermeule, Integration from Within, American Affairs

Adrian Vermeule, A Christian Strategy, First Things

Commentary:

Matthew Sitman, Liberalism and the Catholic Left (a review of Patrick Deneen's Why Liberalism Failed), Commonweal

Emma Green, Imagining Post-Trump Nationalism, The Atlantic

Jane Coaston, David French vs. Sohrab Ahmari, Explained, Vox

Damon Linker, How the Intellectual Right is Talking Itself into Tearing Down American Democracy, The Week

Sam Adler-Bell, With Census Decision, Trump's GOP Falters in March to White Minority Rule, The Intercept

Isaac Chotiner, Interview with Ross Douthat on the Crisis of the Conservative Coalition, New Yorker

Eric Levitz, Oregon Republicans Flee State to Block Action on Climate Change, New York

Patricia Mazzei, Florida Limits Ex-Felon Voting, Prompting a Lawsuit and Cries of ‘Poll Tax’, New York Times

Adam Liptak, Supreme Court Bars Challenges to Partisan Gerrymandering, New York Times

Special thanks to Will Epstein and The Downtown Boys for providing music for these two episodes. Check them out.

Ronald Reagan's televised "A Time for Choosing" speech in support of Barry Goldwater in 1964: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXBswFfh6AY

A choice excerpt:

Sam Tanenhaus's original 2009 essay in The New Republic, the basis for the book we're discussing today: https://newrepublic.com/article/61721/conservatism-dead

Whitaker Chambers's 1957 dismantling of Ayn Rand in the pages of National Review: https://www.nationalreview.com/2005/01/big-sister-watching-you-whittaker-chambers/

And here's Buckley's 1955 mission statement for National Review: https://www.nationalreview.com/1955/11/our-mission-statement-william-f-buckley-jr/

In episode two of KNOW YOUR ENEMY, Matt and Sam discuss economist Albert O. Hirschman's 1991 book The Rhetoric of Reaction: Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy. Along the way, they identify the persistent patterns in conservative rhetoric from Edmund Burke to Friedrich Hayek to Paul Ryan.

They finish off by examining some of the rhetorical tics of the progressive left, and Sam reminisces about the good old days when DSA was comprised exclusive of young nerds and old Jews.

Read Matt's Dissent essay, "Leaving Conservatism Behind"

Read Sam's essay about Jonah Goldberg's Suicide of the West, "The Remnant and the Restless Crowd"