Paleoconservatism

From Freepedia

Conservatism
[edit]
Part of the Politics series

Currents

Christian Democracy
Liberal conservatism
Neoconservatism
Paleoconservatism
Social conservatism

National

American Conservatism
Canadian Conservatism

Parties

Christian Democrats Conservative parties

Ideas

Natural order

Figures

William F. Buckley, Jr.
Edmund Burke
Barry Goldwater
Joseph de Maistre
Prince Metternich
Leo Strauss

Paleoconservatism (sometimes shortened to paleo or paleocon when the context is clear) refers to an American branch of conservative Old Right thought that is frequently at odds with the current of conservative thought as espoused by the Republican Party elite. Paleoconservatives disagree with those whose beliefs they classify as neoconservative. Thus, paleoconservatives disagree with sentiments and ideology as expressed by in National Review and the Weekly Standard magazines. The term derives from the Greek root palaeo- meaning "ancient" or "old".

Contents

Beliefs

Paleoconservatives are most easily distinguishable from other conservatives in their emphatic opposition to illegal immigration, their strong opposition to affirmative action, and their general disapproval of U.S. intervention overseas (These issues do not exhaust the paleoconservative philosophy but merely represent distinctive stands that Paleocons take on hotly contested issues.) Many neoconservatives, by contrast, are more consensus-oriented on the issues of illegal immigration and affirmative action and strongly support internationalist foreign policy. Prominent "paleoconservatives" include Pat Buchanan, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, and Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo.

Many paleoconservatives identify themselves as "classical conservatives" and trace their philosophy to the Old Right Republicans of the interwar period who successfully kept America out of the League of Nations, cut down non-European immigration in 1924 and stood opposed to Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal proposals.

Some historians, such as Paul V. Murphy and Isaiah Berlin, see the paleoconservatives' intellectual ancestors as those anti-modern writers who defended hierarchy, localism, ultramontanism, monarchy and aristocracy. European precursors to paleoconservatives include Joseph de Maistre, Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and Pope Pius X. Likewise, the continental conservative Jacques Barzun has a mode of thought and criticism esteemed by many paleoconservatives. In America, the Southern Agrarians, Charles Lindbergh, Albert Jay Nock, and Russell Kirk, among others, articulated positions that have proved influential among contemporary paleoconservatives. The southern conservative thread of paleoconservatism embodying the statesmanship of nineteenth-century figures such as John Randolph of Roanoke, John Taylor of Caroline and John C. Calhoun has influenced many modern paleoconservatives, and found a modern expositor in Mel Bradford.

Paleoconservatives esteem the principles of subsidiarity and localism in recognizing that one must surely be an Ohioan, Texan or Virginian as they are an American. They embrace federalism within a framework of nationalism and are typically staunch supporters of states' rights. They are also more critical of the welfare state than the neoconservatives tend to be. They tend to be critical of overreaching federal power usurping state and local authority. Compared to neoconservatives they are more willing to question free trade, more critical of illegal immigration and tend to embrace a more isolationist foreign policy. During the Cold War many supported overseas committments as necessary to the defense of the United States. Many paleoconservatives supported NATO when it was a defensive organization despite its being an "entangling alliance" but dropped their support when NATO was used as a mechanism for intervention in Yugoslavia where they believed US interests were either marginal or non-existent. Paleoconservatives often esteem their America First principles as being commensurate with those of the Founding Fathers as embodied in the Neutrality Act. Perhaps a more appropriate organization of the between-wars era was For America. It should be noted that Taft and the isolationists upheld the principle that politics stops at the water's edge and supported World War II once the US was involved. John Quincy Adams avowed, "America does not go abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own."

Early forerunners to Paleoconservatives were Britons such as Enoch Powell who expressed reservations about the costs of integrating new immigrants into Great Britain and voiced opposition to antidiscrimination laws which applied to private citizens. In California, much sentiment against immigration arose in reaction to the waves of illegal immigration during the 1960s and 1970s; included in this group are individuals with Paleo tendencies, including former Congressmen William Dannemeyer and Bob Dornan.

Paleoconservatives in modern America

The phraseology "paleoconservative" ("old conservatism") was a rejoinder issued in the 1980s to differentiate itself from "neoconservatism". The rift is often traced back to a dispute over the director of the National Endowment for the Humanities by the incoming Reagan Administration. The preferred candidate was professor Mel Bradford and he was replaced after an effective media and lobbying effort (focusing on his dislike of Abraham Lincoln) by William Bennett. The trends preceding that pronounced schism go back as far as the 1950s.

The paleoconservatives view neoconservatives — or those whom they identify as such — as interlopers. This tends to be a one direction political fight as most neoconservatives do not identify themselves as such and focus their energy on opposing the liberal left, not the paleoconservative right. The paleoconservatives' view of the mainstream conservative movement is that of a self interested movement tied to special interest groups, and lacking the self confidence to defend its old ideas.

The best known contemporary paleoconservative is probably the commentator Patrick Buchanan, whose culture war speech is probably the most widely known paleoconservative critique. The main paleoconservative magazines are Chronicles Magazine, The American Conservative, and the John Birch Society's The New American. There are many followers of the late Murray Rothbard and Lew Rockwell who embrace paleolibertarianism, and being culturally conservative, they espouse many of the same themes of paleoconservatives, but are wholly committed to economic laissez-faire. Rep. Ron Paul and other members of the Liberty Committee frequently espouse a principled brand of classical republican statesmanship that reverberates with many paleocons. In many ways paleoconservatives consist of a disparate pool from all walks of life, including the blue-collar middle class to more affluent professionals, evangelical Christians and Roman Catholic traditionalists, libertarian individualists, Midwestern agrarians, Reagan Democrats, and southern conservatives.

Paleoconservatism has recently become the principal operating philosophy of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI). In its publications and conferences it often champions pre-WWII Old Right ideas, such as isolationism, limited government and cultural homogeneity. While they esteem free-market solutions they do not engage in the borderline market idolatry that characterizes so many libertarians and neoconservatism, and they are keen to recognize the limitations of market, and they promote various agrarian and distributist works.

Many American paleoconservatives see themselves as iconoclasts, breaking what they regard as liberal taboos. Three particular targets of their ire are the widely popular figures of Martin Luther King, Franklin Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. Paleoconservatives are in enmity with the Frankfurt School as well. Some paleo-conservative figures, especially the late Samuel Francis, have had close ties to allegedly racist groups such as the Council of Conservative Citizens, American Renaissance and the journal The Occidental Quarterly.

Since the end of the Cold War, the rift within the conservative movement has deepened with the ascent of the neoconservatives. Although the demarcation line is often indistinct and shifting, harsh words have of late been exchanged between David Frum of National Review and Patrick Buchanan of The American Conservative. Frum charged that paleocons, in their sometimes harsh criticism of President George W. Bush and the war on terror, have become unpatriotic supporters of America's enemies and, at times, anti-Semitic. Buchanan and others have retorted that "neocons" run the U.S. government in pursuit of global empire and for the benefit of Israel and multi-national corporations with whom they have close ties; in doing so, paleoconservatives charged, they violate conservative principles of sovereignty while creating new enemies and fomenting Anti-Americanism abroad.

Further reading

  • Francis, Samuel Beautiful Losers: Essays on the Failure of American Conservatism, 1993. ISBN 0826209769.
  • Gottfried, Paul The Conservative Movement, 1993. ISBN 0805797491.
  • Raimondo, Justin Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement, 1993. ISBN 1883959004.
  • Scotchie, Joseph The Paleoconservatives: New Voices of the Old Right, 1999. ISBN 1560004274.
  • Sunic, Tomislav Against Democracy and Equality: The European New Right, 1990. ISBN 0820412945.

Prominent paleoconservatives

Paleoconservative organizations

External links

Retrieved from "http://en.freepedia.org/Paleoconservatism.html"


Views
Personal tools
In other languages
Similar Links