Paleoconservative

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Paleoconservative is a term that describes an academic or scholarly conservative who emphasizes religious heritage, national identity and sovereignty, opposition to illegal immigration, criticism of entitlement programs, the importance of demographics, and an anti-interventionist policy of Robert Taft.

Etymology

The term paleoconservative was first used by either Thomas Fleming or Paul Gottfried originally as a joke, with the "paleo" prefix meaning "old" in opposition to the "neo", or "new", conservatives. Even though the term was used by the paleoconservatives' enemies because they saw it as unflattering, it is now routinely used by both its proponents and its detractors.

Gottfried wrote in his entry to American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia: "Paleoconservative" becomes a conceptual and political counterpoint to "neoconservative" in "The Conservative Movement" by Thomas Fleming and Paul Gottfried (1988). Here the term no longer refers merely to conservative traditionalists of the 1950s and 1960s, e.g., Southern Agrarians, Catholic anticommunists associated with "National Review", and Taft Republicans who rallied to the Cold War. Instead, the term is now applied to embattled conservatives who opposed the growing influence of anticommunist New Deal Democrats on the Reagan presidency and on the conservative movement on the 1980s."

Philosophy

Paleoconservatism "is distinguished by certain philosophical presumptions that differ markedly from the presumptions of neocons and most modern conservatives." Unlike most conservatives today, paleoconservatives are against the Iraq War. They are highly critical of the Bush administration and the mainstream conservative movement. Paleoconservatism vocally distinguishes itself in its opposition to neoconservatism. However, what really sets them apart from other conservatives is much deeper than just policy: they generally reject the Enlightenment in whole or in part; they reject Lockean "contract theory" and the concept of "natural rights" outright. Dr. Donald Livingston, Professor of Philosophy at Emory University, has argued that natural rights are a "philosophical superstition," and that "Whatever they might be, natural rights are universal and apply to all men. Further, they are known by reason, independent of any inherited moral tradition... It follows, therefore, that the doctrine of natural rights must be in a condition of permanent hostility to all inherited moral traditions. Any such tradition, no matter how noble the goods of excellence cultivated in it, can always be seen as violating someone's natural rights under some interpretation or another."

In the March 2004 edition of Chronicles magazine, Samuel Francis defined paleoconservatism versus conservatism as: "What paleoconservatism tries to tell Americans is that the dominant forces in their society are no longer committed to conserving the traditions, institutions, and values that created and formed it, and, therefore, that those who are really conservative in any serious sense and wish to live under those traditions, institutions, and values need to oppose the dominant forces and form new ones."

Journalist Rod Dreher of the Dallas Morning News outlined what he called the "Crunchy Con Manifesto", which summarizes most paleoconservative principles:

• "We are conservatives who stand outside the conservative mainstream; therefore, we can see things that matter more clearly.
• Modern conservatism has become too focused on money, power, and the accumulation of stuff, and insufficiently concerned with the content of our individual and social character.
• Big business deserves as much skepticism as big government.
• Culture is more important than politics and economics.
• A conservatism that does not practice restraint, humility, and good stewardship—especially of the natural world—is not fundamentally conservative.
• Small, Local, Old, and Particular are almost always better than Big, Global, New, and Abstract.
• Beauty is more important than efficiency.
• The relentlessness of media-driven pop culture deadens our senses to authentic truth, beauty, and wisdom.
• We share Russell Kirk’s conviction that “the institution most essential to conserve is the family.”
• Politics and economics won’t save us; if our culture is to be saved at all, it will be by faithfully living by the Permanent Things, conserving these ancient moral truths in the choices we make in our everyday lives."

The leading publications of the paleoconservatives includes The American Conservative and Chronicles (magazine). Perhaps the most well known paleoconservative is Patrick J. Buchanan. Other paleoconservatives include Peter Brimelow, Thomas Fleming, the late Samuel Francis, Peter Hitchens, William S. Lind, Scott McConnell, Charley Reese, Paul Craig Roberts, Steve Sailer, and Clyde Wilson. The term has also been applied to the three key intellectuals in post-war conservatism: Russell Kirk, Richard Weaver, and Robert Nisbet.