What the Heck is a Paleoconservative and Why You Should Care

Intellectual Conservative ^ | December 8, 2006 | Dan Phillips

[Luis Gonzalez]

Dan Phillips is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Mercer University School of Medicine in Macon, Georgia. He specializes in the treatment of alcohol and drug addiction and obsesses about politics on the side.

[Luis Gonzalez]

**PING**

[Bluegrass Conservative]

Interesting article. It sounds like I fall into a wide variety of the categories though. I wish there was some little test you could take to give you a better idea of where you really are.

[A. Pole]

[...] the three areas where paleos are most commonly recognized as differing from “regular conservatives.” They were early strong opponents of immigration, a position which is now becoming in vogue. They were skeptical of the benefits of free-trade, and favored a policy of “economic nationalism.” They were particularly weary of free-trade deals that they believed sacrificed our national sovereignty such as NAFTA and GATT. And of course, they opposed most foreign intervention.

You can see how paleoconservatism came to be largely defined by its positions on issues where it was at variance with the neocons [...]

Paleo bump.

[Always A Marine]

Excellent article. It is refreshing to read someone who deals in ideas and specifics instead of invective. Most of those who are so quick to call names probably don't understand what the labels mean to begin with. This was a refreshing change.

[proud_yank]

Ping

[proud_yank]

Most of those who are so quick to call names probably don't understand what the labels mean to begin with

LOL Such as when leftards and the press throw around the phrase 'All you neo-cons'.

I've interrupted their rants before, to simply ask them to define 'neo conservative', and have yet to get a rational answer.

[Wilhelm Tell]

That is a good article. There are a lot of differences between neocons, libertarians religious conservatives and paleoconservatives. Ronald Reagan did a good job of getting most of these groups together, however uneasily. I don't know if much good will happen until we find another Reagan. If we get involved in squabbles and lose sight of the fact that we are being threatened by new forms of communism and fascism then we are sunk.

[MosesKnows]

what the labels mean

Today the liberal and conservative labels take many forms that usually result in alignment with a particular political party. Simplistic definitions exist for each but they are rarely adequate.

A simplistic definition would be that conservatives favor smaller central government whilst liberals favor a larger central government.

Another simplistic definition would be that conservatives favor amending the words of the Constitution to bring about change whilst the liberals favor re-interpreting the words of the Constitution to bring about change.

I prefer the label of classical liberal. When the liberal label first appeared in American politics it simply meant a person who viewed an issue from all sides and then took their own decision regardless of the position of any political party.

[Chi-townChief]

Interesting although redundant; modern "conservatism/rightism" has always been a loose coalition of traditionalists, libertarians, and anti-communists. Getting agreement among conservatives is "herding wildcats" as someone once said. The lefties stay in goosestep much more effectively.

[CaliGirl-R]

Here is one:

http://www.moral-politics.com/

I think this is the one I took a couple of years ago. I forget where I landed. I'm going to take it again.

[outofstyle]

Ronald Reagan did a good job of getting most of these groups together

Jack Kemp called it "Big tent Conservatism." Now the big tent is often used as a pejorative. I think we need to get back to this. We need to be as inclusive as possible without selling out on small government, low taxes, states rights and strong defense.

[Bluegrass Conservative]

My results:

Your scored 2 on the Moral Order axis and -3.5 on the Moral Rules axis.

The following items best match your score:

1. System: Conservatism

2. Variation: Moderate Conservatism

3. Ideologies: Capital Republicanism

4. US Parties: Republican Party

5. Presidents: Richard Nixon (95.58%)

[A. Pole]

I got:

Variation: Moderate Authoritarianism
Ideologies: Social Republicanism
US Parties: No match.
Presidents: George H. Bush (77.79%)

Hmm.

[Torie]

Paleos generally reject the Enlightenment in whole or in part.

Interesting thought. He may be on to something. Although no Paleo, Dennis Prager lashed out at the Enlightenment on his radio show. It surprised me. Although some hate to admit it, the founding fathers founded this country on Enlightenment principles, rather right down the line.

[nickcarraway]

Paleoconservative used to mean one thing. In the last few years, the meaning has apparently changed to, "socialist."

[Torie]

Matches

The following items best match your score:

   1. System: Conservatism
   2. Variation: Moderate Conservatism, Moral Conservatism
   3. Ideologies: Capital Republicanism
   4. US Parties: Republican Party
   5. Presidents: George H. Bush (91.16%)
   6. 2004 Election Candidates: George W. Bush (86.02%), John Kerry (69.06%), Ralph Nader (53.86%) 

[ProCivitas]

"Paleos generally reject the Enlightenment in whole or in part. They reject Lockean “contract theory” and the concept of “natural rights” out right."

This just seems false. I don't think I've ever run across a paleoconservative who didn't acknowledge "natural rights" (perhaps God-given etc.), i.e. not merely posited and arbitrary to be dispensed as public employees wish. And as for John Locke's hypotheses about 'the social contract' etc. most paleoconservatives I think would find those ideas about ethically binding implied consent to be at least as tenable as anything to the contrary. Am I overlooking something about "Lockean contract theory"?

[Chi-townChief]

Your Score

Your scored 2 on the Moral Order axis and -3.5 on the Moral Rules axis.

Matches

The following items best match your score:

System: Conservatism
Variation: Moderate Conservatism
Ideologies: Capital Republicanism
US Parties: Republican Party
Presidents: Richard Nixon (95.58%)
2004 Election Candidates: George W. Bush (85.18%), John Kerry (76.93%), Ralph Nader (59.44%)
Statistics

Of the 261984 people who took the test:

0.5% had the same score as you.
69.7% were above you on the chart.
25% were below you on the chart.
14.3% were to your right on the chart.
77.4% were to your left on the chart.

[KC Burke]

Although some hate to admit it, the founding fathers founded this country on Enlightenment principles, rather right down the line.

I think you need some detail on the usage of the term "enlightenment" ol' chum.

When one, today, speaks of the enlightement in public discourse, it refers to one thing only: the French enlightement and its spin-offs. And, of course, that was not what the United States was founded upon.

First, I would suggest reading Chapter Four of The Constitution of Liberty by Hayek which makes the distinction between the French Enlightement and its theories of Liberty, Fraternity and Equality and the Scottish/English Enlightenment of a generation prior that the French were animated by in making a poor copy. I even have a thread on it linked on my page...the arguements are old but the whole chapter is there if you want to read the distinctions.

Gertrude Himmelfarb has actually written a good book about the THREE enlightement periods:
1.) The Scottish/English
2.) The American
3.) The French (and all its spin-offs down to Marx)

The entire Federalist -- Jeffersonian conflict of the first twenty years of the Republic was a fight about the values and worth of what led to the Terror: That Enlightenment.

It hallmarks were centralized power, rationalism, anti-religous zealotry and a diefication of the General Will.

Our rebellion was a revolution averted, not made. We kept our intitutions. We kept our heritage. We preserved what was good about our patrimony. No so the French.

Just one fine example would suffice. Did you know that Voltaire and the others of his ilk were non-democratic monarchists? They had no use for the common person what so ever.

Part of our confusion now is that leftists have foisted enlightenment values and sentiments (the French enlightement) on top of our American values.