Thanks, Mariner! I have read Savage and of course the Federalist Papers, Friedman, etc. I’m not sure “language and culture” has anything to do with even Goldwater or Buckley’s vision of American conservatism, (you describe a sort of “nativism,”) but I am grateful for your reply. The danger of course to conservatism lies in protectionism as a philosophy: we must not be afraid to project military power and expand markets.
“I’m not sure “language and culture” has anything to do with even Goldwater or Buckley’s vision of American conservatism”
Certainly not Buckley. He was the father of Modern Conservative Orthodoxy. And it’s Modern Conservative Orthodoxy which destroyed the Republican Party. Free Trade, War and Open Borders. They integrated the Neoconservatives and didn’t foresee the outcome.
Goldwater was a different, unique sort of Western libertarian. A fusion of southwestern individualism and free markets, low taxes, small government.
But the paleoconservatives like Buchanan and Russell Kirk (and now, Trump) have always held borders, language and culture at the center. If you want to use the word “nativism”, just know it’s seen as a derisive term on the paleo right.
BTW: The Neocons suffered a total and complete defeat in the GOP primary in 2016. They have been rejected. Completely. They’ll have to go back to the natural home for Marxists, the Dim party.