Conservatives Don’t Conserve Anything

Saying “Conservatives don’t conserve anything” has become a cliche in modern American political discourse.

The evidence is overwhelming.

Much of this is the result of American conservatives believing the Republican Party has a spine or that as an organization is has any interest in fundamental American conservative principles.

Judging by their actions, they might as well claim to be the 19th century progressives they champion.

In other words, American “conservatism” generally died at Appomattox.

It could still be found among some Americans well into the 20th century, and indeed among a few politicos in the 21st, but most have been so brainwashed into believing that Lincoln or Douglass or some other reformer from the 1850s was a conservative that Republican dopes often parrot stupid talking points like “Democrats insisted on slavery while Republicans were the real conservatives who opposed slavery.”

You can thank Harry Jaffa for this insanity.

That is why I called these fools out last year in Chronicles and why I liked this piece in the same magazine from November 2021.

You need to read it, but if you want my position on its merits and arguments, I made it the basis of episode 602 of The Brion McClanahan Show.