How Conservative Nationalists Missed Their Moment

Instead of rallying around a mission to combat a pandemic that affects every American, we got another round of culture wars.

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Future historians of the American right are going to have a devil of a time figuring out what the hell happened as the second decade of the 21st century came to a close. But every day I become more convinced about at least one of their conclusions: The nationalists blew it.

Now, for those who don’t enjoy the nuances of conservative taxonomy, I should explain that I am using “nationalist” broadly, to include various camps on the right that think the U.S. has been too globalist and too reverential of the free market at the expense of social cohesion and a patriotic sense of national unity.

Nationalists are a diverse group, containing serious scholars like Notre Dame’s Patrick Deneen and Harvard Law School’s Adrian Vermeule. This group also includes sharp, ambitious politicians like Sens. Josh Hawley and Marco Rubio, insightful writers like New York Post op-ed editor Sohrab Ahmari, and the familiar retinue of MAGAnauts, America Firsters, rabble-rousers, Trump boosters and populist opportunists.

They don’t all agree with one another, and they don’t all go by the “nationalist” moniker. But as a general proposition, I think most start from faulty premises about the nature of nationalism or the benefits of President Trump’s embrace of it. I am proudly a pre-Trump conservative who thinks both Trump and the nationalist cause are not what conservatism needed.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Nick H

    "But Trump ... opted to embrace federalism and the free market"

    This is a good thing, right?

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      Steven Spelledright

      Sure. But it's difficult to credit Trump, who most often seems to act to serve his egomania. Luckily for us federalism and free-market fans, Trump's embrace--this time--coincided with his perceived self-interest.

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    Israel Bigelow

    This echoes much of your previous article on Rusty Reno's twitter meltdown last week. It is strange that a growing nationalist populist movement preaching against the free-market and that we need a strong central government pushing for the common good to not unify around masks and protecting the vulnerable. That being said, I'm glad that the First Things crowd has not seen this as an opportunity to "fundamentally transform" the country into pre-Enlightenment Europe in the same way the Democrats have (not that they have that power). Our delayed response, bureacratic ineptitude, and both parties shoving pork into legislation intended to "keep America on life support" should humble left and right wing socialists from thinking that big government is the tool to make people more virtuous. The government incompetently implementing a New New Deal isn't the answer, but stable leadership from the POTUS and civil debate between his supporters and detractors would benefit us a lot. Sadly, folks like Reno, Ahmari, and other post-liberals don't see a lot worth preserving in the American project or civility so they emulate Trumps behavior. They've adopted a similar mindset to the postmodern left that the country's days is numbered and that we need to replace it with something else. Have they missed their moment? Too early to tell so keep engaging their ideas in debate.

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  3. Barry Morrell

    Trump is not a conservative. We can stipulate that fact. There is no need to argue that point. Next subject.

    Trump's brand of nationalism is simply a recognition that the generosity and altruism that has characterised US foreign policy since WWII has to be curtailed sharply. At the end of the war, the US was rich, and the rest of the world was poor. The US is no longer that rich, and China is a real threat to replace the US as the world's top economic power. Trump's effort on trade deals around the world is to level the playing field. The US should no longer spot points to other countries, even friendly ones.

    China poses a much more serious threat to our country's well-being. Trump is the first President to acknowledge the threat.

    Trump has been superb in his judicial appointments. Conservatives, even Jonah, should be happy about Trump's performance in this most important role. For it alone, Trump deserves re-election.

    Trump is a street brawler - crude and not to the taste of the intelligentsia, but effective. Conservatives should be adamantly opposed to Obama, Clinton, Pelosi and their ilk. Well, so is Trump. The enemy of your enemy is your friend.

    Corruption has existed in the intelligence community, the FBI, the Justice Department, and the State Department. Trump has appointed a man of high integrity in Barr to root out the corruption. If Trump loses in November, there is no chance at all that that problem will be addressed. It is ironic that the immoral Trump has this task, but conservatives should squeeze their noses and support him.

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      scott

      Barry, for me, and I'm a center-right guy, judges aren't my biggest concern. I rarely think about those. I know a lot of folks are all about that, but it's just not my gig. So that doesn't really carry much weight for me.

      And I think the US has taken some really hard realist geopolitical actions in the past. The Marshall Plan was about facing off against the Soviets as much as it was about being altruistic. We have done some terrible things out there to continue our ascendance. And although I cringe when I consider those things sometimes, I see the value in those actions and I don't hold to this idea that the US is weak and poor. We leave the world to our rivals at our own peril. If the GOP is now under sway of that idea, I don't know how I can support that agenda on a national level (although I don't think the GOP, taken as a whole, actually wants to pursue that).

      Every time I start to think my preferences on policies and principles of governance are still in line with the GOP, I read something like you wrote. It's this idea that my countrymen are my enemy, or corruption is everywhere, or this culture war must be won lest we all become socialists that I just can't get on board with. Things just aren't as bad as either the GOP or the Democrats are trying to sell. Are there problems? Of course. But they are not existential threats. The rhetoric is far over the skis right now.

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      Logical

      If the entire charade and debauchery of Trump and Trumpism are for a few judicial appointments, the conservatives are desperately trying to justify a diaster of their own making. They are trying to find a silver lining in a nauseating stench.

      Sorry, I have bad news for you. If that entire rationale is about stacking the bench, they are in for a disappointment.

      1. If these judges are as honorable as claimed, I feel safe, as a liberal, that they wouldn't be breaking norms and precedences as hoped by the conservatives.
      2. If it's all about an ugly judicial war, Dems will some day will get cojones and appoint a dozen on the Supreme court in one swoop; all they need is a Dem version of McConnel and a POTUS. They will get their chance.

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      1. Barry Morrell

        The role of the Judiciary is to interpret guided by the Constitution, not to create law that the Legislature failed to enact.

        It is also not the role of a 9th Circuit district judge to issue nationwide injunctions.

        Upon his re-election and with some luck, Trump will have given us a Supreme Court with Kagen and eight, mostly young, conservatives. Oh happy days.

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          Logical

          Correction: Constitution is what five of nine (or 11 of 21, if things get out of control) say what it is, independent of what you and I argue till infinity

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          Logical

          Let's check after Nov. 3; happy dreams until then.

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      Pat Riot

      How has "generosity and altruism" characterized US foreign policy since WWII? To be clear, I wouldn't necessarily be a fan of those things, but unless you are talking about very small initiatives and occasional humanitarian missions, our large-scale FP has been as self-serving as we knew how to make it (i.e. if it occasionally achieved the opposite, that was a mistake).

      Also, the US is still quite rich, as we are still far and away the largest economy on Earth and our per-capital GDP is still three times that of China's.

      That said, our *only* chance against China is to get with our allies and gang up against them. Trump canceled work on the TPP which would have accomplished that. Biden is promising to bring that back. China would undoubtedly favor a Trump win in November, not a Biden win.

      Trump is indeed a street person because he is all talk and no action. His continuous praise of President Xi during the early months of the pandemic are case and point. That, and his trade sanctions that have accomplished absolutely nothing.

      As for corruption, it's hard to fathom how you could miss so much news from the last three years and not see corruption in Trump, but I can only guess it gets down to *values*. I personally trust the men and women who have spent their lives defending our country in the DOJ, FBI, CIA, and so on. Others trust the real estate shyster playboy known as Trump. To each his own I guess.

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      1. Barry Morrell

        Start with the Marshall Plan and work your way through tariff rates country-by-country.

        China entrusted the market-savvy Hunter Biden over Goldman Sachs with $1 billion plus for investments. The Chinese favour Trump over Biden? Pay attention.

        The corruption story of the last three years is how the Clinton Team invented Russia collusion, higher-ups in the Obama Administration worked to sabotage the incoming Trump Administration and the Pelosi House, working with Obama loyalists who continued in key positions after Trump took office and with the full cooperation of the MSM, thoroughly abused its impeachment power. Pay attention. Don't let hatred and dishonesty lead you astray.

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          Pat Riot

          What does Hunter Biden have to do with what Trump has done for China?

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            JohnF

            Depends on which conspiracy sites you've visited recently. The much-less-interesting story is that Hunter Biden is a part owner of a company that has an ownership interest in a joint venture that owns a small slice of a company that manages an investment portfolio on behalf of several large Chinese companies, who have ponied up a few billion dollars (that they ultimately want back) into a fund that will be prudently invested by the management company. The management company then earns a percentage of the returns on that portfolio in addition to a management fee. Most of that money is paid out to the portfolio managers and their staff. If there is anything left after that, those funds are distributed to the investors in the management company. As the owner of a slice of a slice of a slice, Hunter might be the recipient of a five-figure dividend in a really good year. According to his lawyers, however, he hasn't made anything to date.
            A few months ago, I spent some time digging into the actual numbers. There are various articles out there that report on Hunter's ownership of the company that participated in the joint venture and that joint ventures' investment in the management company. Barry Morrell, if you then want to go from there, you'll want to look at what a typical fund manager earns from managing a billion-dollar portfolio (hint: It's nowhere near a billion dollars).
            On the other hand, If you believe some of these conspiracy sites, Hunter flew to China with his Dad and left with a briefcase stuffed with a billion dollars. That's nowhere close to the truth, but it's easy to believe if you want to believe it.

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      td12212

      High Integrity? Barr ? Trump is effective ? I suppose in some twisted sort of way one could see that the 93K dead from covid19 (and counting) are by far, minorities, who tend to vote democrat which does make him effective at reducing the democratic vote. Of course one could say that about pol pot as well.

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    Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

    Trump blew it. Imagine if in February he had donned a mask, and asked his supporters to wear one. What if he had used the whatizname act to get started building PPE then. Imagine in march if his campaign sold $10 red MAGA masks, and people said--we're doing this to keep America great. It wouldn't have united the us, it would have been polarizing, but it would have taken masks off the able as a symbol of freedom.

    I'm Libertarian, and I wear a mask. Not because it is required (except at Menards where I live), but to show love and compassion for my family. My wife works with an urban clientele, so she's been exposed to this (She wear's a mask). I choose to wear a mask, not out of fear but out of compassion. Trump blew it. Dems would be running around trying to figure out how to be opposed to it without looking stupid.

    Trump blew it.

    I'll close by saying I am a B-School Prof, and have hired 9 tenure track faculty in the past 5 years (Department chair). Two were domestic, 7 were foreign. You know why? In our last search 85 applicants, 9 were US citizens (and 2 were children of Chinese immigrants). BTW, nationally, there were 150 new grads, and 300 job openings for tenure track. Do the math.

    You know what picking tomatoes and running regression analysis have in common? Neither are jobs Americans want to do (and we start in the 6 figures. In accounting it's about $200k, starting 9 month salary). Apparently we don't offer enough.

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      Pat Riot

      There's a reason why a large group of top Republican national security leaders basically s-canned their careers before the 2016 election in order to sign a letter opposing Trump: they predicted something like this would happen and thousands of Americans would die and our country's standing in the world would be permanently harmed...

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    Ray Salemi

    It seems to me that Trump and Team Sycophant was too incompetent to do anything BUT let the states run things while the Nationalists has no mechanism to contradict or criticize Trump.

    The result?

    Our present.

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    vc6770

    I like Pre-Trump Conservative as an identity, but would Pre-Tea Party Conservative be more accurate?

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      Pat Riot

      How about just, "Actual Conservative"? :-)

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  7. Mathew A

    Yes the whole thing is very weird to me. Suddenly a bunch of people I know that have a prepper mindset are against masks? How did this happen?

    As for me, while I'm not a huge Trump fan (though I certainly prefer him over Biden). But I'm very sympathetic to rethinking globalism. I think our supply chains have gotten too stretched, and we've definitely become WAY to dependent on a geopolitical rival.

    In particular large amounts of PPE production need to come back to the states, and we will need to subsidize them to keep spare capacity available for when the next pandemic happens (and there will be another one). Yes that will probably mean 5-10 billion a year, but that's really peanuts compared to what happened here.

    We also need to spend to fortify our grid from an EMP/Solar Flare.

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    Gene Godbold

    So I think this comment is a little sloppy:

    "A virus that threatens every American, but the old and vulnerable especially, should have been a boon to pro-life Catholic nationalists who champion the seamless garment of life, extol the virtues of respecting our elders and yearn for a right-wing New Deal. Mobilizing to their defense, even at a deep cost to the free market they deride, should have been an easy call. Instead, they’ve opted to take their lead from Trump and turn face masks into a culture war symbol, denouncing mask-wearing as “cowardly” obeisance to tyranny."

    JG, you got any particular names for these folks? I'm not Catholic, but have you seen any seamless garment types who have *actually* turned nationalist during this mess?

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    Boomer Bob

    “…Trump’s erratic and glandular governing style." Another of your word choices that bring me joy. :)

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    scott

    In my opinion, Trump isn't interested in power, per se, or ideology or nationalism or populism...unless his base is into that kind of thing. There are a lot of opinions out there about this stuff...and Trump agrees with all of them...as long as the conservative media, Inc. also agrees.

    It just looks like to me that he loves the idea of being President more than the power to accomplish things that comes with it. He likes the recognition and the attention. He likes being given Purple Hearts he didn't earn and having his head photoshopped on Rocky Balboa's body, or Rambo's body or some weird towel with him holding an RPG and an American flag or being photoshopped into the Independence Day movie speech. He likes being compared to king Cyrus or being called the Chosen One or having a bunch of preachers put their hands on him to pray. Not because he hopes God will favor him or even grant him wisdom. He likes it because it looks good. It plays well with his base.

    Fighting a pandemic? I don't know...that sounds a lot like work...can he get on TV to talk about it? Okay, he's on board. That didn't go so well? He's had enough and it's time this pandemic didn't exist anymore. Also, could he get that wonderdrug Laura Ingraham is talking about that prevents COVID? Might as well accuse a past president of being a criminal now that he's protected with hydroclorwhateverit'scalled...that's what Limbaugh is doing, so he'll go with it.

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      rlritt

      i've known for 20 years that Trump was an egotist. He's like the con man who goes to a drought stricken town and says give me your money and they do. He was a Democrat most of his life until they elected a black guy. He had many personal and professional scandals. I know he was on TV, but name recognition can't be the only qualification for the Presedency. Why did Republicans support him? Your right, maybe smoke filled back rooms are better for picking a candidate.

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      Aylene Wright

      He obviously sees his current gig as his latest Reality TV show of which he is the supposed head honcho, but not one where anything substantial is really on the line.

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