What Happened to Conservatism?
In The Atlantic article How Trump Killed Conservatism (paywall), Peter Wehner argues that the MAGA movement, under Donald Trump’s leadership, has entirely destroyed the Republican Party’s traditional conservative values. He points to the alarming normalization of white-supremacist and anti-Semitic rhetoric among young GOP activists, as well as the crude, bitter infighting among older MAGA media personalities.
As a former Republican who served in three GOP administrations, Wehner asserts that Trump deliberately cultivated the ugliest passions within the party, replacing its foundation with cruelty, anger, and bigotry. Wehner contrasts the current MAGA ethos with classical conservatism - rooted in the philosophies of Edmund Burke and Michael Oakeshott - which prioritizes institutions, decency, moderation, and the taming of dark passions.
While classical conservatism seeks to defend what is best about society, Wehner argues that the MAGA movement is defined by grievance, destruction, and a revolutionary zeal to dismantle institutions. Ultimately, Wehner concludes that Trump made transgressiveness the core of the GOP, leaving true, principled conservatism “politically homeless.”
Personally, I have many loved ones who identify as conservative, and I hold many traditional conservative values myself. That is part of why the past decade has been so disorienting. I have struggled to reconcile the fact that so many people I respect and care about have decided that Donald Trump is something other than an abject failure of a human being. As the article argues, he does not stand for what I have always understood conservatism to mean. He is dishonest, vain, cruel, and wholly unfit for office.
I long for a day when politics is boring again. Instead, it has become a gruesome spectator sport, and Trump embodies the worst of it. Governing a country is serious work. It demands sacrifice, compromise, thoughtfulness, and, yes, compassion - qualities he is obviously incapable of.
The hardest thing for me is the anguish I feel toward the people I love who voted for him and still apparently support him. I should talk to them. I have tried, here and there. But honestly, after they voted for him again - even after January 6 - I cannot bring myself to do it.