June 7, 2023
NATIVISM IS THE GATEWAY DRUG:
America Doesn't Need Regime Change: A review of Regime Change: Toward a Postliberal Future by Patrick J. Deneen (Damon Linker, 6 Jun 2023, Quillette)
In place of various forms of liberalism, Deneen follows Harvard Law School's Adrian Vermeule in advocating for an alternative called "common-good conservatism." (Vermeule calls his legal variant of the theory "common-good constitutionalism," but the two lines of argument follow from nearly identical premises.) This form of postliberal politics combines economic protectionism, industrial policy, and tough restrictions on immigration; support for the social safety net and private-sector unions; a defense of "traditional" marriage over alternative forms of family life, including a rejection of identity politics, ideas about gender fluidity, and the "sexualization of modern culture"; funding for the kind of pro-natalist policies Viktor Orbán has pioneered in Hungary to encourage family formation and increased birthrates; and stringent opposition to cosmopolitanism and globalism in both its economic and cultural dimensions.
The Right's adoption of the Left's Identity politics is entirely natural for reactionaries but still hilarious. The entirety of their project is just a matter of trying to protect the status of white men from free market pressures.
Posted by Orrin Judd at June 7, 2023 12:00 AM