Toward a Conservatism of Hope: a review of Religious Freedom: A Conservative Primer by John D. Wilsey (Brady C. Graves, February 10, 2026, Modern Age)
Wilsey argues that “American conservatism since 1990 has demonstrated a turn towards Ottantottism,” a term Peter Viereck used for a reactionary disposition, and “while the Ottantott may see change as inherently bad and something to be resisted, the measured Burkean conservative—the conservative of American tradition—sees change, while inexorable, through the lens of caution.”
The modern perception of conservatism tends to be that it is prudish, stuffy, and roundly unimaginative. Wilsey laments that “the rightism of contemporary times is populist, obsessed with politics, and fueled by social-media-inspired outrage in a similar style as their leftist counterparts. The American Right has thus far failed to conserve American ideals, Western civilization and culture, and religious values and liberty.” Modern conservatism is so inflammatory, Wilsey argues, because it has abandoned its moorings.
When political expedience superseded transcendent virtue, conservatism morphed into political rightism. Wilsey proposes that conservatives should coalesce not around policy stances or political candidates but around a shared commitment to the transcendent as manifested through the good, the true, and the beautiful. When conservatism’s telos becomes political power, it loses its soul and its imagination and ceases to be conservatism. Echoing Burke, Kirk, and Weaver, Wilsey then concludes that “belief in the transcendent is primary in conservative thought.”