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American conservatives are not a monolithic bloc. The initial post-New Deal conservative movement was made by welding together three different groups: traditio

American conservatives are not a monolithic bloc. The initial post-New Deal conservative movement was made by welding together three different groups: traditionalists (social conservatives), libertarians, and anti-communists (national security hawks). This was done mostly in the pages of The National Review, and the ideological bricolage was performed not by Buckley but by another editor, Frank S. Meyer. Check out the book: Kevin J. Smant, Principles and Heresies: Frank S. Meyer and the Shaping of the American Conservative Movement (2002). Today, business conservatives are differentiable from national security hawks who are differentiable from the Christian right who are in turn differentiable from the Tea Party. National security hawks concerned about China don't always win over business conservatives, and vice versa. But it's a mistake to think of "American conservatives" as a group lacking in internal political diversity.

rayiner 13y ago
I didn't say conservatives were a monolithic bloc, which is why I started my post with: "Many American conservatives..." That said, your description suggests brighter lines than exist in practice. I'd say the mainstream of American conservatives are both pro-business but also very concerned with maintaining American power, prosperity, influence, and culture. Heck, a lot of those people are quite religious, too. And that amalgam certainly defines the rhetoric of conservatives in the mainstream, especially as you drill down from national to state-level. The question for those people is: what happens when the interests of trans-national corporations are not aligned with the interests of maintaining American power, prosperity, influence, and culture? Historically, they haven't had to grapple with this question, because within the theory of their worldview, what was good for say IBM was good for America. A bigger, stronger IBM only meant more jobs for Americans and more returns for American shareholders. Trans-national corporations overturn these established assumptions.

rayiner 13y ago

I didn't say conservatives were a monolithic bloc, which is why I started my post with: "Many American conservatives..." That said, your description suggests brighter lines than exist in practice. I'd say the mainstream of American conservatives are both pro-business but also very concerned with maintaining American power, prosperity, influence, and culture. Heck, a lot of those people are quite religious, too. And that amalgam certainly defines the rhetoric of conservatives in the mainstream, especially as you drill down from national to state-level. The question for those people is: what happens when the interests of trans-national corporations are not aligned with the interests of maintaining American power, prosperity, influence, and culture? Historically, they haven't had to grapple with this question, because within the theory of their worldview, what was good for say IBM was good for America. A bigger, stronger IBM only meant more jobs for Americans and more returns for American shareholders. Trans-national corporations overturn these established assumptions.