The Making of a PaleoCon

Lately the Republican Party has described itself as conservative -- or at least their demogogues in the media have turned the ancient and honorable word "liberal" into something like an obscenity.

Needless to say, this has little or nothing to do with the tradition of conservative thought explored by Russell Kirk in 1953 and popularized to some degree by Senator Barry Goldwater a decade later.

As a result, many people who once called themselves conservative now call themselves paleoconservative. I am one of them.

The term itself came into general use during the Reagan years, in contrast to the neoconservatives. The paleoconservatives supported the distinguished Southern scholar M. E. Bradford for chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Reagan picked William Bennett, the candidate of Irving Kristol, who claimed and claims to be the leader of the neoconservatives. Paleoconservatives defended the magazine Chronicles against the bitter attacks of Kristol protege Richard John Neuhaus.

In domestic policy paleocons are libertarian, neocons, statist. Paleos celebrate the uniqueness of the American people, their history, and culture. Neos sneer at such parochialism, and celebrate America only in so far as it can be taken to represent the Enlightenment in arms. In foreign affairs paleos think that American power should be projected in the world only to to protect clearly and narrowly defined American interests. Neos want to subordinate the world to an American hegemony in which Israel has a leading role.

In 2007 I wrote several longish essays on my own education as a paleoconservative, and the legendary Taki was gracious enough to publish these along with a few others on his website. This lens is focused on my life as a paleocon as reflected there, with a few later remarks.

Enjoy your visit.