Spoiler: It's really about power.
Jonathan V. Last
THE BULWARK
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Every week I highlight three newsletters that are worth your time.
Most of what we do in Bulwark+ is only for our members, but this email will always be open to everyone. To get it each week, sign up for free here.
1. The UnPopulist
Aaron Ross Powell writes about a very strange thing we have going on within Conservatism Inc. right now: One faction views being asked to wear a KN-95 as tyranny. Another faction openly advocates for theocracy.
And yet these two factions overlap and view themselves as allies.
Here’s Powell:
Take Adrian Vermeule: He’s a Harvard law professor, Catholic integralist, piner for theocracy, and a leading intellectual of the post-liberal conservative turn. A few weeks ago, he got dragged on Twitter for setting out his wishlist for a post-liberal order. He was asked: What do you traditionalists and national conservatives want? His answer was quite simple:
. . . Most of the conversation about Vermeule’s demands focused on the constitutional issues it raised or how much authoritarianism the “etc etc” lacuna appeared to hide. However, the bigger issue is not the extremism of Vermeule’s brand of integralist conservatism. Rather, it lays bare the inherently illiberal currents in conservatism’s political project. . . .
Trump ushered in an era of “post-liberal” conservatism, whether that was his own crude and unfocused populism, or the more intellectual approach of national conservatism, or the fringe integralists. The idea that government should, above all, respect and protect individual and economic liberty, is increasingly sneered at by the American right, and that disdain for liberty is finding purchase, and, it seems, dominance, within the GOP establishment.
The clearest example is Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri), a highly educated and rather intellectual politician, who also happens to hate your freedom and does nothing to disguise that. He’s written and spoken at length, both before and during his political career, about the need to abandon liberalism in favor of a “common good” conservatism that is willing to exercise state power to advance the common good as he defines it.
It’s a good essay. You should read the whole thing.
Vermeule explains that he wants to use the power of the state to ban a bunch of things and dictate economic terms. How does this reconcile with his cliquemate and fellow integralist Chad Pecknold’s complaint that he must have the freedom to do whatever he likes and that private businesses should be required to continue to serve him, irrespective of his choices?
Every week I highlight three newsletters that are worth your time.
Most of what we do in Bulwark+ is only for our members, but this email will always be open to everyone. To get it each week, sign up for free here.
1. The UnPopulist
Aaron Ross Powell writes about a very strange thing we have going on within Conservatism Inc. right now: One faction views being asked to wear a KN-95 as tyranny. Another faction openly advocates for theocracy.
And yet these two factions overlap and view themselves as allies.
Here’s Powell:
Take Adrian Vermeule: He’s a Harvard law professor, Catholic integralist, piner for theocracy, and a leading intellectual of the post-liberal conservative turn. A few weeks ago, he got dragged on Twitter for setting out his wishlist for a post-liberal order. He was asked: What do you traditionalists and national conservatives want? His answer was quite simple:
. . . Most of the conversation about Vermeule’s demands focused on the constitutional issues it raised or how much authoritarianism the “etc etc” lacuna appeared to hide. However, the bigger issue is not the extremism of Vermeule’s brand of integralist conservatism. Rather, it lays bare the inherently illiberal currents in conservatism’s political project. . . .
Trump ushered in an era of “post-liberal” conservatism, whether that was his own crude and unfocused populism, or the more intellectual approach of national conservatism, or the fringe integralists. The idea that government should, above all, respect and protect individual and economic liberty, is increasingly sneered at by the American right, and that disdain for liberty is finding purchase, and, it seems, dominance, within the GOP establishment.
The clearest example is Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri), a highly educated and rather intellectual politician, who also happens to hate your freedom and does nothing to disguise that. He’s written and spoken at length, both before and during his political career, about the need to abandon liberalism in favor of a “common good” conservatism that is willing to exercise state power to advance the common good as he defines it.
It’s a good essay. You should read the whole thing.
Vermeule explains that he wants to use the power of the state to ban a bunch of things and dictate economic terms. How does this reconcile with his cliquemate and fellow integralist Chad Pecknold’s complaint that he must have the freedom to do whatever he likes and that private businesses should be required to continue to serve him, irrespective of his choices?
Chad Pecknold @ccpecknoldThese pediatricians in Alexandria, VA have seen all our children for over a decade…until we politely declined covid testing for our kids, and were informed that that “KidzDocs” would no longer receive us as patients. They love the power. Pediatrician In Alexandria, VA | The Kidz DocsThe Kidz Docs In Alexandria, VA Offers Sports Physicals, Child Immunizations, Well Child Care Exams, And More. Call Our Office To Make An Appointment Today!thekidzdocs.comJanuary 29th 202236 Retweets134 Likes
It’s the same dichotomy that has Ron DeSantis standing for the freedom rider Canadian truckers who are angry about vaccine mandates . . .
Ron DeSantis @GovRonDeSantis
February 1st 202213,891 Retweets74,866 Likes
Ron DeSantis @GovRonDeSantisIt is a fraud for @gofundme to commandeer $9M in donations sent to support truckers and give it to causes of their own choosing. I will work with @AGAshleyMoody to investigate these deceptive practices — these donors should be given a refund.February 5th 202223,865 Retweets106,581 Likes
. . . while also enacting his own mandates about what private employers or even local governments may or may not do with regard to COVID protocols.
Freedom for me, but not for thee.
The interesting part of the integralist / common-good conservatism posture is that it is nakedly anti-liberty. There is no pretending that they view liberty as a core value.
Yet the integralists see themselves as on the same side as the people bleating on and on about muh freedoms.
And the freedom lovers? The people who say they must never be required to wear a mask—but must be allowed to own as many guns as they want and say whatever they like on Twitter without consequence? They seem to think the common-good conservatives who want the power to micromanage large parts of the government and private society are on their side.
Which of these two groups is confused?
My guess is: Neither. They both know exactly what they’re about. And it has nothing to do with either “the common good” or “freedom.”
They all know which side they’re on and which side they’re against. And they will say whatever they have to, construct whatever framework is necessary in the moment, in order to hurt the out group.
This is why both sides—from integralist Adrian Vermuele to freedom-loving Tucker Carlson—are so invested in Viktor Orbán.
They don’t care that Orbán’s authoritarian regime mandates vaccines, heavily restricts gun ownership, and has no interest in free speech. Because they recognize that Orbán knows who his people are. Who his enemies are. And acts from there.
There is no conservative philosophical attachment to freedom or liberty any more than there is an integralist or populist love of the common good.
There is only power.
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