Why Trumpism is the Logical Endpoint of Movement Conservatism

It was only a matter of time for organized conservatism to turn into radical reactionism

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

In recent years, I have talked about several major concerns I have with the political 'right', including the populist right contamination of libertarianism, the reactionary hijacking of anti-wokeism, the fact that the right calls itself conservative but does not really represent the insights of the philosophical cannon of conservatism, and the forced lumping of various non-left ideologies under one umbrella for the sake of political expediency, which is both intellectually unsound and also damages the viability of all left-critical ideologies. Today, I will look at the root cause of all these problems: the very existence of an organized 'conservatism'.

Organized conservatism, as we know it, has been a major force in the Western political landscape for at least half a century, if not longer. It is generally de-facto defined as being in opposition to progressive politics. This stems from the fact that it is represented by one political party in a two-party system (Republicans in America, Conservatives in Canada and the UK, L/NP Coalition in Australia and so on), standing opposite to the other party which represents the 'progressives'. The rise of 'movement conservatism' in the late 20th century in America, and the rise of culture war politics in the early 21st century, led to further reinforcement of this anti-progressive identity. These developments are essentially an adaptation to the incentives of running a political movement aimed at electoral success in a two-party system, and therefore a direct and inevitable consequence of how organized conservatism has existed in the past half-century.

However, what we need to remember is that organized conservatism is simply not how conservatism is supposed to be, according to the actual philosophical cannon of conservatism that runs all the way back to thinkers like Edmund Burke. Burke himself was actually quite an open-minded thinker for his time, and he was clearly not reactionary at all. Contrast this to the typical 'conservative' politician or influencer today, whose mode of operation is often simply to take the most reactionary stance possible towards any proposal for reform, in order to sink any prospect of reform, while also scoring a win over the opposite party. As I've said many times, it is actually the centrists and the classical liberals who most resemble the approach of Burke in today's political landscape, while those who self-identify as conservatives are often reactionaries, who see every progressive idea as evil and fallen, and would use any means available to stop and reverse progressive reform. The anti-free speech, anti-science, take no prisoners ways of the Trump administration is the practical manifestation of this worldview. Trump's radically reactionary approach to everything is thus the logical endpoint of the organized conservatism to reactionism pipeline.

In other words, organized conservatism, as it exists, has actually become a vehicle for radical reactionism rather than conservatism. As previously explored, this is a natural and inevitable consequence of its self-identification against progressive politics. Even if we are able to start another conservative movement anew, as long as it pits itself against the idea of progressive politics, it would inevitably end up the same way within two generations. This means that, if we want to revive true conservatism, and reject radical reactionism, we cannot do so within an organized movement that functionally identifies as anti-progressive. This is because true conservatism simply cannot be completely anti-progressive. Instead, it is only against radical forms of progress, particularly those rooted in abstract ideas over practical reality. Rather than opposing all forms of progress and change, conservatism directs the impulse for progress towards reform over deconstruction, and further guides reform towards pathways that are consistent with the long-standing values and traditions of a given society. Seen this way, true conservatism is more like a force to promote sound reforms, over misguided and destructive radicalism. Given that conservatism needs to be able to choose between good and bad progressive ideas, it simply cannot reject all progressive ideas by default. Political parties like the Republicans and the Conservatives, which do have plenty of incentive to reject and poison all progressive ideas reflexively, are thus not good vehicles to develop conservative ideas and practice conservative politics at all.

I maintain the need to continue to uphold a healthy and intellectually robust form of conservatism in society. The rise of various misguided and illiberal forms of radical activism in the 'woke' left during the 2010s is a very good example to demonstrate the necessity of conservative ideas, if only to provide a counter-argument against emotionally charged misguided radicalism. The many parallels between 2010s wokeism and the French Revolution going off the rails two centuries earlier, which was what Burke was reacting to when developing his ideas, demonstrate the constant and recurring need for a check on misguided radicalism. However, to turn the conservative impulse into a political movement, especially one that stands against organized progressivism in a two-party system, inevitably sends us down a pipeline to radical reactionism, thus turning conservatism into its opposite. This is why I believe the best way to practice conservatism is to integrate its insights into the way we think about reform and progress. We need to start thinking of conservatism not as an enemy of the progressive impulse, but rather a force to guide this impulse into practical and fruitful avenues, instead of impractical or destructive avenues.

---

TaraElla is a singer-songwriter and author, who is the author of the Progressive Conservative Manifesto, the Moral Libertarian Manifesto and the Moral Libertarian book series. She is also the author of her autobiography The TaraElla Story.