The Right

February 28, 2022
Continetti (The Persecution of Sarah Palin), the founding editor of the Washington Free Beacon, traces the evolution of American conservativism from Warren Harding to Donald Trump in this informative if one-sided history. Identifying the driving force of conservatism as the “endless competition between populism and elitism,” Continetti contends that Trump’s politics draws on the “Americanism” of 1920s Republicans including Harding, who appealed to “our onward, normal way,” rejected internationalism, cut taxes, and championed traditional morality. Trump’s innovation was to add to these traditional conservative viewpoints the dark populist vision of Joseph McCarthy, George Wallace, and Pat Buchanan, according to Continetti. In doing so, he argues, Trump collapsed the creative tension between elitism and populism and tore down the safeguards that have historically excluded conspiracy mongers and other fringe elements. Emphasizing that populism has always been an essential element of American conservatism, Continetti recasts Ronald Reagan’s free market policies and aggressive foreign policy as the high-water mark of “Cold War conservatism” and delves into libertarianism, neoconservatism, and other strands of the movement. Though Continetti overstates Trump’s successes and dubiously claims that 1960s leftists “celebrated” the violence of the decade as “just, necessary, and beneficial,” this is a worthy analysis of how free market policies and nativist populism make for a potent political mix.

Starred review from March 1, 2022
Sturdy account of the many divisions within modern conservatism, divisions that have been growing over a century. There are many forms of conservatism, writes American Enterprise Institute fellow Continetti, but there are essentially two large camps: populist and elitist, which often battle and occasionally cooperate. "Is the American Right the party of insiders or outsiders? Is the Right the elites--the men and women in charge of America's political, economic, social, and cultural institutions--or is it the people?" he asks. "And is the Right even able to answer such a question?" A century ago, the Harding administration devalued conservatism with the same disregard for the law and ineptitude during a pandemic that characterized the Trump administration, but both presidents were essentially self-serving rather than ideological. True conservatism, writes the author, safeguards the classical liberal ideals of self-government. "The preservation of the American idea of liberty and the familial, communal, religious, and political institutions that incarnate and sustain it--that is what makes American conservatism distinctly American," he writes, memorably. Trump instead converted the GOP from the intellectually grounded political opposition of the time of Goldwater and Buckley into a government-hating mob stocked with legions of antisemites and White supremacists. Indeed, Continetti writes, "Every bad habit of the Right was on display in the Capitol riot that left five dead, $30 million in damage, close to three hundred arrested, and Capitol Hill an armed camp." The author presents a convincing case for a brand of conservatism that checks overly ambitious progressives. He also clearly shows how the Democratic Party has moved to the left precisely in reaction to Trump and needs the restraint of a principled opposition. Highlighting a long string of heroes and villains, Continetti urges "a de-personalization of the Right" and return to core values. Rational, well thought out, and impeccably argued--of interest to all students of politics.

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