The right is dominant in the United States, but the ideas that animate the Trumpist movement are only a pale reflection of the conservative tradition.
Although I don’t really identify with the right, I have great respect for the rich intellectual tradition of conservatism and understand that in politics, one ignores the teachings of this school of thought at one’s peril.
Today, Trumpism actually constitutes a repudiation of these teachings.
A humanist tradition
Much of the American conservative tradition is based on a humanist vision, skeptical of the “social engineering” associated with progressivism. Although progressives have had real successes in the United States, their failures have often been linked to neglecting calls for caution from conservative thinkers.
These thinkers shared the ideals of economic progress, cultural harmony and social justice, but doubted – often rightly – the ability of technocrats to supplant the obstacles posed by human nature.
Traits of this enlightened conservatism include: a limited state respectful of individual rights; a bias in favor of the market, where the arbiter state refrains from choosing winners and losers; social policies that reconcile community compassion and individual responsibility; a civic nationalism; a foreign policy aiming to strike a balance between the projection of national ideals and the inevitable logic of power relations.
Added to this are the values of respect, humility and compassion. In politics, the best American conservative tradition joins its liberal and progressive counterparts in adhering to the pluralism of James Madison who conceived politics as a balancing act between interests, passions and ideals.
An unrecognizable conservatism
It is difficult to find this conservative thought in Trumpism.
Where is the conservative concern for the limits of state action vis-à-vis the individual, while in Minnesota the federal government blithely flouts almost every article of the sacrosanct Bill of Rights?
As for the bias in favor of the market, Trump destroyed it by establishing a regime of favoritism towards the regime’s allies. Trump’s trashing of institutions has nothing to do with efficiency; rather, it is a pure and simple demolition enterprise whose outcome no one can predict.
Trump’s closed nationalism clashes with the conservative tradition advocated in particular by Ronald Reagan. The same goes for his value-free foreign policy, where all that matters is the satisfaction of his desires for imperial control and the conclusion of deals to enrich his family and friends.
As for so-called religious conservatives who continue to follow an individual whose every facet of personality is contrary to the teachings of their religion, it boggles the mind.
Authentic conservatives are still present in the public debate in the United States and it is worth listening to them because their criticism of Trumpism goes to the heart of the matter by denouncing the complete attack that it represents against Madisonian pluralism.
Elsewhere, apologists who claim conservatism to rationalize their defense of Trumpism are wrong. Rather, what they support is an authoritarian populist vision that has nothing to do with conservative tradition.
date: 2026-02-11 05:04:00
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