Refocusing on core conservative principles

Mike Pence and Ed Feulner write in National Affairs about the need for a new focus on basic conservative principles.

An existential identity crisis now grips the American right. A political movement once united by a commitment to limited government, moral order, and a robust defense of American ideals now appears fractured, its purpose clouded by populist grievances and ideological drift. The urgency of this moment demands a return to first principles, along with a reexamination of what conservatism means and what it seeks to achieve in an age marked by cultural upheaval and political polarization.

Since the turn of the century, a once-robust definition of conservatism has gradually devolved into “anything that’s not ‘woke.’” This shift has been driven in part by the Democratic Party’s efforts to banish common sense as political heresy and clamp down on free speech. As the left quickly learned, abandoning the moderate middle provided ample substrate for new political coalitions on the right to develop and flourish.

Though subtle at first, the consequences of the conservative movement’s transformation into the anti-woke movement have steadily accumulated. By the time Donald Trump won his second term, much post-election analysis correctly framed his victory not as a triumph of conservative ideals, but as a mere repudiation of a decadent and debauched Democratic Party.

This was not always how the right understood itself in America. Conservatism once proudly embraced a positive vision, offering the American people clear alternatives to the prevailing left-leaning orthodoxies of the day. In the final decades of the 20th century, conservatives not only opposed affirmative action’s quixotic pursuit of equal outcomes, they championed equality of opportunity for all. Conservatives were not simply opposed to letting communism run wild; they contained it by boldly leading the free world. Conservatives were not just critical of big government; their support for free markets unleashed one of the greatest economic expansions in history. At the heart of conservatism lay an ambition to help America flourish, coupled with the desire to preserve the private institutions — families, churches, local communities, and the like — that serve as the building blocks of an ordered society.

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