In the future, to adapt a well-worn line, everyone will call himself a conservative for at least fifteen minutes. George W. Bush called himself a conservative, but so, for a time, did Barack Obama. Donald Trump has claimed to be conservative, as, perhaps more fervently, have his Republican foes. The conservative movement describes itself as conservative, while its critics protest that it is anything but.
“Conservative” being a contested term, it commonly comes paired with a modifier. Thus Bush embraced “compassionate conservatism,” while Michael Gerson, his speechwriter, favored “heroic conservatism.” Barack Obama was lauded as a “Burkean” conservative. Similar pairings—movement conservatism, neoconservatism, reform conservatism, national greatness conservatism—have long proliferated. The modifier in each case identifies a distinct cluster of ideas and tendencies in a way that “conservative,” for better or worse, cannot.
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