The National Conservatism Conference that took place in Miami last month has generated a lot of attention and hand-wringing, especially from self-identified “anti-Trump conservatives” who don’t like the direction their movement is taking. In their view, this new national conservatism – with its populist rhetoric, advocacy of government regulation of corporations, favorability to the welfare state, and appeals to religious values and the white working class – is apostasy from the “true conservatism” they supported during the Reagan era.
But National Conservatism isn’t a turn away from “true conservatism,” because such a thing doesn’t exist. Lacking any essential core, conservatism has always evolved and always will. A self-conscious movement operating under the label “conservative” began in the 1940s with the single purpose of combatting the New Deal. In the 1950s, it mutated to back domestic anti-communism efforts; in the 1960s, it supported greater military intervention overseas; and in the 1970s, it worked to preserve Christian social values. Conservatism has taken many forms over the past century, and National Conservatism is only the latest iteration.
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