American Illiberal Thinkers

Abstract

Abstract Given the dominant place of liberalism in the United States, American conservatism has always been post-liberal. The illiberal scripts and tools were present in the American conservative movement in its earliest articulations. American illiberalism’s leading voices in the United States emerged from conservatism, both intellectually and institutionally. “Traditionalist” intellectuals were most post-liberal. Due to alliances with classical liberals and libertarians against political liberals (both New Deal Democrats and liberal Republicans), and historical contingencies, the dominant formulation of American conservatism—“fusionism”—minimized illiberal scripts in favor of a right-wing liberalism. The social, economic, cultural, and political bases of fusionism collapsed in the 1990s. Illiberalism gained new resonance, particularly via Patrick Buchanan and paleoconservatism. Donald Trump’s election accelerated this trend. Contemporary illiberal thinkers can be broadly categorized as Catholic, national conservatives, and neoreactionaries, although the boundaries are porous. Both the traditionalist and illiberal right have drawn on European thought while indigenizing it.