In the U.S., we use the words “liberal” and “conservative” to lump together several very different schools of political thought. This is probably because our two-party systems forces several different kinds of “liberals” or “conservatives” to huddle together under the big tent of one of the major parties. We really should be more precise. We need to develop a clearer picture of the whole range of political opinions.
In my view, the words “right” or “conservative” in American political discourse can refer to any of the following ideologies or groupings:
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Religious-social traditionalist conversatism – “family values,” the Christian Coalition, and all that. This group has really good grass-roots organization and enjoys influence in the Republican Party out of proportion to its numbers. But people in this groups are mostly poor or working-class, which gives them very different material interests than the business conservatives (below).
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Racist, anti-semitic, white-supremacist conservatism – a declining force but still very real, being rooted as it is in the native political traditions of the American South, and having achieved national expression in certain (actually, most) branches of the “citizens’ militia” and “common-law courts” movements. Despite superficial resemblance, NOT a form of fascism, or militarist-authoritarian-nationalist conservatism, like they have in Europe. The American Nazis do belong in this grouping but they’re a small minority of a minority. Most American white supremacists are also very supportive of “states’ rights” or local-communal autonomy, and very hostile to any kind of national dictatorship or even a strong federal government – presenting a real problem to any would-be American Hitler. In some ways this grouping shades over into libertarianism or anarchism, the law no longer being on their side as it once was.
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Nativist, isolationist, anti-immigrant, populist conservatism – a more moderate form of the above. Best represented, at present, by Pat Buchanan and his America First Party. These people are in the tradition of the old Populist Party and the interwar America First! movement. They hate Wall Street as much as they hate the New World Order. Unlike the overt racists, they probably will not admit to hating Wall Street because there’s all those Jews in it. (Which doesn’t mean that isn’t on their minds.) This grouping is what people usually mean when they talk of “paleoconservatism.”
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Foreign-policy neo-conservatism – an updated name for imperialism. Dedicated to the proposition that the United States should expand its military power and global influence by any means necessary. This is an important faction as it’s pretty much running the country right now, in tandem with the pro-business conservatives, below.
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Pro-business conservatism – what’s good for General Motors is good for the country, etc. Corporate welfare, union-busting, all good. Military intervention abroad also good, so long as it helps business.
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Libertarianism, or classical liberalism – pro-market, which is not the same thing as pro-business. Opposed to welfare for poor people; opposed, for the same ideological reasons, to government bailouts of troubled businesses; opposed to American military intervention abroad.
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Respectable elitist conservatism – best exemplified by aristocratic intellectuals such as William Buckley. Combines elements of several of the above, as the occasion requires, while honoring the Old World Tory tradition of Edmund Burke. In fact, I’m going out on a limb classifying this group separately from the business conservatives – but, in principle, their tradition is much older.
Obviously there’s a lot of overlap between these groupings and a given “conservative” might identify with several of them. But no rational person could identify with all of them. And for any given “conservative,” there’s probably one of the above groupings that represents his or her politics better than any of the others.
What do you guys think? Is this a complete picture? Have I drawn any erroneous distinctions, identified any groupings that are not really separate groupings? Are there other kinds of conservatives I haven’t listed?
