UPDATE 7.28.25: I wrote this piece back in 2014, before the advent of MAGA or Trump’s America. It highlights some points made by then-American Conservative writer Rod Dreher, many of which have been amplified and celebrated by the MAGA movement (though Dreher has often been a critic of Trump).
Originally posted August 21, 2014.
The label Paleo-Conservative does not jump out at most Americans. What does Paleo-Conservative mean and why do I believe that a big percentage of Americans can relate to Paleo-Conservative thinking in direct opposition to progressive, Democrat thought or neocon-based Republican thinking?
American Conservative (published by my friend John Basil Utley) contributor Rod Dreher in the Dallas Morning News has offered a neat multi-element outline on the basics of Paleo-Conservative thought. I summarize Rod’s outline below.
- We are conservatives who stand outside the conservative mainstream.
- Modern conservatism has become too focused on money, power, and the accumulation of stuff.
- Big business deserves as much skepticism as big government.
- Culture is more important than politics and economics.
- Small, Local, Old, and Particular are almost always better than Big, Global, New, and Abstract.
- The relentless media-driven pop culture deadens our senses to authentic truth, beauty, and wisdom.
- We share Russell Kirk’s conviction that “the institution most essential to conserve is the family.”
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