The Universalism of Conservatism

The problem with conservatism is that it has adopted the same universalist values as the left. Like the left, conservatives go out of their way to prove how un-racist they are. Conservatives are opposed to CRT, but for the same reason the left supports it. Conservatives seek a post-racial society, whereas liberals seek a post-white society, but the result is the same in the end.

Conservatives, such as Ben Shapiro or Dennis Prager, may point to texts such as the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence as evidence of America’s inherent inclusiveness and appeal to universal values, whereas liberals may defer to history, such as slavery or segregation, as evidence of America not being inclusive enough.

Conservatives pundits are always trying to appeal to universal values that cross race, religion, ethnicity. ‘Christian values’ have been replaced with ‘faith communities’. From the blurb of Ben Shapiro’s book, How to Destroy America in Three Easy Steps, which got somehow got 7,700 reviews, which is a testament to the immense popularity of his universalist/integrationist values, as much Vox Day and others say otherwise:

Who are the disintegrationists? From Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States to the New York Times’ 1619 project, many modern analyses view American history through the lens of competing oppressions, a racist and corrupt experiment from the very beginning. They see American philosophy as a lie – beautiful words pasted over a thoroughly rotted system. They see America’s culture of rights as a façade that merely reinforces traditional hierarchies of power, instead of being the only culture that guarantees freedom for individuals.

Disintegrationist attacks on the values that built our nation are insidious because they replace each foundational belief, from the rights to free speech and self-defense to the importance of marriage and faith communities, with nothing more than an increased reliance on the government.

Philosophically and politically, conservatism in America has been this way a long time. Reagan and George W. Bush put more effort into trying to win over Hispanic voters than trying to stop immigration. Lincoln is often invoked by mainstream conservatives as exemplar of ‘Disintegrationist’ values, as is even Martin Luther King Jr, the latter whose exhortation to ‘not judge people by the color of their skin but the content of their character’ has now been subsumed into the conservative universalism intellectual milieu, alongside Edmund Burke, William F Russell Kirk and others.

Whereas liberals seek to build a multicolored society, conservatives seek create a grey-beige society of King devotees incapable or unable to see color.

Conservatives, by trying to copy the left, are doomed to fail, because the left plays that game better, so conservatives are equivalent of watered-down classical liberals but who support tax cuts.

1 comment

  1. What is the alternative to the mainstream narrative? It seems taking the air out of the debate may have merit. CRT or no CRT? How about your kids are armed to know when others are trying to sell them ideology. Maybe the system needs less attention not more. This is not an absolute, rather just a strategy to handle ones own business and quit trying to design a system to save the world.

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