E35: E35: There’s a fight on the right that may sound academic, but it’s actually a true battle of ideals

Right Now with Stephen Kent

Did libertarianism put America on the road to ruin? And did the conservative movement losing fights like that of same-sex marriage, really put us on the slippery slope to transgender ideology being the norm? This week we’re talking to Declan Leary of The American Conservative magazine, about why he wants to see libertarians cast out of the Republican coalition for good & see the American right get excited about controlling government and putting it to use for a change.
At the core of this show is a question about what defines “normal” when it comes to our politics. Societal norms in America have changed rapidly in the past sixty years, and a lot of good has come from it. But change also equals disruption; that’s the nature of challenging the status quo. There will always be costs to it, and there will also always be holdouts who do not accept the new “normal” or believe the consensus in politics or society at large is a consensus at all.
Recognizing this is part of why we started Rightly in the first place, and why I excitedly host this show every week. The “consensus” in American politics, particularly on the right, isn’t looking like much of a consensus at all these days. Donald Trump’s campaign and presidency changed everything.
Stephen’s guests this week are Declan Leary, Associate Editor of The American Conservatve magazine and Nate Hochman, a fellow with National Review. Both are from a younger generation of conservatives who would call themselves more traditionalist conservatives (tradcons), Leary most of all. The politics of Leary and increasingly so at his publication, The American Conservative, is all about challenging the decades old consensus on the right...that of fusionism between libertarian orthodoxy with conservative thought. Donald Trump was not so much an avatar of this faction as he was an inspiration to point out that the “consensus” in our politics was anything but. Whether it be gay marriage, no-fault divorce, adoption or the gender equality gains of the sexual revolution, all of this and more is up for renewed debate by a younger and quite energized conservative movement. But don’t talk to them about tax rates - their concern is what constitutes “virtue” and whether or not “liberty” is really working out so well for our society. Libertarians, progressives and liberals - in the mind of the new right, these traditional conservatives, they’re all part of the same problem in our politics, neighborhoods and families. In this episode, Declan Leary and Nate Hochman answer questions about this rising faction, what they do and don’t believe, and if America as we understand it today...is worth saving.
These conversations are important, because if you don’t understand these intellectual rifts on the right, you’ll only be caught flat-footed and surprised at the ways in which these debates are reshaping the Republican Party as we’ve understood it.
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---- Content of This Episode ----
00:00 Episode Start
00:05 Declan Leary: What Libertarians get wrong about liberty
05:30 Decades-old debate over fusionism still not settled
12:45 Neutrality is a myth; laws are always a value statement
19:45 What is a family and why is that so hard to define?
26:10 Leary: Buttigieg family photo a “mockery”
34:15 Gender neutral pronouns as the default
38:12 Why everything is subjective now
43:11 Always some good news to share
---- Reading List ----
“The Twisted Tree of LIberty” by Frank S. Meyer https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/01/communism-conservatism-twisted-tree-liberty/
“Freedom or Virtue” by L. Brent Bozell Jr. https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/01/freedom-virtue-conservatism-goal-society-freedom-or-virtue/
---- Plugs for our Guests ----
Follow Declan Leary: https://twitter.com/DeclanLeary
Follow Nate Hochman: https://twitter.com/njhochman