Self-described Catholic “post-liberal” Patrick Deneen recently criticized the British neoconservative Douglas Murray for his focus on the antiwhite racism of the woke left, saying that the right should focus on populist economic issues instead. This reveals a grave problem among some self-identifying American conservatives: quite bluntly put, a stubborn unwillingness to acknowledge dangerous tendencies on the left, if their mention may bring the critic some professional or social disadvantage.

There are obviously risky positions today that no professionally ambitious figure who identifies as a conservative would ever dare to take publicly. These perilous positions include fighting—no-holds-barred—with the LGBT lobby, suggesting that certain civil-rights laws turned out to be imprudent, opposing the feminist movement at its roots, arguing that there are demonstrable IQ differences among ethnic groups, and insisting that antiwhite racism is a salient characteristic of the leftist establishment. If a conservative polemicist is trying to build a career, he may try to divert discussion away from these hard positions toward less inflammatory subjects or issues that most leftists don’t really care about. Thus, we have had authorized conservatives identifying their conservatism with such unoffensive subjects as the preservation of classical architecture or the rejection of twelve-tone musical compositions. We also find self-described Catholic conservatives declaiming against the continuing effects of 14^th-century nominalism or denouncing Martin Luther’s inexcusable revolt against Rome.

READ MORE