By Bobby Miller, National Review

In a thought-provoking essay published this week in Law & Liberty, entitled “Revanchist Revolutionaries,” Michael Lucchese convincingly argues that modern paleoconservatism is a distortion of the conservative intellectual tradition. By scrutinizing A Paleoconservative Anthology, edited by Paul Gottfried, Lucchese highlights the ideological shift within paleoconservatism towards “class warfare, racial grievance, and power politics” in recent years. His incisive analysis exposes the potential dangers of embracing an ideology that diverges significantly from the core principles and values traditionally associated with American conservatism. Lucchese also engages with the roots of what he calls “right-wing Marxism,” a school of thought advanced most notably by Samuel Francis, whose ideas are experiencing a revival among certain factions on the right.

Francis’s disciples are a peculiar breed. They are reflexive contrarians with positions often embodying a reactionary opposition to the perceived “regime.” At their core, they are Marxist-influenced thinkers who also vehemently despise political correctness. They claim the West has been overcome by greed and decadence and, as a result, is in decline or has already failed. This Marxist Right also posits that social liberalism, fiscal conservatism, and foreign-policy neoconservatism have become hegemonic in the West. But this assertion discounts our politics’ complexity and ideological heterogeneity, creating a straw man against which to position itself.

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