A philosophical streetfight is raging in American conservatism right now, pitting aging partisans of William F. Buckley and Ronald Reagan’s Cold War/libertarianism/social conservative ‘fusionism’ against younger ‘post-liberal’ upstarts with little interest in any of that. A curious affair, the debate represents efforts to answer anew some of the oldest and most basic question in Western political philosophy, questions like what is prior, the state or the individual? and are there universal moral values to which governments can be held accountable?, and what are the conditions of the legitimate use of state power? It also represents an unsettling development in contemporary politics.

The conservative mainstreams believe the philosophical questions were decisively and well answered by the American founding, which they interpret in broadly Lockean terms. So read the Constitution enshrines beliefs in the priority of individuals, pre-political rights, and natural limits on legitimate state power. The familiar litany of constitutional protections follow in turn: property rights and economic freedom, religious liberty, and freedom of expression. So too does a consistent diagnosis of our current woes—a bloated and rapacious federal government and the pernicious influence of the collectivist tendencies of the anti-American left. For these conservatives, the Reagan era fights for lower taxes, fewer regulations, dismantling of the social safety net, and resisting the sexual revolution continue unabated.

The post-liberals are no more enamored with the current state of things, but otherwise see things differently. They pin the sorry state of the country precisely on the Lockean Liberalism embraced by the mainstream, or what what they sneeringly call ‘Conservatism Inc.’ Flying under the banner of ‘Common Good Conservatism’, these upstarts would subordinate the individual liberties and rights previously celebrated as core to the American experiment to the general welfare invoked in the Preamble. Post-liberals support a muscular—indeed ‘masculine’—use of state power to direct the economy towards a more equitable distribution of opportunity, and citizens away from habits and values that undermine healthy communities. Conservative Inc. stands indicted for its support of liberalized and globalized markets enriching the few while decimating the fortunes of the many and socially corrosive libertarian readings of First Amendment. It is also excoriated for its capitulation to the progressive takeover of universities, the media, and the entertainment industry. 

There are some important disagreements among Post Liberals. A nationalist wing sees the Lockean interpretation of the Constitution as bad history, arguing that the Founding Fathers were more Burkean in spirit, finding their constitutional principles in the history of British legal and political culture, not the abstract principles of philosophers. A different wing focuses on the influence of classical thinkers on early American political thought, with some incorporating elements of a revived Catholic Integralism for good measure. The most radical wing endorses the Lockean interpretation of the Constitution but rejects its principles so understood. On this reading the current state of the US results from the unfolding of a logic that was there all along. 

Their differences aside, all agree that some version of Lockean liberalism describes the the dominant political thinking of post war years whose failures are now manifest. Crumbling too is the social and economic order liberalism has  informed, so both need to be replaced. In short, we need a new political consensus, one that is less solicitous of expansive individual rights and more comfortable with less democratic but more effective government. The call is for a state that directly promotes the goods—wealth, security, peace, and morality—the political philosophy identifies as essential to a flourishing common life. For an idea of what this might look like in practice, we are invited to look at Hungary and Poland. Or perhaps China and Singapore.