Getting a New Name

 

John Daniel Davidson is an editor at The Federalist. In a recent article he declared that he and other traditionalist authoritarians should stop calling themselves conservatives. If I were a conservative, I would agree and be happy to see them go.

Davidson claims that western civilization is dying, and is time for people of the right sort to take over the government and forcefully fix things. He sees no point in conservatives favoring the traditional family of a married man and wife raising their children if too many people prefer to live in other arrangements. He sees no value in freedom of religion if too many people disagree with his notions about religion. He warns that unless action is taken, pretty soon those who do not share his opinions will be numerous enough to start persecuting those who do.

He blames the technological changes of the last fifty years for the rise of moral relativism in the country (go figure) and objects to free markets, profit seeking technology outfits, and the people who favor them. He argues that to prevent “an implosion of Western civilization” it will be necessary to use government power to whip those capitalists and technologists into line.

In specifics he proposes to break up large technology companies, cut funding for universities, end no-fault divorce, subsidize (the right sort of) families with young children, outlaw abortions with no exceptions, arrest parents who take their children to events such as drag queen shows that he dislikes and charge them with child abuse, throw doctors who perform sex change surgeries or procedures in prison, and first fire and then prosecute teachers who expose students to sexually explicit material. It is a war, he says, and the warriors of righteousness “need not shy away from making these arguments because they betray some cherished libertarian fantasy about free markets and small governments.” As this list shows it is not only free markets that bother him. It is freedom itself.

I think he is right to stop calling himself a conservative. Conservatism in this country has usually meant something that to varying degrees of consistency has taken the principles of the Declaration of Independence seriously. His ideas have little common with the conservatism of people such as Reagan and Goldwater or that of many other conservatives now who generally like the idea of freedom and are often willing to mind their own business and let others mind theirs. (I can imagine Goldwater in particular telling the Davidsons of the country to go to hell.)

Of course Davidson and his people will need a name for themselves now that they no longer wish to be called conservatives. There is an obvious one, for both historical and ideological reasons. They should call themselves falangists. It fits.