Southern Spirits by Angie Fox5/25/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Many conservatives bristle at being lumped in with the very idea of nationalism, even without add-ons like “Christian” or “White.” Their version of conservatism is irrespective of place.įormer Heritage Foundation Executive Vice President Kim Holmes argued in 2019 that “American conservatives have argued that one of the great things about America was that it was different from all other countries. Whether you throw all the way back to the philosopher Edmund Burke or start with former President Ronald Reagan, conservatism has typically meant a resistance to radical change and a faith in caution, especially when it comes to government’s role in a citizen’s life. In current US politics, we typically see that identity with Christian nationalism or White nationalism. That can be a place, an ethnicity or a religion. So what is a nationalist and what is a conservative? And does it matter if we use these terms interchangeably?įirst, a quick definition: When academics use “nationalism” by itself, it’s the concept that some kind of identity matters more than philosophy. If you just woke up to American politics in the past 30 years, the two terms seem synonymous, but they haven’t always been. These moments, which seem unremarkable to a regular consumer of news, remind us that the Republican Party has been struggling for decades to reconcile its internal partnership of nationalists and conservatives. An up-and-coming congressional backbencher calls for the GOP to be “the party of nationalism.”. ![]()
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