Would America still be America is what Americans have in common ceased to be common and were replace with something fundamentally different. The question and implication of that commonality or lack thereof is discussed below, quoted in full below due to the limitations of Twitter’s/X’s embeds.
This is an interesting insight into politics in general, but also the schism that now exists in right-wing social media between conservatism and postliberalism…and the reason there is such a conservative backlash against JD Vance
This post basically says that while The West Wing was unabashedly liberal, the show still portrayed certain shared values that no long exists today and which conservatives also long for:
“America is fundamentally good.
Public service can be honorable.
Competence matters.
Patriotism belongs to everyone.”Many of us older conservatives remember that this was normal not that long ago, and that most people still want that version of America because we’re tired of all the outrage, all the time nature of politics. We recognize that social media is not real life and that the culture wars don’t define our day to day existence. Still, we feel it’s worth fighting because values still matter and if we lose the culture then the country will eventually slip towards something worse…but not imminently
The post-liberals seem to believe THAT America is gone. Many are younger and don’t remember what normal was, and why it was better. They think the world is what they see on social media, rather than anecdotal evidence of the worst that exists on both sides. To them it’s a 5 alarm fire, so they view politics as an existential struggle for power. They are good and virtuous and must defeat the evil on the other side. Things like the Constitution, values and precedents are for “losers”
But that’s not reality. I will be the first to admit that liberalism has flaws which make it vulnerable to things like influx of immigrants who don’t share our values.
What conservatives wanted when we put our support behind Trump was that we need to make changes because liberalism has vulnerabilities that threaten Western Civilization…but that these changes need to come within the confines of our existing system of a Constitutional Republic (not a Democracy) built on an underlying system of liberalism. In other words, let’s improve the system because it’s a system worth preserving
Further:
What’s happened in the last decade is the rise of this post-liberal view that liberalism has basically failed. I find this to be a very radical and dishonest premise because it is disproven by most arbitrary metrics which show that we are better off now than ever before. That doesn’t mean there aren’t problems, possibly even serious ones that need to be addressed…but for god’s sake show a little gratitude and appreciation before you propose that we should tear the whole thing down and start again
Some of you on the postliberal right may say that I’m exaggerating, but I don’t think I am given two things.
First is that the solutions being proposed by postliberals, while seemingly positive and acceptable by conservatives on the outside, require a fundamental change in the very values and system that conservatism is based on. These people see power as the ultimate objective, and prioritize that over things like having a Constitutional Republic, individual freedoms and limited self government.
Now, if post-liberalism were just an academic debate, I wouldn’t care that much, but…
The second reason is because of the person of JD Vance. Trump, and conservatives, made a huge mistake in making this guy the VP and heir apparent to the Republican nomination. He rose to power by the grace of his person relationships with Donald Trump Jr., Kevin Roberts (Heritage) and Tucker Carlson…that’s it. Nothing else recommends him to lead conservatism forward. And he continues to pretend to be a conservative because he’s undeniably socially conservative. But if you look below the hood you’ll see that he is anything but that because he espouses all of the wrong values…in fact many of which are shared by the progressive left
JD Vance, like AOC or Bernie share a fundamental skepticism toward the classical liberal concept of a “neutral, limited government.” While they have completely opposite goals, both groups argue that the idea of a purely neutral state is an illusion. They believe that politics is inherently about using state power to achieve a specific moral or social good
And both these visions mean a fundamentally different America. An America in which a show like The West Wing could never exist again…along with concepts like:
“America is fundamentally good.
Public service can be honorable.
Competence matters.
Patriotism belongs to everyone.”I’m not sure that would still be America
The error of the “Postliberals” is that they think that they can use Leftist analysis, frameworks, and tactics and somehow come up with the opposite result.
And no, dressing up that ideology in Christian oracular drapings does not change what it’s covering up.
