Conservatism Archives
April 30, 2017
Anniversary Post - Conservatism and Nationalism or “Patriots, Please Stop Your Moral Preening and Start Singing Our National Anthem!”
I wanted to use the occasion of the ten year anniversary at What’s Wrong with the World, along with Tony’s excellent summary of our understanding of conservative ideas to explore in more detail one of my particular interests, the subject of national identity and the relationship between conservatism and nationalism. To do so, I am aided by the recent exploration and debate of this very subject held by the magazine National Review – you can get up to speed with most of the background pieces I will be quoting from via this summary piece. In short, back in February, Rich Lowry and Ramesh Ponnuru wrote a cover story for the magazine in which they argued that conservatives should embrace a “sensible and moderate form of nationalism” against many of the arguments that are often raised against such an embrace by modern day liberals (it goes without saying) but even by many modern day conservatives: