‘Conservatism’ and ‘the right’ in America: Ideological conflict, categories and language

Abstract

Much recent attention has been directed to the ‘rise of the Right’ or ‘rise of conservatism’ in America. This article suggests that the supposed ‘Right/conservative’ rise is highly problematical, because it is deficient in historical understanding infused with conceptual (linguistic) analysis. To show this, the article points out the importance to ideology of conflict and language, especially of general categories such as ‘conservatism’ and ‘the Right’. It focuses on the most recent, post‐World War II era of American politics, specifically on William F. Buckley, Jr., and the National Review circle of which he was at the centre. For 40 years Buckley's circle was a key actor of this era, the first to try to pull ‘the Right’ together, and richly representative of recent ideological conflict and discourse. It notes some distinctive features of the American scene, notably its compression of the ideological spectrum and the prominence of varieties of ‘libertarianism'; it disentangles ‘conservatism’ from ‘the Right'; it explores the varied meanings and roots of the former category and points up the contingent and fractious nature of the latter; it shows how extended the former category has become and how truly ‘conventional’ the latter is; it suggests that the activistic points of both categories enable them to endure despite their intellectual inadequacies.