Know Your Enemy: Return of the National Conservatives

Know Your Enemy: Return of the National Conservatives

The second National Conservatism conference showed that the ideology has moved into the mainstream of the American right.

Know Your Enemy is a podcast about the American right co-hosted by Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell. Read more about it here. You can subscribe to, rate, and review the show on Apple Podcasts and Stitcher, and receive bonus content by supporting the podcast on Patreon.

It’s rare for nearly all the inhabitants of the Know Your Enemy podcast universe to gather in one place, but it happened earlier this month in Florida, where the second National Conservatism conference was held. The proceedings were littered with extraordinary claims of a “totalitarian cult” (liberals and the left) deliberately trying to destroy the United States, with the help of Big Tech, China, and . . . university professors. The conference seemed to mark the ascendency of national conservatism on the right, and perhaps within the Republican Party. Matt and Sam break it all down: what it means, what it portends, and why they’re wrong.

Sources and further reading:

Videos from the National Conservatism conference (YouTube)

David Brooks, The Terrifying Future of the American Right, The Atlantic

J.G. Ballard, Super Cannes, Picador (2000)

Murray Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State, David van Nostrand Company/William Volker Fund (1962)

Background listening

“The Definitely-Not-Racist National Conservatives,” Know Your Enemy (2019)

“The Rise of the Illiberal Right,” Know Your Enemy (2019)

“Frank Meyer, the Father of Fusionism,” Know Your Enemy (2021)

…and don’t forget you can subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to all of our bonus episodes!