Thursday, July 3, 2014

Christian Right?

I find it interesting how American liberals seem to think there are all these scary "right-wing Christians" in this country, yet I considers myself both a right-winger and a Christian and feel almost totally alone here. American "conservatism" is really degenerated Classical Liberalism with some Puritanism thrown in. The USA has never had a "Right" in the European sense. Being right-wing is not about venerating free-market capitalism, nor is it about being unduly concerned with other people's private lives (though American conservatives are quite correct to not want to pay for other people's private lives). The Right is--or was, and ought to be--about defending Tradition and Hierarchy, Altar and Throne, to which most of modern "conservatism" is indifferent or hostile. Even more annoying than American "conservatism" is when British "conservatives" (such as the Telegraph columnist Tim Stanley who in an irritatingly irreverent video commentary on the World War I centennial casually dismissed Tsar Nicholas II as "an idiot") seem to have more enthusiasm for the USA and its republican political culture than they do for their own nation's monarchical and hierarchical traditions.

1 comment:

James said...

I tend to support the positions of both the American right (capitalism and puritanism) and the traditional right (monarchy, tradition and hierarchy).