Other Viewpoints For Conservatives

If you’re a disgruntled Canadian conservative like me, you might be wondering why the modern world looks so insane. I’m in my 40s and for my entire life the progressive agenda has moved briskly forward with official conservatism skipping along slightly behind the curve. Today’s leftist vanguard is tomorrow’s official liberalism and will be the next day’s long held conservative principle. Why is this the case? Why does conservatism always lose?

My questions have led me on a journey of discovery. The rise of Trump and the flash-in-the-pan of the Alt-Right sent me in some interesting directions. Before 2015 I was a Harper-acolyte and I even went on CBC radio to defend charges against him for being “not conservative enough”. At the time I thought the Conservative Party was playing a long game of moderation for the sake of electoral savvy. Today I realize that the problem of conservatism is much, much deeper than messaging and tactics.

The purpose of this post is to introduce Canadians to some of the fascinating perspectives that can be found outside of the conservative mainstream and hopefully provide readers with ideas and viewpoints that help to explain why mainstream conservatism is such a failure. These links are from the U.S. since this is where the vanguard for a new conservatism is forming. Canada, as with most things, is ten steps behind. Hopefully this will introduce our Canadian readers to some of the developments in new conservatism that's heading our way.

ZMAN BLOG

I listen to a lot of podcasts and I stumbled upon the Zman blog and started listening to his stuff about a year ago. It was life changing. Here are a few links to get you started.

The Dissident Right - Podcast #48 - What is the Dissident Right?

Zman refers to his version of conservatism as being “Dissident Right”. In the above podcast he gives a great overview of what this is all about.

Identity Politics - Podcast #50 - How to respond to Identity Politics

Zman gives a right-wing rundown of identity politics and how we will need to respond to it in the future.

Libertarianism - Podcast #53 - The problem with Libertarianism

I used to be a hardcore libertarian. I read Atlas Shrugged and believed in the markets to solve everything. Libertarianism seemed to me at the time to be the purest form of conservatism and offered a neutral approach arriving at conservative ends. I have since given up on this in light of life experience. You can read about it at this link here.

Zman hates libertarians and this podcast outlines why.

Democracy - Podcast #56 - The problem with Democracy

I’ve always been leery of democracy and when I ran for mayor of the small town I live in, my personal experience with democracy sealed my opinion. I wrote this article last year about democracy.

Zman breaks down the history of democracy and why it fails. This one is very educational and foreboding.

Our Conservative Enemies - Podcast #65 - Cuckservatism Inc.

What’s the problem with official conservatism? Why do politicians that seem like they’re on our side always seem to become cuckservative once in office? What’s the deal with fake professional conservatives? This podcast addresses all of it and Ben Shapiro as well!

Right-wing Economics - Podcast #82 - Economic systems

Taxes, welfare, free trade... let’s rethink everything.

That’s a good starter pack for the Zman. He does a weekly podcast and it’s always a fun listen. His shows are always a tight one hour long and I always learn something from his perspective.

Another good resource for alternative conservatism is The Claremont Review of Books. I purchased a subscription to this quarterly publication and it’s full of unique and dissident perspectives that you will never find in the mainstream. I first got into the Claremont Review of Books by way of Michael Anton’s bombastic endorsement of Donald Trump with his infamous article, The Flight 93 Election. Realizing that there is a whole think-tank filled with these perspectives was an eye-opener. Definitely give it a browse.

Takimag is a more light-hearted take regarding culture and current events. The ideas are out there and it is not politically correct at all. You can read about everything from movies to crime to feminism... it’s a pretty open ended website, much like Poletical, actually.

Pat Buchanan is the paleoconservative that inspired a lot of today’s new right. When he ran for President in the 90’s he was viewed as a backwards dinosaur. The thirty years since have been very kind to him as he now looks like a futurist that was ahead of...not behind the curve. He was calling out cuckservatives twenty years before the term existed. He bravely attacked progressive framing on issues head on...in a way that even Trump won’t do today. He’s mellowed a bit now that he’s in his 80’s, but he still writes and his website is full of great contrary content. He also has a webzine called The American Conservative.

That should be enough recommendations for now. If you’re a Poletical reader you’re likely looking for conservative content that isn’t a part of the bland mainstream liberal-lite variety, so hopefully you’ll find something valuable in these resources. If you have any other recommendations yourself, feel free to post links in the comment section.