Photo by Caitlyn Wilson

Donald Trump secured the presidency by forging a scary coalition of conservative forces and effectively playing upon many Americans worst fears.

His coalition includes his MAGA base and Christian nationalists; “free market” business opportunists and Silicon Valley billionaires; and “limited” government advocates, be it for domestic programs or foreign involvements.

The most conservative force in Trump’s coalition is known as “paleoconservatism” – aka “paleocons”. They advocate for a strong market economy, a shrunken federal government, restricted immigration and limited foreign involvement (unless it benefits national interests) as well as strong Christian values, the patriarchal family and a white America.

The two most prominent paleocons in the Trump administration are Vice Pres. J.D. Vance, a protégé of venture capitalist Peter Thiel, and Stephen Miller, a radical Zionist who is deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security who pushes the anti-immigrant program. Other powerful paleos include Michael Anton, deputy secretary of state; and Michael Waltz, national security advisor.

From the Grave

Today’s paleos trace their philosophic roots back to the British conservative thinker, Edmund Burke. He argued for the preservation of tradition as a source of societal stability and wisdom, and strongly opposed the French Revolution which he saw as destructive of an organic and constitutional society.

They also draw on what they claim as the anti-federalist theories of pro-slavers Thomas Jefferson and John C. Calhoun.

Equally critically, they embraced the economic theory of James Burnham, a former Trotskyist, who authored The Managerial Revolution (1941), who warned that traditional capitalism – as well as communism — was being replaced by a new economic system he called “managerialism,” rule by managers.

The paleos were a radical but minority force within the overall Republican conservative sphere for much of the 20th century. Often dubbed “Old Right Republicans,” they opposed Pres. Woodrow Wilson’s efforts to have the U.S. join the League of Nations; strongly supported the 1924 Immigration Act that excluded Asians so as to preserve U.S. homogeneity; bitterly opposed Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal; and were fervent anticommunists during the postwar. However, the Eisenhower, Truman and Kennedy administrations contained the conservative agenda.

The tumultuous 1960s, with its civil-rights movement, anti-war activism and countercultural of drug, sex and rock-&-roll, provoked a strong conservative reaction. In the wake of Barry Goldwater’s landslide defeat in 1964, conservativism began to find new voices. The right was split between what was identified as the “New Right” or “neocons” (represented by William F.........

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