On Friday I posted some thoughts on "national conservatism", the ideology guiding MAGA leadership, as espoused by figures like Yoram Hazony and JD Vance. Some thoughts today on a civic nationalist alternative that is not merely defending the status quo www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/o...
As I argued, nationalist conservatism has shifted the GOP from a pro-markets economic agenda to an anti-pluralist cultural agenda. They have a policy agenda they claim will benefit the economy (tariffs and mass deportations) but mostly it is a cultural agenda. So what is the alternative?
One alternative to nationalist conservatism is to defend classical liberalism. This appears to be the move of mainstream centrist democrats who embraced capitalism in order to win moderate conservatives, as well as free market conservatives who have defended classical liberalism against socialism.
In other words, MAGA has forced the opposition into the position of defending an unpopular status quo. But if the liberal international order and global capitalism are no longer working for the majority of people, is there a progressive alternative?
A different approach would be to lean into the nationalist discourse, but to develop a nationalism that is pro-pluralism and inclusion. I call this civic nationalism. A logic of civic nationalism might go like this:
A nation is not a big tribe, it is a collection of tribes with no single culture or ethnicity except a culture of openness. Institutions are needed to ensure no single group dominates, but they are not enough. They a strong civic culture, but one that bridges differences and celebrates diversity.
Markets are good *only* to the extent they contribute to this civic culture (e.g. through exchange and cooperation); to the extent that markets do not (e.g. by creating competition and inequality), they state should take active steps to ameliorate the social problems they create.
Rather than respond to tariffs by doubling down on free trade, can governemnts take active steps to ameliorate the economic, human, and environmental impacts of globalization.
With the opposition on the defensive, the temptation is to defend the status quo. What is needed is some kind of framework for policies that help ordinary Americans without abandoning the project of an inclusive, multiracial, multicultural democracy.
Here is the original post with my thoughts on nationalist conservatism itself. bsky.app/profile/dwmb...