In a thought-provoking essay published this week in Law & Liberty, entitled “Revanchist Revolutionaries,” Michael Lucchese convincingly argues that modern paleoconservatism is a distortion of the conservative intellectual tradition. By scrutinizing A Paleoconservative Anthology, edited by Paul Gottfried, Lucchese highlights the ideological shift within paleoconservatism towards “class warfare, racial grievance, and power politics” in recent years. His incisive analysis exposes the potential dangers of embracing an ideology that diverges significantly from the core principles and values traditionally associated with American conservatism. Lucchese also engages with the roots of what he calls “right-wing Marxism,” a school of thought advanced most notably by Samuel Francis, whose ideas are experiencing a revival among certain factions on the right.

Francis’s disciples are a peculiar breed. They are reflexive contrarians with positions often embodying a reactionary opposition to the perceived “regime.” At their core, they are Marxist-influenced thinkers who also vehemently despise political correctness. They claim the West has been overcome by greed and decadence and, as a result, is in decline or has already failed. This Marxist Right also posits that social liberalism, fiscal conservatism, and foreign-policy neoconservatism have become hegemonic in the West. But this assertion discounts our politics’ complexity and ideological heterogeneity, creating a straw man against which to position itself.

These right-wing Marxists are anything but conservative. In the past, luminaries of the conservative movement, like Russell Kirk and William F. Buckley, grounded their philosophy in the tenets of the American founding. They celebrated the Constitution, endorsed the free market, and staunchly opposed totalitarianism. But right-wing Marxists believe that “the right should become the vanguard of an American proletarian movement,” as Lucchese puts it. Francis himself gave this idea a noxious racial dimension, preferring alienated whites as his proletariat to revolt against the “regime.” These thinkers consider conservative admiration for Ronald Reagan misguided, and find reverence toward the Founding a dead letter. True American conservatism can — and must — do better than this. 

The rise of the Marxist Right represents an unsettling development in American politics. Conservatives must resist it. We may abhor wokeness, but we can and should still love our country and civilization, even while acknowledging its flaws and striving for improvement.