We must all be left conservatives now

'Left conservative' connotes emphasis on material and historical conditions, and on intangible values that transcend history.

The phrase, and the politics it entails, is now the holy grail of America politics.

Americans are striving to resist the erosive speed of cultural change, even as they protest inequalities of wealth.

Left conservatism runs through American intellectual life like a counter-motion to the polarities of American politics.

It runs parallel to how most people experience and navigate everyday life, which to say as a fluid mix of “liberal” and “conservative” sentiments.

Lasch embraced what he called “the central paradox of religious faith: that the secret of happiness lies in renouncing the right to be happy”.

If only politics could reflect on it and absorb the line’s wisdom before starting its scrimmage. But it could well be that “left conservative” is so redundant with being human that a politics founded on it would not know where to begin. [See also: Twilight of the American elite].