The Crisis of Conservatism: When Values Become Tools for Power

• Conservative parties are essential pillars of a stable democracy, yet they currently risk abandoning their core values in favor of holding power at any cost.
• The foundational pillars of conservatism include order and stability, religious tradition, national identity, and individual liberty linked to private initiative.
• Faced with global uncertainty and the limits of neoliberalism, contemporary conservative parties are increasingly driven by fear rather than vision.

Foundational Values of Conservatism

• Order and Stability: Rooted in the works of Thomas Hobbes and Edmund Burke, conservatism historically emphasizes authority as a bulwark against instability and revolutionary change.
• Religion: Historically a primary guardian of tradition, institutions like the Church have long provided ideological and structural support for conservative movements.
• Nation: While originating as a progressive concept for sovereignty, 19th-century nationalism shifted to emphasize cultural identity and collective consciousness.
• Individual Liberty: Influenced by John Locke and Adam Smith, this value prioritizes the individual over the state and views private enterprise as the key to growth.

The Politics of Fear and Potential Decline

• Voters often cast ballots for leaders who embody these values rather than for specific policy proposals, a trend that demands strong leadership but often results in populist hyper-leadership.
• Conservative parties today struggle with global challenges like climate change, economic inequality, and the fading hegemony of the United States.
• By acting out of fear rather than adherence to their purported values, these parties risk repeating the historical failure of European liberal systems after World War I, which paved the way for the rise of extremism.
• The author warns that current conservative strategies, if driven by ambition and fear, may ultimately lead to their own obsolescence and a subsequent era of political dominance for the Left.