Conservatism, at its best, has always been a guardrail, something that keeps a nation tethered to sanity, moral clarity, and the lessons of history. But occasionally that guardrail gets battered—not by the left, but because those claiming to defend it decide to unbolt the guardrails themselves. This is one of those moments.
Recent controversies involving Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes, the Heritage Foundation, and surges of online anti-Semitism have exposed a widening fault line inside the right. Some genuinely believe that the future of conservatism lies not in preserving the American tradition, but in blowing it up and rebuilding something more tribal, more angry, more exclusionary, and—let’s be blunt—less moral.
Scratch beneath the rhetoric about “anti-regime populism” or “post-liberal realism,” and you’ll find something darker: conspiracy-laden politics, racial resentment, and open flirtation with anti-Semitism. Yes, some claims are exaggerated by hostile media eager to smear anyone right of center as a fascist. But it’s not all fiction. Responsible conservatives—and, more important, Christians—need to speak clearly.
Conservatism is not a mood, a vibe, or merely the negation of progressivism. Nor is it an aesthetic built on anger, cynicism, or online edginess. The American conservative tradition was never about hierarchy of blood or tribe. It rests on the belief that human beings are endowed—not by government, not by ethnicity, and not by cultural purity—but by their Creator with equal dignity and worth. That principle is rooted in Scripture’s doctrine of the imago Dei. It echoes through Genesis, the Psalms, John’s prologue, and Paul’s sermon in Athens: All people share the same origin, the same dignity, and the same moral significance. Strip that out, and conservatism loses its soul.
Some now claim that universal dignity is a liberal fiction—and that only “our people” matter. That rhetoric is not new, and last century it led to catastrophic evil. It justifies contempt, dehumanization, and aggression against those less human, or less American. Ideas have consequences, and these aren’t the kind we want.
Worse still, abandoning universal dignity undercuts the very documents some of these same voices claim to defend. The Declaration of Independence rests squarely on the assertion that all men are created equal, that their rights are inherent, and that no ruler—whether king, bureaucrat, or podcast influencer—may strip them away.
If conservatives abandon that premise, we aren’t just flirting with illiberalism. We are sawing off the moral branch on which the entire American experiment sits. Now, some will say the establishment right failed and we need something radical. Yes—some conservative institutions lost urgency, moral seriousness, or connection to the hardships of ordinary Americans. There is room for reform. But the cure for error and drift isn’t nihilism and resentment. The right cannot save itself by embracing irresponsible fringe ideas. Tucker Carlson—brilliant, influential, and at times insightful—has occasionally trafficked in guests and storylines that platform figures like Nick Fuentes, a man whose rhetoric is not merely “provocative,” but morally rotten. That’s not the path to national renewal. If conservatism cannot tell the difference between reasoned disagreements and malice—between courage and cruelty—it deserves to collapse. Fortunately, many conservatives still understand what is at stake. Many know conservatism is not defined by rage or grievance, but by preserving what is true, good, and beautiful—what Russell Kirk called “the permanent things.”
A conservatism worthy of survival must recover its theological and philosophical sources: the natural law, Scripture’s moral teaching, the dignity of the human person, the family as the foundation of social order, prudence in governance, humility before history, and gratitude for a nation—even a flawed one—built on transcendent truth.
If we lose that—if we let fringe movements redefine conservatism into a tribal identity soaked in bitterness—we will betray not only the Declaration’s creed. We will betray Biblical anthropology itself. If we lose that—whatever is left will not be conservatism. It will be something far more morally impoverished, far darker, and ultimately destructive—not only to the movement, but to the nation it seeks to govern.
This article originally appeared in WORLD magazine on December 11, 2025.
