Let’s hope Bannon stays in Europe with his act

necessary and certainly widespread attitude of opposition to drastic change. It has… for a century and a half played an important role in European politics. Until the rise of socialism, its opposite was liberalism.”

What Hayek meant by liberalism is the laissezfaire, limited-government philosophy that defined the best parts of the French and Scottish Enlightenments. These classical liberals fought with conservatives of all stripes, arguing for inalienable and universal human rights. They were opposed by theocrats, aristocrats, monarchists and arch-traditionalists who argued for the rule of altar and throne, caste and guild.

“There is nothing corresponding to this conflict in the history of the United States,” Hayek observed, “because what in Europe was called ‘ liberalism’ was here the common tradition on which the American polity had been built: Thus the defender of the American tradition was a liberal in the European sense.”

Conservatism in America has always been deeply traditionalist, sometimes too much so. But at the core of the modern conservative movement has been the effort to protect, defend and conserve the traditions of a liberal revolution, grounded in the best arguments of the enlightenment (slavery notwithstanding).

Bannon’s potted nativist nationalism and racially tinged populism run counter to that project and to the best and highest ideals of conservatism and America itself.

Let Bannon stay in Europe and hand out torches for the marchers. His un-American shtick has no place here. I’m sure Andrew would agree.