Conservative intellectuals can’t stop debating the “common good” and how this concept supposedly animates the modern American Right.
But, as I argue in my latest American Conservative column, there’s a major omission in this debate. Namely, it completely ignores the actual sentiments of Republican voters.
They’re not into the common good, however it’s defined. Instead, they’re doubling down on their traditional stance of “Leave us alone!”
The people take a different view of the matter. Their main problem appears to be the government telling them what to do, not the government letting them do as they please. Ballot referendums legalizing vices gain overwhelming support. Impositions on individual liberties are hated. NIMBYism has never been more popular. People don’t even want to pay property taxes anymore to fund the common goods of their community.
These tendencies seem strongest among the Republican base. An instinctive libertarianism, rather than high-brow common goodism, motivates them. This is why they strongly opposed both woke and the lockdowns. They didn’t see these measures as examples of excess individualism. They saw them as limits on their liberty.
Sounds like 100 more years of leftist advances while the right does nothing then, we've seen this movie before.
I'm glad there's still an individualist streak, and this will hopefully keep a lid on Vance and his tech bro buddies (minus elon, who's not up for this crap) from imposing their nanny state theocracy. I think Greer perhaps overplays how much of this libertarian streak there is, as we've still seen the adoption of AV laws in (I think now over half?) the country, although those have proved to be more of a minor inconvenience rather than a war on porn or a porn ban. Although, ironically, mister ron paul caucus libertarian mike lee himself would probably try to ban porn altogether if he had his druthers. The selective libertarianism from both sides gets wicked annoying. Somebody shouldn't be able to watch porn but you can own 10 million guns? Whatever, douchebag. The right wing elites should take the sticks out of their asses and get over themselves. People don't want to live in their world anymore than they want to live in mamdani's multi culti overpriced woke utopia and the only reason this faction still has a pulse is because of gas prices and the demoralization over what is a pretty decent economy on the whole. Anti racist mackerel snapping vice haters should really just shut the hell up, not just because vice is awesome, not just because they're wrong, but if they're actually pragmatic and want to win. How else are you going to oppose the massive censorship regime that's coming when the left takes power in January '27? That's assuming you can. And guys on the right need to stop acting like weed is just falling into people's laps. Even where available, it's very expensive and many localities still harshly criminalize it.