In recent months, because of a Wall Street Journal editorial in late November of 2022, there has been a profound discussion across the internet about the meaning and definition of conservatism. As I mentioned in a previous essay here at The Imaginative Conservative, this has to do, I believe, with the confusion of populism with conservatism and nationalism with conservatism over the past decade.
Populism and nationalism are each their own thing, however, and the mix with conservatism only comes about haphazardly, awkwardly, and with no small amount of peril. At root, conservatism is about conserving the best of the past, conserving all things humane, and promoting the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. Perhaps most importantly, conservatism is a term demanding the recognition of the mores, norms, habits, customs, and traditions of association (family, church, etc.), and community. It means conserving the philosophy of Socrates and Aquinas, the literature of Chaucer and Shakespeare, the imagination of Virgil and Dante, and the politics of Aristotle and Cicero.
See the full article by Bradley J. Birzer, January 8, 2023