So for Deneen to recoil from both the Boomer and woke versions of elite power and imagine what he terms common-good conservatism in their place is by no means un-American. There are versions of post-liberalism that seem to envision a truly different American regime — a confessional state or a monarchy or an administration of Platonic guardians. But Deneen usually talks more like a small-d democrat, trying to revive his own country’s buried sub-traditions. Crucially, though, Deneen comes to the scene after seven decades in which conservatism’s attempted elite-replacement project has repeatedly and conspicuously failed. So the right of 2023 needs a theory for why, up till now, its elite-replacement effort has been so disappointing.

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Persons: Deneen, conservatism’s, thrall, Cornel West, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, James Madison, Ayn Rand Organizations: Cornel West ., soulcraft, Cato Institute