What, if anything, makes MAGA conservative? In “Welcome to the Jungle,” Luke Williams ’23 will answer this question head-on. Marshalling close-readings of past and present conservative thinkers and paring them with highlights from multiple interviews with contemporary “conservative” voters, Williams will argue that MAGA — and populist conservatism more broadly — preserves one key tenant of conservative thought: Hierarchy is just, so long as it’s contestable.
Tracking this core conservative principle from Edmund Burke, through Patrick Deneen, and all the way to your “deplorable” uncle, Williams will argue that, by thus situating MAGA within conservatism’s intellectual continuum, we gain invaluable insight into how conservatives theoretically approach the problem of economic inequality.
Because liberal democracy defends — and nurtures — massive inequalities that stifle competition, today’s rightwing argues, justice must be sought beyond liberalism and beyond democracy itself. And while conservative radicals are nothing new, Williams will show how today’s rightwing revolution is inextricably linked to life in The New Gilded Age.
