Contemporary Conservative Thought: The View From San Diego

At the conference on “Modern Conservative Political Philosophy” convened at the University of San Diego on September 16–17, 2022, eleven authors presented papers. They fall into four broad categories. Three of the papers offer broad defenses of conservatism as it has been theorized and practiced in the United States since the 1950s. William Voegeli observes—accurately—that “by following their own premises, an increasingly postmodern Left and an increasingly premodern Right have ended up questioning the worth and feasibility of republican self-government.” This leaves the beleaguered Center, long the common ground between traditional liberals and traditional conservatives.

According to Voegeli, this “increasingly lonely position,” based on what William Buckley called “fixed postulates” and the Declaration of Independence described as “self-evident truths,” is the only basis on which American democracy can long endure.