What Is Conservatism?
Riley Gaines, Aubrey Laitsch, David French, and other prominent conservatives are complaining about conservatism. Is this even an ideology?
What is conservatism? If you ask a conservative, they’ll describe a political philosophy of small government, low taxation, property rights, and individual liberty. But if we look at the modern conservative movement, its politicians, and its political outcomes, there’s a chasm between conservative theory and reality.
In its current form, conservatism is not a coherent political ideology, but a collection of feelings. Conservatives are aggrieved for themselves, but reject empathy for others. However, once a systemic issue personally affects a conservative, they adopt the progressive view, often contradicting their own ideology. Not because their eyes have been opened to the need for collective solutions, but because they are, often for the first time in their lives, forced to deal with the reality of their political beliefs.
Intellectual openness and the willingness to change your mind should always be encouraged. And no one is required to follow their ideology’s political position to the letter. However, this is not what prominent conservatives are doing. The conservative figures detailed below are not engaging with opposing viewpoints and questioning their conservative worldview. Instead, they are expressing frustration that a systemic problem has personally impacted them and are asking for help solving it. Many people call this “complaining.”
In the video below, conservative activist Riley Gaines expresses her frustration with exploitive medical bills from the delivery of her child. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Riley Gaines is 100% correct. It’s absurd that healthcare companies bill new mothers thousands of dollars for “vaginal birth” and “hospital discharge day” while they’re increasing CEO pay by 30% in one year. Gaines finishes by calling on Congress to “protect patients and taxpayers from a system designed to exploit them.”
And what “system” would that be, Riley? Does this “system” have a name? Would it happen to be the for-profit system that compels medical companies to squeeze every cent of profit out of patients? Because that system is called capitalism, and you routinely defend it.
Riley Gaine’s postpartum Marxism reveals a lot about the intellectual rigor in the modern conservative movement — it has none.
Gaines became a conservative activist during her college years by leveraging her 5th-place swimming title into a cozy position with Turning Point USA. Collecting fat checks from Hungarian taxpayers just for saying things like, “What’s a woman?” and “Debate me, AOC!” seems like a sweet gig. But it’s not a real job. Though she swears fealty to the capitalist system, Riley Gaines has never actually lived within it. She’s never had to sell her labor for a wage and endure the cruelties of unemployment driven by the perpetual cycle of booms and busts. According to all available information, giving birth is Gaine’s first real experience with capitalism. Everything else has been a thought experiment. Upon first contact with the system she defends, Riley Gaines doesn’t like the personal cost capitalism demands, so she asks the U.S. government to “end the system that is exploiting us.” Oh, sweetie. You’re new here, so it’s cute you asked nicely. But you have a lot of catching up to do.
“‘Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains! — Karl Marx’, — Riley Gaines”
Speaking of Turning Point USA, they are doing a poor job carrying the flame lit by the late founder, Charlie Kirk.
Earlier this year, long-time TPUSA staffer Aubrey Laitsch posted the video below explaining how she was unfairly fired from the conservative interest group. According to Laitsch, she was let go because a TPUSA executive heard a rumor from an Uber driver that Laitsch didn’t like Erika Kirk. Begrudingly, I must admit that, yet again, this cookie-cutter conservative woman from Turning Point USA is 100% correct. Workers don’t deserve to be fired over unsubstantiated gossip. At least, that’s the position of labor organizers and socialists such as myself. The conservative right, which Aubrey Laitsch supports, takes the opposite view. Conservatives believe a business is the owner’s property and they can fire anyone for any reason — including something as stupid as “A guy on the subway said you’re talking crap.” This is called “at-will employment,” one of many ways that conservatives preserve capitalism by disempowering workers and overempowering bosses. Currently, 49 of 50 states have at-will employment structures. (Glory to the People’s Democratic Republic of Montana! 🫡)
At-will employment is a staple of American conservatism. The Trump administration’s proposal to reclassify federal employees under at-will employment was widely celebrated by prominent conservative organizations. Which is why I was so surprised to hear Aubrey Laitsch say this:
