Today’s American right is a sprawling zoo. In one part of the park you have red-hatted nationalist populists clapping enthusiastically for lib-owning social media stars like Charlie Kirk. In another, you see the endangered old-guard Republicans—free enterprising, interventionist, Nikki Haley types. Massive statues of Donald Trump adorn the bridge between the two wings.
MAGA and the former establishment comprise the largest exhibits. But other, smaller habitats feature more exotic breeds. A workshop houses techno-futurists building reactors and robots. In the cathedral, Catholic Integralists chant devotionals to state religion. The weight-lifting room is reserved for denizens of the manosphere. The Libertarian playground has no rules. A warning sign hangs above the gate to the hunting grounds, where conspiracists and antisemites stalk vulnerable prey.
The exotic fauna isn’t new. There always have been different types of conservatives, reactionaries, and counterrevolutionaries. Internal disagreement is a hallmark of modern American conservatism. Factional arguments are loud. Intellectuals are nasty. But conservatives have cohered behind opposition to progressivism at home and abroad.
