What is a Conservative?

Republican…Right-Wing…Conservative?

In our modern political discussions, these terms are often used interchangeably, but do they actually mean the same thing? Not quite.

Each of these terms actually refers to something distinct, and they cannot be quite so easily equivocated. In this post, my aim is to help draw a meaningful distinction between the three and to help give a more proper definition of what it means to be “Conservative.”

The Root of Conservatism

Conservatism, at its core, is not about politics. It’s more a philosophy of life than anything else. Foundationally, Conservatives care about conserving the ways of the past, however that might apply. This desire for the past comes not from some longing for “the good old days,” but in a desire to see the flourishing of the “permanent things;” those things that last. Given this desire, someone who is Conservative will be conservative when it comes to their family, their job, their church, their free time, etc. Politics is only one part of the larger picture.

Because Conservatism is a life philosophy and not merely a political philosophy, Conservatism looks different in different contexts. A Conservative in America will look different than a Conservative in Saudi Arabia. An American Conservative in Saudi Arabia might be considered quite liberal or progressive!

American Conservatism

In the American context, then, what makes someone a Conservative? Ponder this for a moment and ask, “What in the American Tradition might someone be trying to conserve?”

The United States of America, for its part, is a child of many coalescing factors. The first major stream that makes America what it is is its connection to the Great Western Tradition. The Great Tradition is, essentially, a continual conversation going on in the Western World from the time of Plato and Aristotle until today. America, as an idea, was born from this conversation.

The second stream that formed America was its connection to Christianity, which is itself connected to the Great Western Tradition. While we can debate the connection point, the Western Tradition, by and large, adopted Christianity in the 400s AD with the writings of St. Augustine. From that point on, Christianity has been deeply ingrained in Western Culture. American, since its inception, has been rooted in a Christian understanding of reality.

The third stream, which is ultimately an outpouring of the other two, is our application of English Liberty. Stemming from the philosophy of John Locke, the American Founders argued for a system of freedom known as “Liberty.” Liberty, in its historic context, is not unmitigated freedom; rather, it is the freedom to do that which you ought to do. As President John Adams famously articulated, the American system is for a “moral and upright people.” In other words, the early American understanding of freedom (liberty) was rooted in a principled restraint of oneself and the moral grounding to make rightly ordered decisions.

Each of these streams entails an intentional connectedness to history. Given that Conservatives are trying to conserve the past, it makes sense that they must appreciate and understand the past. At the end of the day, one easy way of articulating conservatism is to say that it is an understanding of how we are connected to, and rooted in, the past.

What About Republicans and Right-Wingers?

It is unfortunate in our contemporary context that we colloquially refer to Republicans and those on the “political right” as “conservative.” While it is true that the Republican Party has become the political home of many Conservatives, the Party itself is not fundamentally conservative.

The Republican Party, since its inception in the 1850s, has always been what we might call a “center-right” Party. What surprises many people is that, in its beginnings, the Republicans were the party of the Northern cultural elite and wanted a significantly stronger central government than their rivals, the Democrats. In the 1850s, the Democrats were a largely right-wing and conservative party! While the Democratic Party has shifted hard to the progressive left, the Republican Party has more or less stayed the course as a center-right party.

What may be even more surprising to people is that, going back to at least the early 20th Century, particularly with the presidency of Republican Theodore Roosevelt, many Republicans have been Progressives. If one looks at the Progressivism page on Wikipedia, Roosevelt is featured prominently. How can it be that the Republicans, the party on the right, can have Progressives in it?

This is possible, quite simply, because Progressivism, much like Conservatism, is a life philosophy that is not principally concerned with politics. Progressivism is functionally the opposite of Conservatism; Progressives seek to distance themselves from the past and instead look to create a “better” world in the future. Progressives tend to see history as a series of mistakes and build their politics around fixing those perceived mistakes.

The first real attempt at Progressivism occurred shortly after the American War for Independence during the French Revolution. The French Revolutionaries wanted to “progress” away from the societal norms they were rejecting, including Christianity.

It is in the voting halls of the French Revolutionaries that we first see the “right/left-wing” split; those who were more radical sat on the left side, and those who wished to retain certain elements of the old order sat on the right.

Eventually, a similar ordering began to take place in America; those who are more radically Progressive are “left-wing” and those who are less Progressive are “right-wing.”

A confusing element here is that right-wing progressives and Conservatives tend to appreciate many of the same political outcomes: decentralized government, lower taxes, pro-Second Amendment laws, a certain kind of nationalism, etc. While there are some practical differences (Conservatives have no tolerance for things like abortion or homosexual marriage, where many right-wingers are more tolerant), the main difference comes in the why of policies. Conservatives are voting out of continuity with the Great Tradition. Right-wingers are defined more by their opposition to left-wing progressivism than by positive allegiance to a tradition.

This brings us back to the Republicans. The current Republican Party is a hodgepodge political party that houses both right-wing Progressives and Conservatives, united more by coalition politics than philosophical coherence. This is not to make a slight against the Republican Party; it is just to say that it is not synonymous with “Conservative,” nor is it “the Conservative party.”

Why These Distinctions Matter

A Conservative is someone who principally desires to maintain and stand within the Great Western Tradition. To be Conservative requires a knowledge of history, of philosophy, of Christianity, and of one’s relation to all of these things.

Understanding the difference between these three terms is not mere semantic pedantry; it’s essential for clear thinking in our current political moment. When we conflate “conservative,” “right-wing,” and “Republican,” we lose the ability to articulate what we actually believe and why we believe it. A Conservative who votes Republican because the party happens to align with certain traditional values is making a fundamentally different kind of choice than a right-winger who votes Republican simply to oppose the Left. The first is voting for something: a vision rooted in history, tradition, and transcendent truth. The second is voting against something: a reaction to Progressive ideology.

This distinction becomes particularly significant when the Republican Party shifts positions (as parties inevitably do), or when conservatives find themselves at odds with right-wing populism, or when Republicans embrace policies that progressives championed a generation ago. Without clear definitions, we cannot have meaningful debates about whether we should support a given candidate, policy, or movement. We’re left arguing past each other, using the same words to mean entirely different things.

To be a Conservative is to ask “what are we conserving, and why?” If we wish to maintain our great republic, founded on the cornerstone of the Great Tradition, let us seek to conserve and preserve the inheritance that has been handed to us.

Discussion Questions:

• Can you think of an issue where Conservatives and right-wingers might diverge?

• Is it possible, practically speaking, to be a conservative outside the Republican Party in 2025?

Relevant Reads

The Conservative Mind by Russell Kirk (A Northern Conservative Perspective)

In Defense of Tradition by Richard Weaver (A Southern Conservative Perspective)

The Founding Fathers’ Guide to the Constitution by Brion McClanahan (For Originalist Perspectives)

Photo by sue hughes on Unsplash