Talk:Traditionalist conservatism

Caleb Stegall
Stegall is identified as an "evangelical Protestant," which is incorrect. (His background is the Scottish Presbyterian, Covenanter tradition.) It is also not a very meaningful term nor one Stegall would be likely to embrace or use based on his criticism of Evangelicals. (Google "Caleb Stegall Evangelical" and also "Caleb Stegall Covenanter.") This is probably indicative of the Gen-X neo-traditionalists not liking "the religious right" too much and tending to see Evangelicals as either part of it or a failed middle path between fundamentalism and liberalism. In Stegall's view evangelicalism generally comes out as liberalism, due to it's "whiggish" tendencies. (http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=21-07-013-v) 67.22.206.238 (talk) 15:22, 10 April 2013 (UTC)

Early 19th Century through late 19th Century
John Randolph of Roanoke should be mentioned in this section, he was very much the Traditionalist conservative and presents a counterpoint to the more centralist and nationalist Whigs.122.106.255.15 (talk) 23:31, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Merge with Paleoconservatism
The distinction between this and paleoconservatism isn't quite clear. Are they so distinct as to warrant seperate pages?Atripodi (talk) 08:22, 30 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Yes. I think the best way of looking at is this: traditionalist conservatism is a philosophy and outlook on the world.  Paleoconservatism, on the other hand, is one possible political manifestation of a traditionalist conservatism.  Furthermore, I don't think it would be all that out of place to recognize that some paleoconservatives would not fit in with the traditionalist philosophy.  That is, they arrive at the paleoconservative political position by route of other philosophies.

This is nicely argued in the 'Traditionalist conservatism and paleoconservatism' section of this article.

Since no one has really discussed the merger in over a year, would it be out of line to remove the merger tag? --patton1138 (talk) 21:34, 8 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Let's find out i.e. I removed it.--T. Anthony (talk) 10:33, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

They are in fact different. "Traditional conservative" was a term used by modern American conservatives to refer to the type of conservatism known in the UK. Viereck and Kirk believed that there was a conservative tradition in America, but their theory has been vigorously challenged by Thomas Harz, Auerbach and Frank S. Meyer and others. Suggest that this article is amended to reflect that with sources of course. The Four Deuces (talk) 18:17, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

I define myself as a traditionalist conservative and yet I strongly deny being a paleoconservative. Do not merge the pages. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.78.182.137 (talk) 05:54, 5 July 2015 (UTC)

Contemporary Traditionalist section
Is it really necessary to have a section comprising mainly of a list, in the form of a massive (aka: unhelpful) paragraph, about every traditionalist conservative scholar in American academia? Really? Why not make an actual list? Or boil it down to a few notable ones. Or better yet, provide a link to a page called "Contemporary traditionalist conservative scholars" that has this data on it.

Just a thought. 79.146.140.241 (talk) 19:55, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

This section, along with much of the rest of the article, would benefit by inclusion of quotations illustrating some of the cited traditionalists' views. As is, a good deal of the article reads simply as a list of individual's names and publications, and less as an account of actual traditionalist views and positions. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.83.97.213 (talk) 18:04, 3 April 2013 (UTC)

Change title to "Classical Conservatism"
It would seem that the philosophy of which this article speaks goes by several names -- amongst these are Classical Conservatism, Burkean Conservatism and Traditionalist Conservatism.

It would seem, however, that to refer to Classical Conservatism or Classic Conservatism, or conservatism in the classical tradition would be be more dominant term used.

Thus I would question whether traditionalist conservastism would be the best title for the article.

Change title to 'Traditionalism'
The term 'Traditionalist conservatism' is a rarely (if ever) used term in the Traditionalist community. I would also like to point out that Traditionalists often tend to disassociate themselves with the conservative movement. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Moonis74 (talk • contribs) 11:52, 27 December 2013 (UTC)

uncited material
There is a great deal of uncited material in the article, much of it involving living people. According to WP policy, uncited material about living people is subject to removal unless cited, and I think one or the other needs to be done.  DGG ( talk ) 06:14, 8 March 2015 (UTC)

This whole article...SMH
This does not read as a neutral voiced, scholarly, informative article of Wikipedia quality as much as an essay by someone mildly enamored with one tiny fraction of the real whole topic. It's like someone listing several of their favorite moon craters, with names and shapes, then submitting the article as "The Milky Way Galaxy."

"Traditionalists defend classical Western civilization"? Oh, really? Does that include Muslims? How about Confucianists? Or does the author of this article claim that neither of them are traditionalist?

Did Phillip of Macedonia's locally notoriously stodgy brother-in-law "value an education informed by the texts of the Roman and Medieval eras"? [Sorry, I made that man up just to make the point.]

Did tradition minded Romans in the era of villas with hundreds of slaves, or for that matter American southern plantation owners antebellum, get misty-eyed at the thought of small family farms?

Do Orthodox rabbis derive their values from the teachings of Edmund Burke?

And all that doesn't even mention how every "traditionalist conservative" Christian in the religious faith paragraph barring the single Roman Catholic would have been executed for his shockingly mad radical ideas during many centuries in Europe. It might even include the Catholic too if he's following a fairly recent interpretation.

The entire premise of this article is, in a sense, flawed, since one era and place's conservative might be preoccupied with "conserving" ideas and institutions that another era and place's would find alien or repugnant. But if people insist on the fool's errand, they're going to at least have to try harder than this and probably offer ten times more information. GLWT. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.187.182.72 (talk) 05:46, 19 March 2020 (UTC)
 * I agree. The article is almost entirely about Anglophone countries. It would be best if it was rewritten from scratch. Ffranc (talk) 09:29, 7 January 2021 (UTC)

Andrew Vincent
"Traditionalist conservatism places greatest emphasis on the notions of custom, convention and tradition. This is the conservatism that we are most familiar with in the usual image of Burke. Theoretical reason is disparaged over and against prejudice and practical reason. The state is a communal enterprise with spiritual and organic qualities. The constitution of the community is not a human artefact but the cumulative, unpredictable result of years of practice. Change is something which, if it does happen, is not the result of intentional reasoned thought. It flows naturally out of the traditions of the community. Leadership, authority and hierarchy are again natural products. We obey as easily as we breathe. Our liberties and rights are rooted in our communal norms" (p. 63)

"Traditionalist conservatism: most significant component of conservatism; placed a massive emphasis on the role of tried and tested communal traditions, customs, institutions and conventions as the basis for any meaningful politics, morality or legal structures. Profoundly suspicious of all the ideologies founded on Enlightenment conceptions of human freedom and reason. Humans, in all their activities, are seen as creatures of prejudice and habit who prefer organic slow change and appreciate established time-honoured practices of authoritative rule, rather than a politics based upon reason, modernity or progress" (p. 342)

, you can see that there is nothing about nation or culture. Wikisaurus (talk) 20:35, 5 August 2023 (UTC)


 * ”Culture” is a relevant term in connection to tradition. But we may definitely remove the term ”nation.” Under the section Key principles: Patriotism, localism and regionalism, a distinction is drawn between patriotism/localism and nationalism. Trakking (talk) 20:57, 5 August 2023 (UTC)
 * Can you provide RS that purports your claim? Wikisaurus (talk) 13:36, 6 August 2023 (UTC)

Can add a sub section on Joseph de Maistre
Hi everybody,

Apologies as I am newer to wikipedia and still struggle with sourcing and editing. However something came to mind. I recently tried to add a sub section about Joseph de Maistre right underneath Edmund Burke on the historical influences section, as I believe Maistre has a significant effect on european phiolosophy which would warrant a sub section. However, it was deleted (understandably, i didnt source it correctly.) However, if anybody is skilled enough in doing so, I think it would be good to place one section underneath and add perhaps a photo of Maistre + information on his ideology, perhaps how Maistrean views differ from France at the time and whatnot. Monsieurzro (talk) 05:15, 23 January 2024 (UTC)

Tradition and custom section
There is some text about the contrast between pragmatic conservatism vs rationalist/universal conservatism. i found it a little confusing, would like to see more description added to clarify potentially. Philipbrochard (talk) 02:56, 24 January 2024 (UTC)

Request to remove Orthodox Conservatism section
Hi everyone,

I am requesting the section on orthodox conservatism might need to be removed. I looked it up and it seems that the links they provided show that "orthodox conservatism" is not actually a real field like orthodox marxism, rather is refers to some recently made political organization in England associated with the conservative party there. I think it is misleading and poorly sourced, and not relevant either. Philipbrochard (talk) 09:43, 12 February 2024 (UTC)

New Conservatives
From what I've gathered, the term "traditionalist conservatism" was championed by some American anticommunists such as Russell Kirk and Will Herberg in the Cold War era. These are conventionally known as the New Conservatives. Their concept "traditionalist conservatism" was based on an idea about British politics, which according to them contained some kind of purer conservatism than the way the word had been used in the United States, but in reality they invented their own political ideology with little in common with conservatism in Britain or elsewhere.

I don't think this article can be salvaged, because it's completely based on synthesis and original research as an attempt to make a comprehensive philosophy out of this postwar American rhetorical device. At the same time, it is weird that Wikipedia doesn't have an article about the New Conservatives, who were somewhat prominent at one point and have a significant amount of literature devoted to them. I do however see that New Conservatism redirects here, so they are to some extent already treated as interchangeable terms.

The best solution I can see is to scrap this article and replace it with an article about the New Conservatives, which can include an explanation of how they used the term "traditionalist conservatism" as part of their rhetoric. I'm not sure about the best way to do this, if we should completely rewrite this article and move it, or if it's best to create a new article and turn this into a redirection. Uriahheep228 (talk) 15:00, 3 May 2024 (UTC)

Name change
Should we just change the title of this article to 'classical conservatism'? 'Classical conservatism' appears to be more common than 'traditionalist conservatism' according to Google Ngram. Also, this would be consistent with other articles such as classical liberalism, classical radicalism and classical Marxism. &#45;ndha- (talk) 05:54, 8 July 2024 (UTC)