National Conservatives represent a resurgent strand of right-wing politics that prioritizes the nation—its sovereignty, borders, culture, and citizens—over abstract principles of free markets or universal values. They argue that the conservative movement lost its way by embracing globalist economics and interventionist foreign policy while neglecting the communities and traditions that actually sustain human flourishing.
This strain emerged as a self-conscious movement in the late 2010s, crystallized by conferences organized by the Edmund Burke Foundation and intellectuals like Yoram Hazony. But its roots run deeper: to the paleoconservative tradition of Pat Buchanan, the "Middle American Radicals" identified by Sam Francis, and ultimately to a pre-Cold War conservatism that prioritized nation over ideology.
National Conservatives critique both libertarian economics and neoconservative foreign policy. They argue free trade hollowed out American manufacturing, open immigration depressed wages and eroded social cohesion, and democracy promotion abroad wasted blood and treasure while neglecting problems at home. "America First" isn't just a slogan—it's a genuine reorientation of priorities.
Culturally, National Conservatives emphasize the particular over the universal. They see nations as natural units with distinct characters worth preserving. Mass immigration isn't just an economic issue but a cultural one: rapid demographic change disrupts the intergenerational transmission of traditions, values, and identity that conservatives believe essential to social flourishing.
At roughly 3.5% of the population, National Conservatives punch above their weight through influence in the Trump-era Republican Party and adjacent media. They've shifted GOP positions on trade, immigration, and foreign policy significantly rightward and more nationalist. Critics see them as nativists or ethno-nationalists; supporters see them as returning conservatism to its proper focus on concrete communities rather than abstract ideologies.