The question of which philosophies and sensibilities define the American conservative movement has become much murkier in recent years. Like a torn battle standard, the label has found itself snatched up by all sorts of right-wingers, anti-left-wingers and — confusingly — anti-anti-right-wingers. These factions subscribe to wildly different ideologies. In fact, they often diametrically oppose one another, obscuring the question further. Whatever commonalities they share stem from a mutual distaste for the woke left.

One ideological rash that has spread across this loose ideological confederation is an obsession with ends and an ambivalence for the means. Proper procedure and the oft-maligned cultural and moral norms have found themselves frequently trampled in pursuit of some sundry policy victory or — of greater import — “owning the libs.” This rash often festers into the bleeding sore of “Great Man” worship, a disease of the human condition that transcends time. It is the belief that if the political right could concentrate sufficient political power in a great singular leader (or Übermensch), he will lead We the People, to political and cultural victory.

In the American context, however, hardly anything could be less politically conservative, in the sense that few ideas could be........

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