Michael Lucchese on Understanding Reagan's Conservatism and Buchanan's Populism

In this episode of Civitas Conversations, Richard M. Reinsch II interviews Michael Lucchese about his recent Civitas Outlook article "Not-So-Beautiful Losers: How Conservatism Won the Cold War – and Lost the Peace." In it, Lucchese argues that figures like Samuel T. Francis and Pat Buchanan abandoned Reagan's principled conservatism in the 1990s, embracing what he calls "right-wing Marxism," which focuses on class warfare and grievances rather than the principles of the American Founding. He contends this shift toward populist extremism planted the seeds for today's polarized politics and calls for a return to Reagan's approach that appealed to Americans' better angels rather than their fears and resentments.

Michael Lucchese is the founder of Pipe Creek Consulting, an associate editor of Law & Liberty, and a contributing editor to Providence.