My name is Calvin Freiburger. I’m a Wisconsin-based conservative writer with over a decade of professional experience in the pro-life movement and general right-wing blogosphere (for a fuller recap of my background and past work, click here). Currently for my day job I am a journalist with LifeSiteNews.
When I say “conservative,” I don’t mean libertarian, populist, nationalist, isolationist, America-First, MAGA, “New Right,” neocon, paleocon, reformocon, tradcon, common-good con, crunchy con, “compassionate” con, or whatever other assorted flavors have popped up over the years.
I mean conservative. As in conserving the principles and lesson of the American Founding:
Individual rights to life, liberty, and property that are equally endowed by God to every human being, which government exists to protect via a constitutional framework of limited and divided powers.
Recognition that the conditions of liberty must be transmitted from generation to generation by education geared toward understanding of and appreciation for the American system, and that the inexorable defects of human nature must be kept in check by morality-based social norms and strong cultural institutions such as religion, marriage, and family.
Understanding that free markets are both more just and more effective at promoting prosperity and raising standards of living than central planning, but are undermined when government indulges favoritism toward any specific business interest.
A commitment to defending America’s people and sovereignty that does not confuse independence from “entangling alliances” with blindness to dangers abroad.
Mindfulness that the ill-considered passions from majorities in the thrall of groupthink and the hubristic machinations of an unaccountable elite can be equally dangerous to a free society.
Everything worthwhile that might be found in the aforementioned -ists, -cons, and other offshoots can already be found in vanilla conservatism, properly understood. Where they deviate from informed, rational application of the Founders’ principles, the results tend to be impotent exercises in perpetual navel-gazing at best, and hotbeds of destructive idiocy at worst.
If my ideology absolutely must have a modifier, I will accept results conservative, because that’s what’s been missing most from national right-wing politics: not theory, but action.
The Left’s mostly-uninterrupted ascent ever since Republicans squandered the Reagan Revolution isn’t due to any particular deficiency in conservative principles; it’s because for the last three decades, the GOP has been led by people who don’t believe in conservative principles, don’t care about conservative policies, don’t have confidence in the appeal of conservative ideas, and/or don’t have any idea how to sell conservatism as the solution to what ails America—in short, we’ve lacked a consistent, competent commitment at the national level to translating the ideas that fill right-wing books, websites, and airwaves into concrete action to retake societal ground claimed by the Left.
That’s hardly an original observation; “establishment” has been one of the Right’s dirtiest words for a long time, and with good reason. Unfortunately, these days the Right’s problems go much, much deeper.
THE SITUATION
The conservative movement is in crisis. Democrats are more aggressive than ever in tasking government organs with destroying their enemies, hijacked institutions pump more leftist groupthink into the culture than ever before, national Republicans are as ineffectual as ever in stopping any of it, and at a time when we so desperately need—and have!—a relentless conservative warrior to lead a viable counteroffensive, scores of us instead remain beholden to an immoral, incompetent, unconservative, self-obsessed man-child who comprehensively failed the task once before. All the while, hostile regimes across the ocean pursue ambitions that will eventually affect us, regardless of the conspiracies that get popularized to explain them away.
Instead of serious voices confronting the crisis head-on, professional conservatism is fractured by cowards who see sycophancy as a fair price for access to politicians; grifters who downplay, falsely equivocate about, or refuse to take sides on decisions vital to the country’s survival because staying on the good side of bad politicians is better for business; pure opportunists who’ve made a cottage industry out of promoting and lying for degenerate candidates; establishmentarians who oppose some of the bad actors within our ranks yet fail to reckon with how their own misdeeds and support for other bad actors fuel the populist fervor sustaining them; niche factions exploiting current confusion to push their quixotic, overlapping pet rebrandings of conservatism; and lunatic snake-oil salesmen who get legitimized by conservative personalities who know better.
This is not to say the Right is entirely a wasteland, far from it. Many dedicated individuals and issue groups continue to do good work, as do a host of governors and state lawmakers whose pursuit of pro-life, anti-woke reforms consistently puts congressional Republicans to shame. And the rank-and-file discourse is full of conservatives who recognize and want answers to all of the above. But these frustrated Americans have no champions in the top tiers of professional conservatism, no entity focused on diagnosing or curing what ails our movement.
THE SOLUTION
With this Substack, I hope to offer a model of what conservative punditry is missing. We don’t need the same daily stories reworded several dozen ways across as many outlets. We don’t need to churn out infinite white papers on ideal policies, constantly repeat the same takedowns of leftism to people who already agree with us, impotently complain about Democrats to audiences that already hate Democrats, or hear the same introductory civics lectures for the thousandth time. And we sure as hell don’t need more pandering to whatever misconceptions and maladies happen to be in vogue at the moment, or assurances that everything will be fine because…well, it just will.
We need understanding of conservative first principles unswayed by the ideological fads of the moment, but also not blind to the practical dimensions of how to apply them to the moment’s challenges and the public’s needs. A commitment to moral standards for their own sake, not as an insincere front for tribal allegiances. Ruthless objectivity about everyone on our own side contributing to the Right’s degradation and defeat, with a willingness to name names unconstrained by personal relationships, professional associations, or career interests. And a relentless insistence on results.
While the sins, dangers, and general wrongness of the Left will of course be part of the conversation here, they will not be the primary focus. This is a venue for frank, sober analysis of how to save and restore America, whether the conservative movement’s various organs are effectively helping toward those ends, and why the answer is so often a resounding “no.” I’m not going to sugarcoat how bad things are or shy away from identifying the guilty parties. I’m not going to indulge milquetoasts or crackpots on any issue. I’m not going to push two-bit miracle cures. I’m going to talk about the absolute truth as best I know it, and what it’s really going to take to pursue it.
If that sounds like what you’ve been looking for, read on.
THE SUBSTACK
After experimenting with a paid subscription model for a few months, in January 2024 I decided to switch to completely free articles, 3 to 4 a week published from Tuesday to Friday at 5PM Central (excluding holidays) and delivered right to your inbox. In the near future a paid option will be restored and tied strictly to commenting privileges (to screen out trolls), but unlike certain political committees and major media companies, you will never be pressured or shamed here into forking over so much as a penny.
Thank you so much for your support, and even more importantly for your passion to see sanity restored to conservatism and, ultimately, to America.
The views expressed on Conservative Standards are strictly my own, and do not necessarily reflect those of any other organizations or publications where I am or have been employed and/or my work is or has been featured, nor do they necessarily reflect the views of any individuals employed by or otherwise affiliated with such groups.
