Ben Shapiro on the State of Modern Conservatism

“I think you have to separate conservatism from reactions to the Left. I don’t think they’re quite the same thing. Conservatism is starting to get more popular because of reaction to the Left.”

Conservative columnist and media personality Ben Shapiro joined Merion West’s Erich Prince on May 30th, 2017 to discuss how he sees the current state of conservatism in America, the unpopularity of the media and Congress, his favorite Founding Father, and the real causes of America’s drug problem.

Mr. Shapiro, thank you for being with us today. To start off, I’d like to ask you about the state of conservatism in the United States. You’re obviously very popular, particularly among young people. Do you think conservatism is on the rise and being rediscovered by young people?

I think you have to separate conservatism from reactions to the Left. I don’t think they’re quite the same thing. Conservatism is starting to get more popular because of reaction to the Left, and I also think that anti-Left movements that aren’t necessarily conservative are on the rise. This is not necessarily something I’m super excited about—not because I don’t despise the Left but because what’s replacing the Left isn’t necessarily a big improvement. The alt-right is something I obviously find repugnant, so watching them rise is a problem.

Do you see your role, in part, then as guiding the opposition to the Left towards a grounding in a set of principles such as constitutionalism rather than encouraging opposition to the Left by hook or by crook?

Yes that’s the idea. The idea is to understand why the Left despises the Right and understand that the replacement for that is not a tribalism of the Right but rather a universalism within the founding principles.