JD Vance’s Past Embrace of the ‘Post-Liberal Right’ Sparks Fierce Debate

Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) both voiced their strong opposition to the emerging ideology known as the “post-liberal right” on Friday — as the topic was hotly debated on X.

RealClearPolitics White House reporter Philip Wegmann interviewed Scott this week, and while promoting the interview on Friday, noted, “I asked Sen. Tim Scott about the post-liberal right the other day, folks like Adrian Vermeule and Curtis Yarvin. Those writers (who Vice President Vance reads) argue that the original Constitution is insufficient for confronting modern problems.”

Wegmann added that in their conversation, Scott “wasn’t having any of it and argued that the reason the founding documents are sufficient is because human nature is unchanging.”

“Our documents have stood the test of time for a reason. Why? Embedded in them all–rather stated explicitly or implicitly–is this notion that we get our true value from God, not from each other, and not from a government, not from an institution, but from the Lord Himself,” Scott told Wegmann,

pushing back on the idea that the U.S. system of laws needs reform.

Bacon also weighed in on the topic, posting on X Friday, “The ‘post liberal right’ is not conservative. There is a vast difference between the private and public sectors. The private sector makes the whole economy possible.”

Bacon’s comment appeared to be in response to a viral clip making the rounds of Vance. The clip of Vance was captioned, “JD Vance identifying himself as part of ‘the postliberal right’ and saying, ‘there is no meaningful distinction between the public and the private sector in the American regime’ at a May 2023 ISI event with his friends Patrick Deneen & Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts.”

Ahead of the 2024 election, the Associated Press took a deep dive into Vance’s affiliation with the “post-liberal right.” The report noted that after Vance converted to Catholicism, he was “in

close touch with a Catholic intellectual movement, viewed by some critics as having reactionary or authoritarian leanings, that has been little known to the American public until Vance’s rise to the national stage as the Republican vice presidential nominee. These are not your father’s Catholic conservatives.”

The article summed up the ideology, noting the post-liberal right “envision[s] a counterrevolution in which they would take over government bureaucracy and institutions like universities from within, replacing entrenched ‘elites’ with their own and acting upon their vision of the ‘common good.’”

Below are some more reactions to debate this week on the topic:

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