The new right that emerged in American politics after Donald Trump’s 2016 victory, manifest first in memes and secondarily in podcasts and policy journals and think tanks, prided itself on staring contemporary realities in the face rather than taking refuge in Reagan-era platitudes, recognizing all the things that the conservatism of the prior 20 years had failed to meaningfully conserve.
For its many critics—Reaganite and centrist and left wing—the movement’s claim to know what time it is was a bully’s credo, or a youthful boast unseasoned by experience.
But younger eyes really do see certain things more clearly, and in the late 2010s and early 2020s the new right had a strong claim to be more in tune with the American moment than many rival factions.
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