The Modern American Conservative Movement is Bankrupt and Anti-American

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The modern American conservative movement claims the mantle of the Founders while systematically rejecting everything the Founders built. This is not philosophical tension or good-faith disagreement about constitutional interpretation. This is straightforward fraud—claiming reverence for principles you abandon the moment they constrain what you want.

For forty years, conservatives lectured America about constitutional fidelity, originalism, limited government, and the rule of law. The Federalist Society built an entire legal movement on the premise that judges should faithfully apply constitutional constraints rather than impose their preferences. Conservative politicians wrapped themselves in the Founders’ language, invoking constitutional principles at every opportunity.

And what happens when they finally achieve power? Systematic constitutional violations excused as necessary. Fourth Amendment constraints treated as obstacles. Warrantless mass detentions justified by urgent necessity. Military-style raids on families with traffic tickets celebrated as victories. Due process dismissed as luxury we cannot afford.

In a riveting piece, published by ProPublica this week, reporters documented the reality: three hundred agents, helicopters, SWAT teams, flash-bang grenades, and propaganda cameras—all to arrest dishwashers and construction workers that officials lied about being terrorists. Zero criminal charges filed. Families with children marched out barefoot while agents wrote apartment numbers on their foreheads. American citizens zip-tied and detained for hours without cause.

And the response from some conservatives I know? “If Democrats had enforced immigration laws, this wouldn’t have happened.”

This is moral and intellectual bankruptcy. You cannot simultaneously revere the Constitution and excuse its systematic violation. You cannot invoke the Founders while rejecting the framework they created. You cannot claim to defend American principles while supporting exactly what those principles were designed to prevent.

The Founders built constitutional constraints to bind government power especially when officials claim urgent necessity. They knew that every violation would be justified by claiming serious problems. That’s precisely why they created a framework that says: No. Find constitutional means or accept that some problems cannot be addressed through government power.

When conservatives excuse Fourth Amendment violations because immigration enforcement requires it, they reveal their choice: expedience over principle, outcomes over process, power over constraints. This is the nationalist position—honest when people like JD Vance articulate it explicitly, contemptible when your conservative neighbors pretend they’re defending the Constitution while supporting its demolition.

But notice the selective application. When it’s gun rights, constitutional constraints are sacred and absolute. When it’s religious freedom, every procedural protection matters enormously. When it’s property rights, limits on government power are essential.

But when it’s immigration enforcement? Constitutional constraints become obstacles. Fourth Amendment protections become technicalities. Due process becomes luxury. The Constitution suddenly shouldn’t prevent necessary action.

They call themselves constitutionalists. Originalists. I would call them walking examples of moral failure and intellectual bankruptcy. Harsh, yes. But an unavoidable conclusion, I think.

The Founders would recognize this pattern immediately. It’s what they designed the Constitution to prevent: officials claiming urgent circumstances justify bypassing constraints. They built a framework that binds always or binds never—there is no middle ground where constraints apply when convenient but yield when enforcement demands it.

Once you accept rule by exception, you have no rules. Today it’s Fourth Amendment violations for immigration. Tomorrow it’s due process suspended for crime. Next week it’s First Amendment curtailed for security. Next month it’s democratic accountability eliminated for decisive action. Every authoritarian in history has governed this way.

The modern conservative movement has made its choice: nationalism over constitutionalism, power over constraint, expedience over law. They’ve decided constitutional limits should yield when they conflict with desired outcomes.

That’s their right. But they should stop lying about it. Stop wrapping themselves in the Founders while rejecting the Founders’ framework. Stop claiming constitutional reverence while supporting constitutional violations. Stop invoking American principles while pursuing anti-American practices.

You cannot revere principles you willingly violate. You cannot honor the Constitution you abandon when it constrains you. You cannot be constitutional conservatives while supporting authoritarian nationalism.

The modern American conservative movement is intellectually bankrupt and fundamentally anti-American. And they prove it every time they excuse another violation while invoking the Constitution they’ve already abandoned.

Rich, coming from the movement that sermonized the virtues of “personal responsibility.”

Remember what’s real.

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