Life in the Old Right by Murray N. Rothbard

First published in=20 Chronicles, August=20 1994.

One=20 problem with labeling ideological movements "old" or "new" = is that=20 inevitably, with the passage of time, the "new" becomes an = "old" and=20 the markers get confusing. In the modern, post-World War II = right=20 wing, there have been a number of "news" and "olds" over the = past=20 half-century. But what I call the "Old Right" has an = excellent claim=20 to that label; for it was the original, oldest right, and it = was in=20 many ways radically different from all the rights that have = followed=20 after its demise.

The=20 original right of which I speak, and of which I am one of = the few=20 survivors, stretched from 1933 to its approximate death, or = fading=20 away, upon the advent of National Review in 1955. The = Old=20 Right began in 1933 in response to the coming of the New = Deal. It=20 was "reactionary" in the best and most generous sense: it = was a=20 horrified reaction against the Roosevelt Revolution, against = the=20 Great Leap Forward toward collectivism that enraptured = socialist=20 intellectuals and enraged those who were devoted to the = institutions=20 and the strict limitations on centralized government power = that=20 marked the Old Republic.

Last=20 fall, David Lauter, writing a think-piece in the Los = Angeles=20 Times about the Clinton health plan, wittingly or = unwittingly=20 echoed Maoist terminology about this Great Leap Forward, = declaring=20 that "every so often... the government collectively braces = itself,=20 takes a deep breath, and leaps into a largely unknown = future." The=20 Clinton health plan is such a leap, Lauter noted; the = previous Great=20 Leap was the civil rights laws of the 1960s; and before = that, in=20 perhaps the primordial leap, was the New Deal of the 1930s, = when the=20 nation agreed "to give the federal government a whole new = set of=20 responsibilities =96 from providing social security for the = elderly to=20 establishing a new system of national regulatory agencies to = monitor=20 the economy."

A=20 fairly good summation, except that instead of the "nation" = agreeing=20 to give powers to the government the New Deal proceeded in = the=20 manner of all nonviolent revolutions: it was the federal = government=20 and its new rulers that seized power, drove through a flurry = of=20 socialistic measures, and then won "agreement" by using the = levers=20 of propaganda and opinion-molding in society, as well as by = relying=20 on the sheer force of inertia and habit once the new = institutions=20 were in place.

The=20 Old, original, Right realized the horrors of the New Deal = and=20 predicted the collectivist road on which it was setting the = nation.=20 The Old Right was a coalition of ideologies and forces that = did not=20 have one single, common, positive program, but "negatively" = it was=20 solidly united: all opposed the New Deal and were committed = to its=20 total repeal and abolition =96 lock, stock, and barrel. The = fact that=20 its unity was "negative" did not make it any less strong or=20 cohesive: for there was total agreement on rolling back this = collective excrescence and on restoring the Old Republic, = the true=20 America.

The=20 Old Right coalition consisted of the following elements. = Most=20 "extreme" were the libertarian and individualist writers and = intellectuals: H. L. Mencken, Albert Jay Nock, Rose Wilder = Lane,=20 Garet Garrett, all people who had resisted what they = believed to be=20 the mounting statism of the Republican regime of the 1920s = and who=20 called for an ultraminimal government that would have rolled = back=20 the statism of the Progressive period, the Civil War and=20 Reconstruction eras, and perhaps the judicial despotism of = Chief=20 Justice John Marshall. Next came now virtually forgotten = remnants of=20 the conservative, states' rights Democrats of the nineteenth = century, largely from the South, whose views were almost as=20 libertarian as the first group's. These men were led by = Governor=20 Albert Ritchie of Maryland, who was a candidate for the = Democratic=20 presidential nomination in 1932, and Senator James A. Reed = from=20 Missouri. The third group consisted of conservative = Republicans who=20 were outraged at New Deal democracy and who largely came = from the=20 Midwest. Former Progressives and statists, who believed that = the New=20 Deal was going much too far, formed the final group; its = leader was=20 former President Herbert Hoover, who, though he had launched = many=20 New Deal measures in microcosm in his own administration, = denounced=20 the New Deal for going too far into "fascism." It was the = first=20 group that set the tone, since individualist and libertarian = rhetoric provided the only general concepts with which New = Deal=20 measures could be opposed. The result, however, was that = hack=20 Republican politicians found themselves mouthing libertarian = and=20 antistatist slogans that they did not really believe =96 a = condition=20 that set the stage for a later "moderation" and = abandonment=20 of their seemingly cherished principles.

Unity in our = hostility and=20 hatreds, however, combined with diversity of positive = principle, had=20 a healthy effect on the Old Right. It meant that we could = unite and=20 act together in denouncing and moving against the New Deal = enemy,=20 while disagreeing and arguing in friendly fashion among = ourselves=20 about the kind of America we would ultimately like to = achieve. How=20 much government did we wish to roll back? Stop at 1932, or = press=20 onward to repeal Progressive measures or even the = centralization of=20 the nineteenth century? We were all committed to states' = rights, but=20 how far did we want to carry this view? A few libertarian = extremists=20 wanted to go all the way back to the Articles of=20 Confederation, but the great bulk of the right was committed = to the=20 United States Constitution =96 but a Constitution construed = so=20 "strictly" as to outlaw much twentieth-century legislation,=20 certainly on the federal level.

In=20 those days, it was a pleasure to pore over the voting = records of=20 right-wing Republicans in Congress, especially in the = harder-core=20 House, for the common garden-variety rightists of the = pre-1955 era=20 make the most right-wing congressmen today seem impossibly = leftist=20 and socialistic. My two favorite congressmen were Howard = Buffett of=20 Nebraska and Frederick C. Smith of Ohio, both of whom would=20 invariably draw "zero" ratings from the Americans for = Democratic=20 Action and other leftist groups. I remember being = disappointed that=20 once in a while they might deviate by favoring a federal=20 anti-lynching bill; did they not know that the federal = government is=20 not supposed to have any police powers?

Friendly disagreement = on=20 positive principles meant genuine and healthy diversity and = freedom=20 of discussion within right-wing circles. As Thomas Fleming = noted=20 with astonishment when researching the Old Right, there was = no party=20 line, and there was no organ or central GHQ that = excommunicated=20 "unrespectable" members. There was a wide spectrum of = positive=20 views: ranging from pure libertarian decentralization to=20 Hamilitonian reliance on strong government within rigid = limits to=20 various wings of monarchists. And in all this diversity and = range of=20 discourse, no one would react in shock and horror to any = "extreme"=20 views =96 so long as the "extremism" did not mean selling = out the=20 fight against the New Deal. There was also a great deal of=20 disagreement on specific policies that had been open = questions in=20 the Old, pre-New Deal, Republic: tariffs vs. free trade; = immigration=20 restrictions vs. open borders; and what constitutes a = military or=20 foreign policy truly consistent with American national = interests.=20

The=20 Old Right experienced one big sea change. Originally, its = focus was=20 purely domestic, since that was the concentration of the = early New=20 Deal. But as the Roosevelt administration moved toward world = war in=20 the late 1930s, the Old Right added intense opposition to = the New=20 Deal's war policies to its systemic opposition to the = domestic New=20 Deal revolution. For they realized that, as the libertarian = Randolph=20 Bourne had put it in opposing America's entry into World War = I, "War=20 is the health of the State" and that entry into large-scale = war,=20 especially for global and not national concerns, would = plunge=20 America into a permanent garrison state that would wreck = American=20 liberty and constitutional limits at home even as it = extended the=20 American imperium abroad. As anti-foreign interventionism = was added=20 to the anti-New Deal mix, the Old Right lost some adherents = and=20 gained even more. For Eastern Establishment anti-New = Dealers, such=20 as Lewis Douglas, William L. Clayton, Dean Acheson, and the = Morgan=20 Bank, embraced the entire New Deal package once it came = wrapped in=20 the enticing trappings of American Empire. On the other = hand,=20 antiwar progressives, originally New Dealers, men such as = Senators=20 William Borah and Gerald Nye, intellectuals and writers such = as John=20 T. Flynn and Harry Elmer Barnes, began to realize that there = was=20 something very wrong with a strong state that could expand = into=20 foreign adventures, and so they gradually became anti-New = Dealers in=20 every sense of the word.

World War II added = foreign=20 policy to the mix, so that by the end of the war, the Old = Right was=20 opposed to big government on every front, foreign and = domestic. All=20 parts of the right were opposed to global crusading, to what = Clare=20 Booth Luce wittily labeled "globaloney." They were opposed = to what=20 the former New Deal historian-turned-noninterventionist = Charles A.=20 Beard labeled the foreign policy of "perpetual war for = perpetual=20 peace."

There have been many = memoirs=20 about being Jewish and growing up in New York in the 1930s = and=20 1940s. Although I am a few years younger than most of the = memoirists=20 =96 Irving Howe, Irving Kristol, Alfred Kazin, etc. =96 my = experience=20 was in many ways the same. It was great being a Walker in = the City=20 in that bygone era. New York street life was vital and fun. = There=20 was no harassment, no sense of crime lurking around every = corner.=20 Whites would go up to the Apollo Theater in Harlem to watch = Pearl=20 Bailey and other great entertainers with no sense of fear=20 whatsoever. There were no bums or aggressive beggars on the = street;=20 if anyone wanted to see a bum, they could go to a short = street=20 downtown called the Bowery, where bums or "winos" hung out. = And even=20 they were not strictly "homeless," as they lived in very = cheap=20 Bowery hotels. The streets teemed with fascinating = characters=20 hawking their nostrums and ideologies. Soapboxes in Union = Square or=20 Columbus Circle featured any speaker who wanted to get up = and=20 address the crowd. I remember with affection one elderly guy = working=20 the streets in the Wall Street area, earnestly hawking the = idea that=20 lemonade or lemon juice was the panacea for all bodily ills. = And at=20 that time, New York was studded with inexpensive cafeterias, = where=20 one could sit nursing a cup of coffee for hours and either = read or=20 discuss ideas undisturbed. One guy came to be called = "Senator=20 Mendel," from spending most of his hours in the Senator = Cafeteria on=20 the Upper West Side. Nowadays, of course, such cafeterias = would be=20 filled with aggressive bums and muggers, and quiet or = discourse=20 would be impossible.

Looking back on it = all, the=20 discussions and arguments I got into, whether in street,=20 neighborhood, family, or school, were marked by an = instinctive=20 civility and courtesy. Even though there were lots of = communists=20 around, there were no angry squads of enforcers of political = correctness or threats to send you to brainwashing or = sensitivity=20 training sessions. And even though I was, with the exception = of my=20 father, virtually the only rightist I knew personally, I was = uniformly treated not with hostility but rather with = reactions=20 ranging from astonishment to amused affection.

The=20 one important aspect in which my growing up differed from = these=20 other Jewish memoirists, of course, is that they were some = species=20 of communist or socialist, whereas I was a right-winger and = bitterly=20 antisocialist from the very beginning. I grew up in a = communist=20 culture; the middle-class Jews in New York whom I lived = among,=20 whether family, friends, or neighbors, were either = communists or=20 fellow-travelers in the communist orbit. I had two sets of = Communist=20 Party uncles and aunts, on both sides of the family. But = more=20 important, the one great moral question in the lives of all = these=20 people was: Should I actually join the Communist Party and = devote=20 the whole of my life to the cause, or should I remain a=20 fellow-traveler and "selfishly" devote only a fraction of my = energy=20 to communism? That was it; any species of liberalism, let = alone=20 conservatism, was nonexistent. And, contrary to the fond = memories of=20 Kristol, Howe, Kazin et al., I never heard of a Trotskyist = in this=20 period. Trotskyism was confined to a few intellectuals and = future=20 academics; for middle-class New York Jewry, the political = world=20 revolved around the C.P. (In later years, there was a = reality-based=20 joke on the left: "Whatever happened to the Old Left? The=20 Trotskyites went into academia, and the Stalinists went into = real=20 estate.")

The=20 one exception to this communist milieu was my father, David. = My=20 father emigrated to the United States from a Polish shetl = in=20 1910, impoverished and knowing not a word of English. Like = most=20 immigrants of that era, he had resolved "to become an = American" in=20 every sense. And that meant, for him, not only learning = English and=20 making it his language, but also abandoning Yiddish papers = and=20 culture and purging himself of any foreign accent. It also = meant=20 devotion to the basic American Way: minimal government, = belief in=20 and respect for free enterprise and private property, and a=20 determination to rise by one's own merits and not via = government=20 privilege or handout. Russian and Polish Jews before World = War I=20 were swept with communist, socialist, and Zionist ideologies = and=20 movements, or blends of the three. But my father never fell = for any=20 of them. An individualist rather than a socialist or = tribalist, he=20 believed his loyalty was to America rather than to Zionism = or to any=20 Zionist entity in the Middle East.

I=20 grew up in the same spirit. All socialism seemed to me = monstrously=20 coercive and abhorrent. In one family gathering featuring = endless=20 pledges of devotion to "Loyalist" Spain during the Civil = War, I=20 piped up, at the age of eleven or twelve, "What's wrong with = Franco,=20 anyway?" It didn't seem to me that Franco's sins, however = statist,=20 were any worse, to put it mildly, than those of the = Republicans. My=20 query was a conversation-stopper, all right, but I never = received an=20 answer.

When=20 I shifted in early grades from the debasing and egalitarian = public=20 school system to a private school that I enjoyed a great = deal, I=20 found myself in another odd ideological climate. In those = days,=20 girls of the wealthier classes were protected, and so they = were sent=20 to a day school in New York, whereas upper-class boys were = sent out=20 of town to boarding school. The private day school I = attended was=20 coed, but it had difficulty attracting boys and was in = danger of=20 falling into all-girls status. As a result, they gave = scholarships=20 to bright, middle-class boys. The result was socially = anomalous: the=20 girls were all wealthy, driven to and from school in = chauffeured=20 limousines, whereas at least half the boys were scholarship = lads=20 such as myself. Another fascinating note was that the = students were=20 mostly, though not solely, Jewish, whereas the staff and = instructors=20 were all WASPs. None of the Jewish students felt oppressed = by this=20 situation; indeed, none of us felt aggrieved when every = Friday we=20 attended chapel, nondenominational to be sure, but singing = glorious=20 Christian hymns. None of the Jewish students felt anything = but=20 happily assimilated into what America =96 which was, after = all, a WASP=20 and Christian country =96 was all about.

But=20 while none of my fellow high school students was a = communist, they=20 were all left-liberals, what came to be called in New York = "Park=20 Avenue" or "limousine" liberals =96 all too literally in = their case. I=20 soon became established as the school conservative, arguing = strongly=20 in the eighth grade against Roosevelt's introduction of the=20 capital-gains tax in 1938 and later against Mayor Fiorello=20 LaGuardia's left-wing policy of coddling criminals. =

My=20 reputation as the high school rightist came in handy. In my = junior=20 year in high school, I was the supporter, in one of those=20 meaningless school elections, of my friend Lloyd Marcus for = school=20 president or speaker or whatever the post was called. We = thought we=20 would be up-to-date politicos, so we happily had handbills = printed=20 up: "Lloyd Marcus: Charges and Facts." All the "issues" were = trivial. There was nothing ideological about them; only = personal=20 friendships were at stake. But tough old Miss Birch, the = school=20 founder, scented "communism" and "strike" at the very sign = of a=20 handbill. (Lloyd Marcus was the son of the fabulously = wealthy=20 Bernard K. Marcus, who had gone to jail as part of the Bank = of the=20 United States scandal. Lloyd was indeed a "Park Avenue = leftist," but=20 the difference between the pro-Marcus and anti-Marcus camp = was=20 trivial and irrelevant to the election.) The ringleaders in = the=20 Marcus camp were called into Miss Birch's office one by one = and=20 quizzed sternly about "communism" and whether we were = affiliated=20 with the American Student Union, the communist student front = at that=20 time. I assured Miss Birch that no "strike" or Student Union = thought=20 was in any of our minds. In the event, all of the Marcus = ringleaders=20 (including the now-distinguished concert pianist and music = historian=20 Charles Rosen) were expelled, except myself. The idea that = the=20 school rightist was a commie was unthinkable.

When=20 I entered Columbia during World War II for college and = graduate=20 school, the universe of people I met expanded, but the = political=20 ambience remained the same. Everyone was either a communist = or a=20 social democrat, or a variety of each. The only other = Republican=20 student at Columbia was an English major, and so we had = little in=20 common, as I was increasingly steeped in economics, both for = its own=20 sake and because it seemed to me that the knottiest = political=20 problems and the strongest arguments for socialism and = statism were=20 economic, dwelling on the alleged failures of free-market=20 capitalism. The more I engaged in debates and discussion = with fellow=20 students and professors, who were all some variety of = leftist, the=20 more conservative I became.

I=20 was so far out of it politically on campus that sometimes I = served=20 as a kind of father-confessor. One time, someone I knew only = slightly came to see me and poured out a tale of woe. (He = was later=20 to become a sociologist.) "Murray, you know I have been = active in=20 many liberal causes. Well, today, I was stunned, I don't = know what=20 to do. All my friends whom I thought were regular liberals = came to=20 me and invited me to join their cell of the Communist Party. = I had=20 no idea they were communists! What should I do? Should I = join?"=20

What=20 can you say to a mere acquaintance who spills out this kind = of=20 confession? I do not remember how I reacted, probably with = some sort=20 of clich=E9 like "to thine own self be true" or "don't let = anyone=20 intimidate you." I never knew what he decided, but I am = reasonably=20 certain that he decided not to be sucked into the C.P. =

During this period, I = knew that=20 there was a right-wing movement out there, but my knowledge = was=20 confined to such grand newspaper organs as the Hearst press, = the=20 marvelous New York Sun, and reports about Congress. = For a=20 while, after the war, I was perhaps the only New Yorker = outside of=20 libraries to subscribe to my favorite newspaper, the = Chicago=20 Tribune, which, in the grand old Colonel Robert = McCormick era,=20 was hard right throughout, not just in its editorial pages = but in=20 its reportorial staff as well. I had not yet, however, met = any other=20 rightist.

Finally, in 1946, I = discovered=20 the Old Right personally by finding the new Foundation for = Economic=20 Education (FEE) at Irvington-on-Hudson, New York, where I = met the=20 movement intellectuals and activists and was introduced to = wonderful=20 Old Right literature I had never heard of =96 libertarians = Albert Jay=20 Nock and H. L. Mencken, Frank Chodorov, John T. Flynn, and = Garet=20 Garrett =96 and all this very rapidly converted me from a = free-market=20 economist to a purist libertarian. This literature also = converted me=20 to hard-core isolationism in foreign policy. I had never = really=20 thought much about foreign policy, being steeped in = economics, but=20 now I realized that a non-interventionist foreign policy was = part=20 and parcel of a devotion to freedom and resistance to = statism.=20

Libertarians in the = post-World=20 War II right naturally thought of themselves as "extreme=20 right-wingers" amid the right-wing spectrum. There was no = enmity=20 between us and the less extreme or less pure; we were all = happy to=20 work together in the anti-New Deal cause: we were trying to = get our=20 less extreme allies to be more consistent; they were trying = to get=20 us to be more "pragmatic." Even in party politics, a purist=20 libertarian like Congressman Howard Buffet (R-NE), whom I = got to=20 know personally, rose to become Senator Taft's Midwestern = campaign=20 manager at the ill-fated 1952 Republican Convention. I = became a=20 member of the Young Republican Club of New York in 1946 and = wrote=20 its policy paper blasting Harry Truman's price controls on = meat,=20 which he was forced to repeal during the 1946 campaign. I = was=20 astonished in later years to see "conservatives" hail Harry = Truman=20 as a model president: on the contrary, we opposed Truman hip = and=20 thigh, for his domestic statism as well as for his = interventionist=20 foreign policy. Indeed, one of my happiest political moments = came=20 when the Republicans swept both houses of Congress in the = November=20 1946 election on the slogan, "controls, corruption, and = communism."=20 My first foray into print was a letter I sent to the Scripps = Howard=20 New York World Telegram celebrating the Republican = victory,=20 saying "Hallelujah!" and na=EFvely expecting the Republican = Congress=20 to promptly repeal the entire New Deal. Well they said = they=20 would, didn't they?

The=20 first disillusion of many set in quickly. The National = Association=20 of Manufacturers, before that pledged to repeal the entire=20 socialistic and pro-union Wagner Act, caved in, at their = winter 1946=20 meeting, to the "responsible" corporate elements (read the=20 "enlightened" Rockefeller-type forces) and changed their = tune to=20 call for what finally did occur: not repealing but = extending=20 the powers of the federal government to apply criteria = of=20 "fairness" to unions as well as employers. In short: to = extend=20 government power over labor relations instead of removing it = completely. And with the NAM acquiescence, the Republicans, = led by=20 Senator Taft (a brilliant man but someone who was, = disastrously,=20 philosophically =96 and not just tactically = =96 devoted to=20 compromise), went along with this new sell-out position and = passed=20 the amending Taft-Hartley Act instead of abolishing the = entire=20 Wagner Act. Politically, repeal might have succeeded, since = the=20 public was fed up with unions and strikes in 1946, and they = had,=20 after all, elected a rightwing Republican Congress. Also in = this=20 80th Congress, the Republicans largely abandoned their=20 "isolationist," noninterventionist principles, led by their = foreign=20 affairs committee head, renegade isolationist Senator Arthur = Vandenberg (R-MI), who managed to establish the first, = disastrous=20 "bipartisan foreign policy," i.e., global interventionism, = in the=20 post-World War II era.

Old=20 Right Republicans, the soul of the party, always managed to = lose the=20 presidential nomination, perpetually stolen from them by the = Eastern=20 Establishment-Big Banker-Rockefeller wing of the party, who = used=20 their media clout, as well as hardball banker threats to = call in the=20 delegates' loans, to defeat majority sentiment in the party. = In=20 1940, a Morgan bank blitz managed to steal the presidential=20 nomination for the unknown utility magnate and leftist = Republican=20 Wendell Wilkie from Old Right isolationist Senator Taft and = Tom=20 Dewey, all his political life a Rockefeller stooge, who in = 1940=20 followed what was then the isolationist Rockefeller line. In = 1944,=20 Dewey, now an internationalist following the Rockefellers' = shift,=20 won the Republican nomination. He was renominated in 1948, = beating=20 out the Old Right isolationist Senator John W. Bricker = (R-OH) for=20 the nomination, Bricker getting the consolation post of vice = president.

As=20 far as I was concerned, Dewey's nomination completed the=20 congressional sellout, and even though I was unhappy that = Truman ran=20 a demagogic leftist campaign against the 80th Congress, I = could not=20 bring myself to support Dewey. Hence, once again na=EFvely, = I embraced=20 the new states' rights or "Dixiecrat" ticket of Strom = Thurmond for=20 president and Fielding Wright of Mississippi for vice = president. I=20 actually believed that the States' Rights Party would = continue to=20 become a major party and destroy what was then a one-party=20 Democratic monopoly in the South. In that way, an Old Right, = Midwestern Republican coalition with States' Rights = Democrats could=20 become the majority party!

At=20 Columbia graduate school, I founded a Students for Thurmond = group. I=20 showed up at the first meeting, which consisted of a group = of=20 Southern students and one New York Jew, myself. There were a = brace=20 of other New York Jews there, but they were all observers = from the=20 Henry Wallace Progressive Party, puzzled and anxious to find = out to=20 what extent fascism and the Ku Klux Klan had permeated the = fair=20 Columbia campus. They were especially bewildered when I got = up at=20 the meeting and made a fiery stump speech on behalf of = states'=20 rights and against centralized socialism. What was a nice = Jewish boy=20 doing in a place like this?

I=20 have been asked many times whether the Old Right was rife = with=20 anti-Semitism. Left-wing undercover operators and smear = artists such=20 as "John Roy Carlson" had written a best-selling work, Under=20 Cover, tarring all anti-New Dealers and America = Firsters=20 with the anti-Semitic and "neo-Nazi" brush, and the = reputation of=20 the Old Right has grown worse over the years, since, as = usual, the=20 interpretation of history has been solely in the hands of = the=20 internationalist winners.

The=20 answer to this question, however, is a resounding No. In my = decade=20 on the Old Right, I never once encountered any anti-Semitic=20 hostility. It is true there were unfortunately very few Jews = on the=20 Old Right, but those that were there =96 notably the great = libertarian=20 Frank Chodorov =96 were widely admired and encountered no = ethnic=20 hostility. It is true that there was a general unhappiness = with the=20 fact that most Jews seemed to be leftists, as well as = widespread=20 opposition to the Zionist program of driving Palestinian = Arabs out=20 of their lands and homes, but these were attitudes that I = myself=20 fully shared.

The=20 Old Right finally began to fade away over the issue of the = Cold War.=20 All Old Rightists were fervently anticommunist, knowing full = well=20 that the communists had played a leading role in the later = years of=20 the New Deal and in getting us into World War II. But we = believed=20 that the main threat was not the foreign policy of the = Soviet Union,=20 but socialism and collectivism here at home, a threat that = would=20 escalate if we engaged in still another = Wilsonian-Rooseveltian=20 global crusade, this time against the Soviet Union and its = client=20 states. Most Old Rightists, therefore, fervently opposed the = Cold=20 War, including the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, and = the=20 quasi-debacle of the Korean War. Indeed, while the entire = left, with=20 the exception of the Communist Party, got behind the Korean = War as=20 opposition to North Korean "aggression" under the cover of = the=20 United Nations, the Old Right, particularly its hard-core = members in=20 the House of Representatives, led by the Chicago Tribune, = opposed all of these policies to the hilt. Howard = Buffett, for=20 example, was one of the major voices in Congress opposed to = the=20 Korean adventure.

By=20 the mid-1950s, however, the Old Right began to fade away. = Senator=20 Taft was robbed of the Republican nomination in 1952 by a=20 Rockefeller-Morgan Eastern banker cabal, using their control = of=20 respectable "Republican" media. In the early 1950s, Taft = himself and=20 the doughty Colonel McCormick passed away, and the veteran = Old Right=20 leaders faded from the scene. The last gasp of the Old Right = in=20 foreign policy was the defeat of the Bricker Amendment to = the=20 Constitution in 1954, an amendment that would have prevented = international treaties from overriding American rights and = powers.=20 The amendment was sabotaged by the Eisenhower = administration.=20

Finally, the Old = Right was=20 buried by the advent in late 1955 of the lively weekly = National=20 Review, a well-edited periodical that filled the = ideological=20 vacuum resulting from the deaths of McCormick and Taft and = the=20 retirement of other isolationist stalwarts. National = Review=20 set out successfully to transform the American right = from an=20 isolationist defender of the Old Republic to a global = crusader=20 against the Soviet Union and international communism. After=20 National Review became established as the GHQ of the = right,=20 it proceeded to purge all rightwing factions that had = previously=20 lived and worked in harmony but now proved too isolationist = or too=20 unrespectable for the newly transformed Buckleyite right. = These=20 purges paved the way for later changes of line as well as = future=20 purges: of those who opposed anti-Stalinist, pro-welfare = state=20 liberals called "neoconservatives," as well as of those who=20 persisted in opposing the crippling of property rights in = the name=20 of "civil" and other victimological "rights."

As=20 time passed and Old Right heroes passed away and were = forgotten,=20 many of the right-wing rank-and-file, never long on = historical=20 memory, forgot and adapted their positions to the new = dispensation.=20 The last political manifestation of the Old Right was the=20 third-party Andrews-Werdel ticket of 1956, which called for = the=20 repeal of the income tax and the rollback of the New Deal. = Its=20 foreign policy was the last breath of the pre-Cold War Old = Right:=20 advocating no foreign war, the Bricker Amendment, and the = abolition=20 of foreign aid. The betrayal of Senator Taft in 1952 had = driven me=20 out of the Republican Party, and after supporting the = Andrews-Werdel=20 ticket, I spent the following decades in the political = wilderness,=20 trying to join abortive third "Constitutional" parties and = to=20 separate libertarians out from a right wing that I no longer = recognized and that seemed to me far closer to the hated New = Deal,=20 domestic and foreign, than to its Old Right enemy, which I = had=20 happily discovered and embraced in the years just after = World War=20 II.

Life in the Old=20 Right