A few years ago, our old friend Sohrab Ahmari caused quite a stir in right-wing circles with an article entitled “Against David French-ism.” Ahmari condemned French for fighting a rear-guard action against change; in his view, the right should be doing everything in its power to impose its traditional values on the entire country, even if it didn’t represent a majority on the issue. He didn’t explain exactly how that was going to happen in a liberal democracy, but the message was clear: by whatever means necessary, including the destruction of constitutional government as we have known it since the 18th century. Ahmari is thus an illiberal democrat at best and an outright fascist at worst.
French is a lawyer. He believes in liberal democracy and the rule of law. Unlike most of today’s GOP, he seeks to persuade, not to oppress. He understands that change is inevitable, but he wants to slow it down in order to make it manageable. He isn’t trying to bring back some kind of reactionary fantasy world through the exercise of will and federal government power.
He is exactly the kind of right-winger America needs today. He is a genuine American conservative, not a reactionary.