The inauspicious timing of the inaugural National Conservatism Conference

As the conservative intelligentsia gathered in Washington to defend a high-minded idea of nationalism, the president spewed bigotry

The White House.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Man As Thep/iStock, Bill Chizek/iStock, Booblgum/iStock)

The relationship between ideas and reality can be a funny thing.

On Monday, on the first full day of the Edmund Burke Foundation's inaugural National Conservatism Conference in Washington, D.C., ballrooms full of right-of-center intellectuals and journalists heard a stream of thoughtful and impassioned speakers defend a high-minded idea of nationalism just a couple of miles from a White House where, just one day previously, a self-described nationalist president spewed xenophobic bigotry at a handful of his congressional critics.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.