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PalmerstonSalisbury's avatar

It's a mistake to associate capitalism with 'right-wing' politics. I know this might seem a bit pedantic (I apologise), but the free-market is incompatible with traditional conservatism. 'Free-trade' and unrestricted capitalism was historically endorsed by liberalism; conservatives were more sceptical, believing in protectionism and the importance of the local and the 'small'.

To some, it might come as a surprise to learn that Liberalism isn't necessarily in tune with democracy. Many old-fashioned liberals were opposed to the concept, due to their concern that the 'mixed constitution' of King/Queen, Lords and Commons would be undermined by extending the franchise to the working-classes who were believed (in the Victorian era at least) to be in thrall to powerful, trade union leaders who would instruct their members to vote as a block in order to a elect a government that would significantly penalise the middle and upper-classes with tax increases and land redistribution programmes. In relation to the last point, many Tories and Liberals feared that extending the franchise to the proletariat would lead to permanent working-class rule as they were the largest 'class cohort' in Victorian Britain.

Despite being on the 'Wet' faction in the British Conservative Party, Sir Ian Gilmour's statement on laissez-faire capitalism is correct from a proper, right-wing perspective:

"In the conservative view, economic liberalism à la Professor Hayek, because of its starkness and its failure to create a sense of community, is not a safeguard of political freedom but a threat to it."

Whilst I share your concerns about democracy, I don't really believe that — in our lifetimes at least — a monarch from a Catholic or Protestant background will arise to bring back stability and order to a Western nation; most people are content with a secular political system. The gradual decline of the Boomers and emergence of Gen-Z won’t do much to change that fact, in my view.

If ‘based Gen-Zers’ are perfectly content with ‘childcare’ and other progressive measures, why should they be perceived to rescue the West from its turmoil in the near future?

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