Conservatism Was Built on One Enduring Principle: Freedom

The arguments are already breaking out. One faction has embraced “post-liberalism,” an ideology that treats individual rights, limited government, and the liberal tradition embodied in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence as failures. Another seeks to reinvigorate the conservatism of President Ronald Reagan: a conservatism grounded in liberty, free enterprise, constitutional government, and confidence in the individual. Post-liberals generally seek to redirect the right away from originalism, federalism, and free speech toward a more state-friendly vision of the “common good.” 

Now you may never have heard the term “post-liberalism,” but you have heard its policies. They are increasingly scattered throughout Republican policy. When conservatives call for regulating data centers, using a heavy federal hand to steer the economy, or treating private enterprise as something that must be subordinated to Washington’s preferred political outcomes, they are embracing the post-liberal impulse, whether they use the label or not.

The “post liberal right” believes that the classical liberal principles of our founders and the Declaration have failed and need to be replaced with a new order that elevates the “common good” above individual liberty. That should be disqualifying for anyone hoping to lead this… https://t.co/eCxY2h8nda

— Marc Thiessen (@marcthiessen) July 21, 2026

Friedman’s line matters not merely because it makes a powerful argument for markets, but because it defines what conservatism stands for: freedom. Freedom rooted in duty and responsibility, certainly, but freedom nonetheless. 

Conservatism rests on the belief that people are responsible, independent individuals capable of making decisions in their own interests. That is not merely an economic point. It is directly tied to every American’s right to pursue his own definition of happiness, one of the Declaration of Independence’s most important promises. The Founders understood liberty not as permission to do anything, but as the freedom to make choices, accept responsibility, and pursue a meaningful life without government attempting to manage every outcome.

“Those of us who believe in freedom must believe also in the freedom of individuals to make their own mistakes,” Friedman said. “If a man knowingly prefers to live for today, to use his resources for current enjoyment, deliberately choosing a penurious old age, by what right do we prevent him from doing so? We may argue with him, seek to persuade him that he is wrong, but are we entitled to use coercion to prevent him from doing what he chooses to do?”

You may not need the reminder, but conservatives must be able to recognize who stands for conservatism, and who does not. We must be able to spot the Tucker Carlsons and Candace Owenses of the right before they commandeer the coalition and redefine it around grievance, conspiracy, and hostility to the very principles conservatism is meant to defend. 

Right now, many conservatives are focused on building a “big tent.” But Republicans should understand how quickly a coalition can lose its coherence when it is united only by opposition to the other side. Democrats right now offer a useful warning: a party that tries to accommodate every faction is at risk for being controlled by one of them. And one that has no care for its principles.

To be clear, those principles have not changed, and need not change, since Reagan’s time: limited government, free markets, strength abroad, and, at the root of it all, a belief in freedom.

Friedman understood that freedom is not a policy position to be traded away when it becomes inconvenient, or repackaged as “common good” the moment someone decides individuals can no longer be trusted with their own choices. Abandon the belief in freedom, and there is no longer a conservative movement to defend, only two parties competing over who gets to run everyone else’s life, differing only in the details of how they’d do it. 

Republicans still have a choice to make. History has already shown what happens to the ones who make it wrong.