Conservatism in the United States consists of right-leaning and right-wing ideological traditions that have collectively rivaled the liberal and progressive U.S. political traditions. Since the early 20th century, the American conservative tradition has generally been identified with the Republican Party, as opposed to the predominantly modern liberal orientation of its rival, the Democratic Party. Traditional American conservatism is characterized by a belief in individualism, traditionalism, capitalism, republicanism, and limited federal governmental power in relation to U.S. states. However, developments since 2010 have shifted it towards right-wing populist and national-conservative themes, owing in a large part to Trumpism.
Traditionally, American conservatives receive support from the Christian right and its interpretation of Christian values and moral absolutism, while generally opposing abortion, euthanasia, and some LGBT rights. They tend to favor economic liberalism, and are generally pro-business and pro-capitalism, while more strongly opposing communism and labor unions than liberals and social democrats. The shifts since 2020 have moved it towards national conservatism, protectionism, cultural conservatism, and a more realist foreign policy.
Conservatives frequently advocate strong national defense, gun rights, capital punishment, and a defense of Western culture from possible threats posed by communism, Islamism, and moral relativism. Some American conservatives question epidemiology, anthropogenic climate change, and evolution, and do so more frequently than moderates or liberals.
In the United States, conservatism is often defined differently from how it is viewed and described in Europe and other regions of the world. Following the American Revolution, Americans rejected the core ideals of European conservatism, including landed nobility, hereditary monarchy, established churches, and powerful armies.
Conservatives in the United States historically view individual liberty within the bounds of conservative values as the fundamental trait of democracy. They typically believe in a balance between federal government and states' rights. Apart from some right-libertarians, American conservatives tend to favor strong action in areas they believe to be within the government's legitimate jurisdiction, particularly national defense and law enforcement, while opposing government intervention in social issues such as healthcare and the environment. Social conservatives, including many religious organizations and leaders, often oppose abortion and same-sex marriage. On education policy, American conservatives often support prayer in public schools and school choice, which enhances parents' choice between public, private, and parochial primary education.
Like most U.S. political ideologies, American conservatism is founded on the principle of republicanism, which rejects aristocratic and monarchical government. American conservatives see the Declaration of Independence, authored during the Revolutionary War largely by Thomas Jefferson and unanimously adopted by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1776, as an ideological foundation, especially the Declaration's phrase that, "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". Most American conservatives similarly see the U.S. Constitution, which established a federal republic under the rule of law and was ratified by delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1789, as a doctrine and guiding principle.
Conservative philosophy also derives in part from the classical liberal tradition of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, which advocated laissez-faire economics and was supportive of economic freedom and deregulation. Louis Hartz, a Harvard University political scientist and historian, has argued that socialism has failed to become established in the United States because of Americans' widespread acceptance of an enduring, underlying Lockean consensus.
Patrick Allitt, an Emory University history professor, and political theorist Russell Kirk have asserted that conservative principles have played a major role in U.S. politics and culture since 1776 but argue that an organized conservative movement with an identifiable ideology and set of beliefs did not emerge in the U.S. East until at least the 1950s. Movement conservatism has its base in the Republican Party, which has adopted conservative policies since the 1950s. Beginning in the 1930s and continuing through the mid-1960s, Southern Democrats also were largely conservative. In 1937, they formed the conservative coalition in the U.S. Congress, and Southern conservatives have mostly been heavily Republican since the late 20th century.
Conservatism in the United States has never been represented by a national political party called the Conservative Party, as exists in Canada, the United Kingdom, and other nations. In American politics, however, conservatism has been the predominant guiding ideology of the Republican Party since at least the 1960s, and American conservatism also exists as a force in American politics, media, academia and culture.
Both major U.S. political parties support republicanism and the classical liberal ideals on which the country was founded in 1776, which include an emphasis on liberty, the rule of law, the consent of the governed, and that all men were created equal, principles prominently articulated in the Declaration of Independence. Embrace of these principles by the Thirteen Colonies during the colonial era ultimately led a significant percent of Americans to conclude that these principles could never exist as long as they remained part of British America, governed by the Kingdom of Great Britain. This recognition grew in popularity as the American Revolution developed, leading the Second Continental Congress to ultimately embrace the cause of independence, which was secured after prevailing in the eight-year Revolutionary War against the British.
Political conservatives have emphasized an identification with the Founding Fathers of the United States and the U.S. Constitution. Scholars of conservative political thought "generally label John Adams as the intellectual father of American conservatism". Russell Kirk points to Adams as the key Founding Father for conservatives, saying that "some writers regard him as America's most important conservative public man". In 1955, Clinton Rossiter, a professor of history at Mount Holyoke College, wrote:
Here was no lover of government by plutocracy, no dreamer of an America filled with factions and hard-packed cities. Here was a man who loved America as it was and had been, one whose life was a doughty testament to the trials and glories of ordered liberty. Here ... was the model of the American conservative.
A. Owen Aldridge places Adams "at the head of the conservative ranks in the early years of the Republic and Jefferson as the leader of the contrary liberal current." It was a fundamental doctrine for Adams that all men are subject to equal laws of morality. He held that in society, all men have a right to equal laws and treatment from the government. However, he added, "No two men are perfectly equal in person, property, understanding, activity, and virtue." Peter Viereck commented:
Hamilton, Adams, and their Federalist party sought to establish in the new world what they called a "natural aristocracy". [It was to be] based on property, education, family status, and sense of ethical responsibility... Their motive was liberty itself.
Differences between the American Revolution and the French Revolution
After Americans obtained independence with their victory in the Revolutionary War, political divisions in the U.S. have been depicted as seemingly minor compared to those in Europe, where the divide between the left and the right led to violent polarization, which began with the French Revolution in 1789.