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Opinion|This Conservative Is Not Afraid to Be a ‘Beautiful Loser’

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/29/opinion/trump-conservatism-republicans.html

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This Conservative Is Not Afraid to Be a ‘Beautiful Loser’

May 29, 2026

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By Elizabeth Corey and John Guida

Dr. Corey is a professor of political science at Baylor. Mr. Guida is an editor in Opinion.

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What does it mean to be conservative in the Trump era? How is that changing? Has the term — and the philosophy behind it — lost all meaning?

Elizabeth Corey, a political scientist at Baylor, is a conservative — though what she sees being called “conservatism” today has left her dismayed.

She explained what she thinks about conservatism’s present, and potential future, in a written conversation with John Guida, an editor in Times Opinion. It has been edited for length and clarity.

John Guida: What is the state of conservatism today, and how confusing has it been to call yourself one in the Trump era?

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Elizabeth Corey: The state of conservatism is quite varied, as anyone who follows politics knows. There are post-liberals, common-good conservatives, national conservatives and so on. One thing I see in all these camps is a certain adversarial posture toward American culture — or toward certain aspects of that culture that they dislike. I sympathize with some of that.

But my own understanding of conservatism is different — it’s grounded in culture and tradition, and in some sense, religion. It’s the idea that we should “conserve” the many goods that we have received from the past: philosophy, art, poetry, music, family life, etc. We can’t have any of these things without a stable political order. But political action is not at the very heart of things.

This Conservative Is Not Afraid to Be a ‘Beautiful Loser’

Opinion | This Conservative Is Not Afraid to Be a ‘Beautiful Loser’ - The New York Times

This Conservative Is Not Afraid to Be a ‘Beautiful Loser’

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