Basically the best way to understand the Ahmari-French split is in light of the old fusion, the old consensus, that the First Things manifesto attacked. French is a religious conservative who thinks that the pre-Trump conservative vision still makes sense. He is one of the few remaining conservatives willing to argue that the invasion of Iraq was just and necessary. But what, specifically, do these conservatives want, besides a sense of thrill-in-combat that French’s irenic style denies them? First, they want social conservatives to exercise more explicit power within the conservative coalition.

Source: New York Times June 04, 2019 10:03 UTC