# Catholic Post-Liberalism The intellectual movement that gave [[JD Vance]] his political vocabulary and [[Leonard Leo]] his philosophical justification. A network of Catholic academics, journalists, and legal theorists who argue that liberalism — the entire philosophical tradition from Locke through the Founders through modern progressivism — has failed, and must be replaced by a political order explicitly oriented toward "the common good" as defined by Catholic natural law. ## Key Thinkers ### [[Patrick Deneen]] Notre Dame political philosopher. Author of *[[Why Liberalism Failed]]* (2018, praised by Obama) and *Regime Change: Toward a Postliberal Future* (2023). Argues liberalism succeeded so completely that it destroyed the communities, traditions, and virtues it depended on. Calls for "the peaceful but vigorous overthrow of a corrupt and corrupting liberal ruling class." ### [[Adrian Vermeule]] Harvard Law professor. Architect of **"common-good constitutionalism"** — the idea that the Constitution should be interpreted not through originalism but through Catholic natural law, with the state actively promoting moral good. This is integralism with a legal framework: use government power to impose the right moral order. ### [[Sohrab Ahmari]] Iranian-born Catholic convert, journalist, co-founder of *Compact* magazine. Author of *The Unbroken Thread*. More explicitly populist than Deneen — argues for using state power against corporations, Big Tech, and cultural liberalism. ### Gladden Pappin Political theorist, now serving in the Trump administration (Deputy Undersecretary of State). Co-editor of *[[American Affairs]]* journal. The post-liberal movement's representative inside the executive branch. ## What They Want Unlike traditional conservatives who wanted *less* government, post-liberals want a **muscular state** — controlled by the right people, deploying power toward the right ends: - Replace liberal bureaucrats with ideologically aligned administrators - Use government to enforce moral order (restrict pornography, protect "traditional" family structures) - Break up or regulate Big Tech and corporations that promote liberal values - Reject free-market orthodoxy in favor of economic nationalism - Treat the Constitution as a living document oriented toward Catholic natural law, not individual rights Deneen calls this a "counterrevolution" — taking over institutions from within and reorienting them. ## The Vance Connection [[JD Vance]] converted to Catholicism in 2019, a period when he was deeply embedded in these intellectual circles. The connections are direct: - Appeared alongside Deneen at a 2023 public discussion of *Regime Change* - Told a post-liberal Catholic conference in 2022: "I have admired a lot of you from afar" as "some of the people who I think are most interesting about what's going on in this country" - Borrowed Deneen's vocabulary: described his political goals as "explicitly anti-elitist, explicitly anti-regime" - His mentor [[Peter Thiel]] funded his Senate campaign while also funding [[Curtis Yarvin]]'s tech ventures — Vance sits at the intersection of NRx techno-authoritarianism and Catholic post-liberalism ## Overlap with Dark Enlightenment | | Dark Enlightenment / NRx | Catholic Post-Liberalism | |--|--------------------------|------------------------| | Democracy | Failed experiment, replace entirely | Failed experiment, redirect toward common good | | Source of authority | Technical competence, property | Catholic natural law, tradition | | View of equality | Reject as biological fiction | Reject as liberal abstraction | | Role of state | Minimal (CEO-king rules, market decides) | Muscular (state enforces moral order) | | Key text | Yarvin's blog posts | Deneen's *Regime Change* | | Key convert | Peter Thiel | JD Vance | The tension: NRx wants no state (or a corporate one). Post-liberals want a powerful state aimed at Catholic ends. But both reject liberal democracy, both want hierarchical authority, and both see the current ruling class as the enemy. JD Vance is the figure who holds these contradictions together. ## Connection to Defense Tech The post-liberal vision requires **institutional capture** — getting the right people into the right positions. The defense tech ecosystem provides the tools: - [[Palantir]] provides the data infrastructure for a centralized, loyalty-filtered government - DOGE provides the mechanism for purging "[[The Cathedral]]" employees - [[Pete Hegseth]] at DOD implements the culture-war dimension (fire women and trans troops, install Christian worship) - Post-liberal judges (via [[Leonard Leo]]) uphold executive power to do all of the above ## See Also - [[JD Vance]] - [[Leonard Leo]] - [[Dark Enlightenment]] - [[Christofascism]] — The parallel Protestant-evangelical tradition; Catholic Post-Liberalism as the Catholic intellectual variant - [[The Unholy Alliance]] - [[Crusader Complex]]