Paleoconservative thought in the US is most widely associated with the anti-communist and anti-globalization right wing movement, which emphasizes tradition, civil society and classical federalism, along with familial, religious, regional, national and Western identity.

The paleocon philosophy arose from conservative opposition to President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal expansion of government in the 1930s and 1940s. The movement’s core beliefs were formed largely on the conservative principles laid out by author and philosopher Russell Kirk.

The movement was given its name by Elizabethtown College Humanities Professor Paul Gottfried in the late 20th Century.

Paleocons believe in Laissez-faire capitalism, limited government and a non-interventionist approach to foreign policy. Most paleoconservatives are strongly opposed to the current war in Iraq, especially given the US’s tenuous basis for invasion. In a previous age, paleocons would have believed military force should be used only in defense of a foreign attack or overt aggression against the US. but it is no longer applicable today, considering the recent history of large dictator-states headed by leaders bent on mass destruction. Paleocons believe pre-emptive strikes are justified against such aggressors or other extremists and fundamentalist terrorists who answer to no state, government or international law.

Paleocons do not subscribe to any one particular party line, though they do align with the majority of conservatives in that they adopt traditional values, and most often oppose abortion, gay marriage and gun control. Paleocons support capital punishment and a close reading of the U.S. Constitution.