Fusionism’s Collapse Reorients the Right

The conservative synthesis that coupled individual liberty with private virtue—‘fusionism’—is being abandoned in practice as MAGA‑style politics elevates both state power and cultural libertinism, producing contradictory impulses among intellectuals and voters. That rupture explains why factions on the right now argue past each other: some want an aggressive state to enforce a moral order, others disdain traditional morality while embracing cultural libertinism. — If true, this shift changes conservative coalition logic, affecting policy (use of state power), party messaging, and the stabilization of institutions that previously relied on fusionist assumptions.