In the past, luminaries of the conservative movement, like Russell Kirk and William F. Buckley, grounded their philosophy in the tenets of the American founding. They celebrated the Constitution, endorsed the free market, and staunchly opposed totalitarianism. But right-wing Marxists believe that “the right should become the vanguard of an American proletarian movement,” as Lucchese puts it. Francis himself gave this idea a noxious racial dimension, preferring alienated whites as his proletariat to revolt against the “regime.” These thinkers consider conservative admiration for Ronald Reagan misguided, and find reverence toward the Founding a dead letter. True American conservatism can — and must — do better than this.

The rise of the Marxist Right represents an unsettling development in American politics. Conservatives must resist it.