ABSTRACT
The Arizonian was blasted as, among other things, an extremist, a warmonger, and a racist. In short, he was savaged by many of the ultimate “devil” terms Richard M. Weaver described in The Ethics of Rhetoric. The paleoconservative heirs of Richard Weaver have not been defeated. In addition to public support, debates over post-Cold War military adventures, trade and immigration policies have revealed sympathy for Old Right positions from numerous Republican party members of Congress. Richard Weaver should be read as one of the great post-World War II prophets of Western decline, especially of an alienated, rootless society. The life of discipline and forging, of struggle and error, the grand drama where man’s soul is at stake is deemed more and more irrelevant.
