Paleoconservatism is a political philosophy and a strain of conservatism in the United States stressing American nationalism, Christian ethics, regionalism, traditionalist conservatism, and non-interventionism. Paleoconservatism's concerns overlap with those of the Old Right that opposed the New Deal in the 1930s and 1940s as well as with paleolibertarianism.
The terms neoconservative and paleoconservative were coined by Paul Gottfried in the 1980s, originally relating to the divide in American conservatism over the Vietnam War. Those supporting the war became known as the neoconservatives (interventionists), as they made a decisive split from traditional conservatism (nationalist isolationism), which then became known as paleoconservatism. Paleoconservatives press for restrictions on immigration, a rollback of multicultural programs and large-scale demographic change, the decentralization of federal policy, the restoration of controls upon free trade, a greater emphasis upon economic nationalism, and non-intervention in the politics of foreign nations.
