The New American Right can learn from the Aztecs. Not long ago, I was in Mexico visiting Teotihuacán, the site of the ruins of one of the great Mesoamerican cities of antiquity. At one time it was the sixth largest city in the world, and I could still feel the distant echoes of power as I strolled down its Avenue of the Dead and beheld its Sun Pyramid and its Temple to the Feathered Serpent. When the Mexica arrived at that region and established the Aztec Empire in the 1200s, Teotihuacán had already been defunct for centuries. Despite this fact, and differences between the two people groups, the Aztec ruling class claimed a connection to Teotihuacán, emphasizing their shared devotion to the Feathered Serpent and routinely holding important ceremonies on the steps of the great monuments. This legitimized Aztec rule by connecting it to a proud and august civilizational heritage.

Of course, this practice is as old as civilizations are. There is a reason why conquering peoples often leave the place names of the indigenous whom they conquered—why so many place names in the United States are of American Indian origin, like Seattle, Yuma, and Potomac—and so many in Roman Western Europe are of Celtic origin, like Brittany, Dumbría, and Arden. It is because new civilizations—and new movements more broadly—are most effective when they root their legitimacy in the nobility of the past. The American Right would do well to remember this.

Today, Trump-style candidates have become big political players, if not the main game in much of the Republican party. During the GOP primaries, besides Trump, only Vivek and Desantis had any real energy or success, even if short-lived. Nikki Haley needed these two candidates to drop out—as well as barrels of GOP-machine money propping her up—before she scratched second place. We see similar results at the state and local level, with some of the most high-profile candidates being MAGA or MAGA-adjacent. Trump’s impact on the Republican Party may ultimately mean the end of the GOP. It may mean that the party “never goes back” to what it was, as Blake Masters recently said. And this would be a good thing. But the the New Right must retire the GOP with tact.

Many on the New Right, whether MAGA, dissident, or known by another name, are so addicted to their hatred of the GOP and the Boomer Cons—so addicted to their desire to see the Old Guard fall—that they risk completely delegitimizing the movement. Take one example: in dissident spaces, you will see right-wingers gleefully decrying Reagan. Reagan, they say, was a Boomer Con who granted amnesty to millions of illegals and began the GOP’s habit of verba non acta regarding immigration enforcement. He’s not our guy, they shout. Okay, fine. But I would advise caution here. Do you really want to topple Reagan’s statue in the pantheon of the New Right? Do you want to tell all the normie-cons out there that this new movement doesn’t claim Reagan, doesn’t need him? Really? Handsome California movie-star Reagan? Anti-communist-crusader Reagan?

Trump at least is smarter than this. Trump admires Reagan and has called him his favorite president on several occasions. And during this election cycle, Trump has used Reagan’s famous “Are you better off now” audio campaign ads. Because Trump understands the Aztecs. Trump as Huey Tlatoani of the Aztec Empire would have led marches down the Avenue of the Dead and held his rallies on the steps of the Sun Pyramid. It was this very instinct that drove Trump to raise a Bible in the air in front of St. John’s Church after it was defaced by BLM rioters. In the same way, the new American Right should be careful not to indiscriminately sever its ties to the great people and historic moments of the GOP. The New Right should still invoke the lustrous names of men like Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater, William F. Buckley, and Justice Antonin Scalia.

The fact is that while the Republican party in America is probably (and hopefully) never going to be the same, a large portion of it still reveres the heroes of the golden age of the neocons. And these people—the Boomers and Gen Xers—are still in charge. They have real power and influence. We need this. We also need normal, healthy, white conservative men in our rank and file. Conquering the internet does not require—and probably can’t survive—abandoning the country club. We cannot build a right-wing movement by completely shunning the Mitt Romneys of the world, even if Mitt himself must be retired. Organizations like the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation are real players, and we should befriend rather than alienate these institutions, their heroes, and their members while filling them with our people and steering them in the right direction wherever possible. Do not forget that it is often these people who will be on your side if your company reprimands you for saying “retard.” And if these institutions cannot be reformed, we should still retire them with dignity rather than disdain. We only hamstring ourselves otherwise.

It will take time for the various forms of the New Right to develop institutional power to compete with these GOP behemoths, if it happens at all. At the moment, there is much promise in our energy. Tucker’s podcast just reached number one on Spotify. Passage Press is providing real alternatives in the world of publishing. Quality right-wing magazines like MAN’S WORLD are growing in readership. Smart right-wing thinkers publish interesting substacks. Chris Rufo is doing good work with his crusade against DEI, leading to real-world victories. This is all very exciting. But for now, all this influence remains small peanuts in comparison with that of the old-boy neocon institutions.

To be clear, I do not suggest we follow along with the neocon narrative or give them slack. They must be brought to heel. We must strike down the Titans and rule in their stead! But we should bury them with dignity and honor them where we can. The velvet glove must cover the iron fist, to paraphrase Napoleon. We should craft a genuine line of succession between the nobler elements of the GOP’s history and the rising New Right movement. Not to do so would be to give up easy points and ignore the teachings of history—of the Aztecs! At his Inauguration, Trump must be flanked by George W. Bush and Mitt Romney—no matter the coercion required. He must don Lincoln’s top hat and wield Washington’s saber to the delight of the public. He must exhume the remains of Reagan and hoist his skull into the air as he heralds the coming of the renewed—but not entirely new—American Nation.