It is a ritual in any essay on conservatism to ask readers what conservatism is trying to conserve. An eight-year-old boy brimming with booby traps offered an answer in 1990 as eloquent as any from a conservative intellectual before or since: his home. “This is my house. I have to defend it,” Kevin McCallister firmly states in Home Alone before arming his house with icy stairs, a plummeting iron, a searing doorknob, and chicken feathers, among various ruses, to fend off two bad guys, Marv and Harry, seeking to pillage his family members’ toys and gadgets during their vacation in Paris.
Home Alone is considered to be a Christmas classic but not a conservative one. It was not on National Review’s 2008 list of the top 50 conservative movies. It avoids politics. Both liberals and conservatives love the movie. But after watching it for the 30th (or is it the 50th?) time during the Christmas season, I realized it embodies the best of the conservative tradition.
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