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Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall
You and Ty keep saying this. I don't think it's true. To the extent that traditional conservatism used to win the day in the Republican Party, they've always been the same--assholes who may believe in something, but who were willing to side with and empower the worst people in society at every turn in order to exert conservative influence. The only difference now is that the people who were their crucial allies and who they empowered are now actually, you know...in power.
There isn't some new brand of conservatism. They're the same as they've always been--willing to sell out any and every principle they hold if they get tax cuts. Hell, Trump actually worked out great for them because although they're losing out on free trade, they got their tax cuts and they get to control the Supreme Court. They're also getting smaller government and less regulation for no discernible reason other than having less regulation. There are just fewer of them and they're less influential.
Less influence, same assholes. And let me add, it makes no difference what you label them if they align with or embrace racist, sexist, xenophic, homophobic, anti-democratic policy in order to achieve what they want. They desperately try to insist that these things aren't part of their values, but deep down, they know they're absolutely part of the problem. They just don't care.
TM
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If two conservatives with different views are arguing about which of them is the real conservative, how do you tell which of them is right?
In my view, there are no core ideas that are conservative and that define the movement. When conservatives turn towards Trump and away from, e.g., free markets, it changes what conservatism stands for.
IMO, and Corey Robin's, the essence of conservatism is reaction to liberalism. I think Corey Robin's book on this is excellent.
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