I keep saying how many of the people claiming to be conservatives on here and in America are nothing of the kind. They are not conservatives. They don't even know what political conservativism is. Well, this article sums it up well... https://eu.usatoday.com/story/opini...can-dont-recognize-my-party-column/778075002/
I love how so many individuals, including posters on this board, just outright assign a political affiliation to people. i.e., "You're a leftist!" or "You're a neo-con!" makes no sense whatsoever if the person spewing those determinations has a very narrow political compass and/or views things through a fairly extremist lens to begin with.
Trumps running the joint and the party is doing what he wants. Trumpite Rebublicans are the "real Republicans" now.
Yup. The only difference is that the hardcore racists are more open about it now, and that the spineless majority who will sell their souls for a tax cut just found that the price got higher.
Yeah, it's safe to say that it's what the Republican Party is now. But they shouldn't call themselves conservatives. US conservatives would be the first to tell you that people should take responsibility for themselves. Trumpism is the exact opposite of that: blame foreign governments, Mexican immigrants, Muslims, that Kenyan Socialist named Obama, and everyone else in the world for our problems, EXCEPT white, middle America. They've done everything perfectly. The shitty policies they've voted for over the past four decades have nothing to do with America's decline into a shithole, they reckon. Nothing conservative about any of that.
Actually, we just got rid of a shithole for a President. Once that was over things now seem to be on the upswing.
I was a Republican about 38 years ago when I was 15. Then I realized brown people were not scary, trickle down economics (reaganomics) was dumber than a one footed Arkansas assistant high school football coach, women who had abortions were not murderers, boy George probably was not going to turn me into a girl unfortunately, George Michael was not going to touch me because I was too young (also unfortunately), rock and roll wasn't noise pollution, rap wasn't going to make me a black gang banger, liking Richard Pryor would not make me a junkie, and drugs were not the end of the world. In other words I grew up.
As I've said before, the only real difference between a "liberal" and a "conservative" is in how they prefer their societal change to work. Liberals want it all in one great big whack, law of unintended consequences be damned. Conservatives want change in small increments, easily digested, and subject to review for effects.
And that's not how societal change has ever worked. Women's right to vote? All in one whack. Labor unions? All in one whack. Abolition? All in one whack. Desegregation? All in one whack. Gay marriage? A trickle at first, then all in one whack. Unintended consequences? Sure. But that can be used as an excuse not to do anything. And often is.
The "Republicans", following Trump off a cliff weren't ever Republicans, they weren't ever anything. They're were and are lemmings to the bitter fucking end.
...and I'm thinking how would you half-ass that list? How would you do it "in increments"? "Weeelll....we'll just free...the light skinned slaves first". "Weeelll....we'll just let the rich women vote first". No, that's not caution, that's fucking evil.
Yup. Conservatism is first and foremost aimed at serving those who have money and power. And it's very easy to say "change should be incremental" when you're not the one whose civil rights are being denied, or when you're not the one who gets whipped every day while your daughter is getting raped by the master.
It's neither, it's fear. Too many Conservatives mistake themselves for being Preservatives. Conservatism isn't about freezing one fantastic sunny day in amber forever, its about managing change so as to minimise its destructive potential. I can't get my head around not giving women the vote, but society was different at the time, different pressures and inputs. In the UK, when women got the vote it was half-assed, caveats aplenty. To me and you, women having the vote has no fear, but roll back a a century or two you've a society inured in potty tales about women. No Scopes to telegraph to. Any questions, direct them to your nearest pastor who'd just re-enforce the notions. No evil there, just society being society.
No, I could almost agree, but what broke the back of the sexists was media exposure of the deplorable inhumane conditions imprisoned suffragettes were put through. And the prisons fought like demons to keep that shit from getting out. You don't cover up, unless you know what you're doing is evil. Society doesn't react with horror unless they know what they're looking at is evil. They knew better. Treating humans like a mindless hive mass liberates them from responsibility. Screw that.
So.....you think liberals want, and think we can get, nationwide weed legalization, single payer, religion out of politics, big money out of politics, electric cars, and an abandonment of fossil fuels....all together in one in one blast like crossing the streams at Gozer??
I'd call him out on his simplified right vs left claim rather than the speed of social progress. All those (leftist) things were a process of decades of organizing and activism. On the other, and more contemporary side, we have Trump overturning the accomplishments of Obama like cards in a casino while our newly elected conservative government has turned the calendar backwards on both sex ed and womens' health about 25 years.
Also worth noting: When all of the aforementioned positive social changes were new, conservatives weren't saying "well, let's sure we take the time to do this right" ... they were fighting against them tooth and nail. In one case, they even went to war to try to stop it. Then after the changes happened and were widely accepted, that's when they started with the historical revisionism, saying "actually, we supported this too, we just thought it needed to be done carefully."
