What Is Conservatism?

Huntn

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This mirrors a thread in tOP. I included the post I replied to as a reference point:

I think we need to stop calling OAN, NewsMax, Brietbart, et. al. Conservative. They are not Conservative. They are the new Radical Right.
  • Conservatives honour the Constitution. The Radical Right doesn't.
  • Conservatives defend and abide by free and fair elections. The Radical Right will only accept their own candidates winning.
  • Conservatives respect an opposing opinion while disagreeing with it. The Radical Right will try to destroy the opinion holder, physically or metaphorically.
Now, the same could be said of Progressives and the Radical Left. However, they are not the ones invading Federal and State Capitol buildings and trying to implement coups.


Historically Conservatism wants to maintain the status quo, citing tradition, ”values”, the way it’s always been. Unfortunately this position favors favors themselves and has been used to hold other demographics down, maintaining the advantage for those who have it, primarily white, those at the top of power and wealth.

Now there was a time when conservatives were patriotic, law abiding and actually had some heart. I’ll use the 1960s time frame. Then a transition started happening in the 1980s around the time that Newt Gringrich appeared in Congress. This is when Republican politics transformed from describing their political opponents as “honorable but mistaken” to “evil, scum, spawn of the Devil”, it’s when character assassination was added to the GOP tactics book as a matter of routine. Since the 80s the GOP has been on a hard right trajectory with no end in sight until they slammed into the Facist wall. You want proof? Donald Trump.

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If Trump had been given 4 more years...

Remember when the GOP lost to Obama and there was talk of needing a “bigger tent”? Ha-ha that never happened as the GOP quickly reversed course based on the demands of their base, a substantial chunk of US citizens, shrunk their tent, demanding fealty to a point they drove out all moderates from their party in addition to championing deceit, mis-information and outright lies as an acceptable political tactic when it resulted in the win.

The closest thing we’ve seen to 1960’s Republicans are Romney and McCain until both of those Presidential candidates were forced to transform themselves into Right Wing idealologs to be acceptable candidates to the GOP.

Now regarding post #1, the GOP, the block of “conservatives” in a position of political power today, they represent today’s transformed, corrupted conservatism, conservatism that has forgotten or rejected everything that it stood for just so it can continue to win. It’s a bankrupted movement that has acknowledged that they can never win in a Democratic election in America, hence tactics have been used for decades to depress the votes from the demographics who are perceived hostile to the GOP.

And post election through Jan 2021 this is just the latest iteration in a Right Wing lurch to facism with Republicans trying to steal the election, in the usual Trump tactic of projecting what they are doing onto their opposition, ie Stop the steal, while trying to get fellow Congressmen to shred the Constitution and install a Dictator in the White House. :mad: 😢
 

Yoused

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Historically Conservatism wants to maintain the status quo, citing tradition,
I would somewhat disagree with that. The literal meaning of "conservative" evokes caution and reserve. Politically, it does not absolute abhor/reject change, it just advocates a measured approach that does not go about upsetting applecarts all over the place.

In the USSR, conservatives were hard-liners who resisted deviating from party dogma; Gorby was a Liberal, which is ironic because St. Ronnie's crew were the ones that strove hard to turn "liberal" into an epithet.

The word for modern Rs (for the past 40 years) is "reactionary", which means they want regress. Combining technological advance with a retrograde society, though, is problematic. As things in our lives change, trying to go back to the old ways creates a conflict that cannot be adequately resolved without some kind of adaptation. Conservatives and reationaries tend to struggle to adapt.
 

Huntn

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I would somewhat disagree with that. The literal meaning of "conservative" evokes caution and reserve. Politically, it does not absolute abhor/reject change, it just advocates a measured approach that does not go about upsetting applecarts all over the place.

In the USSR, conservatives were hard-liners who resisted deviating from party dogma; Gorby was a Liberal, which is ironic because St. Ronnie's crew were the ones that strove hard to turn "liberal" into an epithet.

The word for modern Rs (for the past 40 years) is "reactionary", which means they want regress. Combining technological advance with a retrograde society, though, is problematic. As things in our lives change, trying to go back to the old ways creates a conflict that cannot be adequately resolved without some kind of adaptation. Conservatives and reationaries tend to struggle to adapt.
I was referencing what Conservatism has meant in the US historically. Sure there is the values aspect, but imo it has more to do with me keeping what I have, the advantages I have. It also means maintaining unworthy prejudices.
 
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