Post AZ0AYNp0hkzAmTJsKO by jayreding@mastodon.world
 (DIR) More posts by jayreding@mastodon.world
 (DIR) Post #AZ0AYNp0hkzAmTJsKO by jayreding@mastodon.world
       2023-08-03T14:16:26Z
       
       0 likes, 2 repeats
       
       I would be even blunter than this: American conservatism stopped caring about ideas a long time ago. The old conservatism died when a Black man was elected President, and has become just a raving, racist, atavistic ideology of blind hate and irrationality ever since. That an amoral grifter like Trump would wear its corpse like the bug-man in MIB was an inevitability. It's now about raw power, not ideas.https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/08/january-6-indictment-republican-elites-support-trump/674896/#Politics #Conservatism #USPol #Trump
       
 (DIR) Post #AZ0AYPoNJ5fKx52OcC by jayreding@mastodon.world
       2023-08-03T14:19:50Z
       
       0 likes, 1 repeats
       
       American conservatism used to be a three-legged stool: the anti-Communists (later anti-Islamists), the "traditional values" voters, and economic ("country club") conservatives. None of these traditions exist in what's left of American conservatism any longer.The anti-Communist/anti-Islamist faction now regards their fellow Americans as enemies to be defeated rather than facing up to outwards threats. (Although fears of China still have some weight.) Now the GOP is an openly pro-Putin party.
       
 (DIR) Post #AZ0AYRayfs8aU6mj0i by jayreding@mastodon.world
       2023-08-03T14:23:44Z
       
       0 likes, 1 repeats
       
       The "traditional values" group has become just a hollowed-out shell. "Traditional values" now means almost exclusively MAGA and anti-LGBTQ+. Trump is repudiates the Judeo-Christian ethical system. He's a lying, cheating, amoral, sex-obsessed prig who just uses the Bible as a prop - literally.But American Christendom is no longer about Jesus, but about an overtly fascist view of American as a country by and only for white Christian males, which is why it is the MAGA core.
       
 (DIR) Post #AZ0AYTOdyhSa4R1u40 by jayreding@mastodon.world
       2023-08-03T14:28:14Z
       
       0 likes, 1 repeats
       
       The "country club" Republicans generally just wanted lower taxes and a pro-business outlook. Think the local Chamber of Commerce. These were always a minority in the GOP but an important one because they were the ones that had the money and the influence. This branch still exists, but has largely been taken over as the drivers of the GOP. And this is the group that is most likely to have defected to the Democrats post-Trump. This branch is now effectively irrelevant to the GOP.
       
 (DIR) Post #AZ0AYVFV5fKnoeld5c by jayreding@mastodon.world
       2023-08-03T14:31:18Z
       
       0 likes, 1 repeats
       
       The new GOP is basically just MAGA. And MAGA is a fascist ideology through-and-through. It seeks to set America as a country totally dominated by and catering to white Christian males. Everyone else is second-class at best. The idea of "small government" is dead - the MAGA ideology is that government exists to serve white Christian males and can and must use its full power to punish everyone else. MAGA is pro-Putin because Putin is seen as a leader of a white, Christian, male state.
       
 (DIR) Post #AZ0AYXCjouJTsfUS3s by jayreding@mastodon.world
       2023-08-03T14:34:23Z
       
       0 likes, 1 repeats
       
       The problem with MAGA is that it has zero interest in actually governing. It's a classic autocratic shitshow - its only interest is in punishing enemies, especially those on the right that are not sufficiently zealous. It can't make the metaphorical trains run on time because it's too business tying heretics to the tracks.It's a doom spiral of politicians needing money and the way to get money is to be the biggest asshole on TV and not compromising on anything.
       
 (DIR) Post #AZ0AYZ8uc6RPtNiQNM by jayreding@mastodon.world
       2023-08-03T14:37:40Z
       
       0 likes, 1 repeats
       
       There no longer is an American conservatism any more. The number of actual conservatives who still buy into the actual tenets of conservatism could barely fill a hotel ballroom at this point.The divide in America is between classical liberals who are now a majority of the Democratic Party (but not exclusively Democrats) and the fascist MAGA right that reject the very foundation of classical liberalism.That is a dangerous place for this country to be.