To be conservative today is to actively work to burn it all down

[Soph0571]

In the olden days to be conservative was about conserving tradition and the status quo. Very dull way of looking at the world. and progress was an anathema to them, but to be conservative today is to actively work to burn it all down. They have moved on from conserving the status quo for the benefit of the male pale and stale patriarchy, to fuelling culture wars based on bollocks and systematically trying to dismantle democracy, using the very tools of democracy to do so.

GOP is to democracy as it is to progress and equality...

[no_hypocrisy]

1. I'd wish the "real" conservatives would object, and

give them another label, e.g., anarchists. They are not conservatives like Bob Dole, William F. Buckley, Jr., even Barry Goldwater.

[Act_of_Reparation]

4. Worked out well for Liz Cheney, dinnit?

[JHB]

6. Buckley was one of the radicals who built this, he just had to disguise it back then

Buckley was one of the founders of a conservative movement that held moderation and compromise in absolute contempt and those who practiced it were considered traitors and infidels. He was instrumental in driving Rockefeller Republicans under and turning the Republicans into a hard right party.

He was a vigorous defender of McCarthy. He's often lauded for destroying the Birchers, but that's not what he actually did. He sidelined the Bircher leadership because he was out to split Democratic voting blocs, and there was no way the Republicans could pry conservative Jews loose if the face of conservatism was Birchers prone to spouting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Not with the Holocaust very much in living memory, being only 20 years after. So he attacked the leadership to sideline them, but took care to not piss off the base enough that they'd refuse to vote for Republicans.

That base is now the Republican base.

Buckley had to operate in an environment were the "conventional wisdom" hadn't been dragged so far to the right yet. He needed to sound more reasonable to avoid becoming a hot potato himself. His Ivy League education and connections helped him do that, but he was always one of those whose ultimate goal was to smash every program, law, and regulation that helped ordinary people and hampered his preferred aristocratic order. Rich white men in a club amongst themselves but free to step on anybody who gets in their way.

He Built This.

And should not get a pass because sometimes The Firing Line was interesting.

[JI7]

10. Well, these ARE the real conservatives today. If anyone who isn't dead objects they should speak up

against them . But not many do that .

[no_hypocrisy]

12. John McCain would've.

I wish to hear from Bob and Libby Dole. They're vintage conservatives and retired. Arlen Spector. I know Shrub can't say anything; he's protecting his nephew's political future in Texas.

[moondust]

2. And get a lot of people killed.

COVID

GUNS

INEQUALITY

HUNGER

HOMELESSNESS

LACK OF AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE

DEREGULATION

...

[Arkansas Granny]

3. Radical conservatism.

[KPN]

9. Right you are. Frustrating that they so effectively pin "radicalism"

on everyone else … and the media plays along with it. If we were to message so effectively, which sadly we don’t, would the media play along with us?

[bucolic_frolic]

5. Chillingly Orwellian

"pale, male, and stale" seems a memorable line .... can it be planted in MAGAt numbskulls?

[Marthe48]

7. In the 1960's antiwar hippies

socialists, bleeding heart liberals were the protesters. But we just wanted to end an unfair war. I don't think any of the civil rights movements have ever wanted to overthrow the U.S. government.

Now, r's are the protesters, with an agenda to overthrow the government and seemingly, kill off anyone who disagrees with their actions.

R's in the 1960's were against progress as the establishment and now they want to destroy the establishment.

[KPN]

8. We'll put!

[Magoo48]

11. Is our liberal, progressive, democratic response too subdued?