George Will reveals the disturbing reason why Trump's GOP turned against conservatives

[applegrove]

George Will reveals the disturbing reason why Trump's GOP turned against conservatives

Travis Gettys at Raw Story

September 14, 2021

https://www.rawstory.com/george-will-leaves-republican-party/

"SNIP......

George Will lamented that the Republican Party no longer had room for conservatives like himself, and he offered a disturbing explanation for that dynamic.

The Washington Post columnist appeared Tuesday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," where he lamented the rightward drift of the party he once called home but no longer feels any affinity toward after Donald Trump took it over.

"Whatever populism is conservatism isn't," Will said. "Populism believes that everything is clear, known to the public and should be directed into the policy and not be refined in the Constitution. That is the antithesis of conservatism."

The veteran columnist explained that Republican elected officials didn't necessarily agree with their party's direction, but they were afraid to push back against their increasingly radicalized right-wing base.

......SNIP"

So Will admits Conservatives are bullshitters. That they don't believe public can demand the best public policy from around the world. Conservatives sure aren't afraid of nominating populists (Reagan, Bush x2, Trump were all dyslexics and paint the big picture and counterpunch easily). But they yoke them to conservative bull-slates once they get elected. I'm glad they have finally admitted that a dance of deception is the only thing they are. Applegrove

[marybourg]

1. And who is to blame for the increased

radicalism of their base? Those very same Republican elected officials!

[calimary]

26. Lousy parenting - of their voters.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Whatever conservatism is, it's about privilege, property, and money, and nothing else.

George Will don't know beans about what he's talking about.

Conservatism seeks to restrict the benefits of society to those who can afford to pay cash. Period.

[zentrum]

13. Period.

[blm]

3. 💩💩💩

[Buckeye_Democrat]

4. Whatever.

George Will doesn't like the new Republican party because it's too full of ignorant riff-raff, instead of the aura of an exclusive country club.

And it's indeed full of deplorable voters, but PUH-LEAZE! Don't even pretend that the GOP ever had goals to improve the general welfare, at least not for the last century.

[gratuitous]

5. George Will vainly trying to flee the elevator from his own rancid fart

Whoever you think your political compatriots are (and are not) George, all those Trumpers, populists, and radicalized right wingers are all on your side. You cultivated them for decades and now you're disappointed that they got big (I won't say "matured" for obvious reasons), adopted your political philosophy, and advanced that philosophy to where it was going all along. And now they think they deserve a stake in your party for all their efforts, and you don't like it.

Too fucking bad, George. Have a nice cup of:

[zentrum]

14. Hahaha! Great comment. Thnx.

[Caliman73]

6. Bullshit. Conservatism is a failed ideology PERIOD.

The only reason is survives is because it is the way that that wealthiest people want to structure society. The wealthiest people control most of the financial resources and own most of the media outlets.

They can frame the narrative, except that they can never truly deliver the actual goals of conservatism because there will be massive backlash. They have been pecking pecking pecking away, but Trump and his populist right wing brand pulled the mask off wanting to be part of the "top tier". The goal of a Conservative society is to have the wealthiest people firmly entrenched in positions of power, with lower classes of people ensuring "law and order" so that none of the backlash against authoritarianism, reaches the wealthy.

Because their ideas and policies only serve the very wealthy, they have had to flirt with religious fundamentalists and open White Supremacists for decades. Now those two groups want their due. THAT is why Trump's GOP turned on "conservatives". Trump and his populist right wingers are the next phase of Conservatism which is Fascism.

Conservatives do not give one shit about the Constitution. If it helps them stay in power, they will use it. If it gets in their way, they will toss it out.


This is the main reason that people get upset at Democrats. We actually respect the Constitution and other rules and laws. We want to structure society in a more equitable way the way the Constitution sets out. Conservatives on the other hand, will abuse, or ignore the Constitution to obtain and maintain power.

[area51]

16. +1 n/t

[Carlitos Brigante]

7. So called "conservatism", politically speaking, hasn't meant jack shit for decades. It's

time this dinosaur caught up.

[Boomerproud]

8. Gibberish. Just garbage.

Your party left you Georgie.

[Midnight Writer]

9. The conservative movement vigorously courted these loons in order to increase its power.

You remember, George. You were there, hobnobbing with Newt Gingrich, Grover Norquist, Tom DeLay, and all the rest.

Don't pretend you weren't part of it.

[Mysterian]

10. Will is too stupid to realize he's part and parcel of bringing us trump fascism

Fuck that stupid asshole George Will.

[ShazamIam]

11. Not so, U.S. conservatism has always been what Trump revealed, anti-democratic, religious, racist

opposed to women's equality and strictly heirarchical where conservatives like Will believe a selected few should do the ruling.

The Senate is an example of conservatism, to check the "people's" house, they were once appointed by the State governments, not elected and their job is to throttle both a President and the House from too much democracy.

[BumRushDaShow]

12. So people like him

just sat back (and continue to sit back) and nodded while the lunacy took over their party because "liberals = bad".

And he has the nerve to point to their "elected officials" when people like him as policy wonks, also sat silent. And so they created a monster that has turned on its creator.

I guess one could compare George Will with someone like Bill Kristol - cut from the same cloth but one at least making an attempt at critique.

And speaking of that, I just stumbled on this - a big pictorial blast from past of the "pundits" - https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/andrewkaczynski/59-pundits-and-politicos-as-they-were-in-the-80s-a

The pics are worth a hoot - like this for example -

[Skittles]

15. I love how they try to pretend conservativism is, or was, somthing noble

it has always been a shit show

[Lonestarblue]

17. Conservatism has never been about anything but white privilege and protection of the rich.

Conservatives don’t want anything to change, such as rights for minorities or healthcare for more people or sane policies that address things like climate change or polluted water or disintegrating infrastructure. They like their cushy position at the top of the heap, and they’re afraid that liberals will start dismantling their privilege.

[Missn-Hitch]

18. George Will was asked a question at a talk he gave at Washington State University..

back in 2010/11 (I can't remember).

Anyway, he was asked about this very thing and he LITERALLY brushed it off and went to the next question.

They know exactly what happened but the establishment never thought their crazy-ass base could get a hold of the reigns.

When I saw this exchange, I smirked. At that time, I did think it was the beginning of the end of religious-rightwing-conservatism especially after a 2 term Obama presidency. Ugh. I've been known to be wrong - from time to time.

[FakeNoose]

23. That's when they launched the Tea Party craziness

Probably in 2010 George Will and the others couldn't foresee the shitshow they were birthing. Not that I feel sorry for any of them: they got what they deserved.

[BobTheSubgenius]

19. I disagree with the idea that GW revealed anything.

Nothing new, and nothing that wasn't obvious, at least.

All he did was say that it DID happen, not WHY. A good exposition of the whys and wherefores could give those trying to counter this motion something they could hang their hat on. This does not offer that.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

20. He's wrong. Populism can be conservative or liberal, far right or far left.

[JHB]

21. It is not the "antithesis of conservatism", it is the pinnacle of the Conservative Movement...

It is the thing he has spent his career fostering, even though it's not what he fantasized about.

And rest assured, everyone who counted themselves as a Conservative who didn't see this coming lived in fantasy land.

Every member of the Disownership Society, those people trying to extricate "real conservatives" from the howling base that they rode into power on, is part and parcel of it. You can separate yourselves, but you can't disown it. Even the laggards figured it out before George W. Bush was sworn in as president.

If you didn't figure it out over 20 years ago you really can't do anything but hold your head in shame.

Maybe spend some time figuring out how you got it all wrong, and STFU when Democrats and liberals try to extricate us from your mess.

[JHB]

22. Wait, I amend and expand on the above:

Populism is the antithesis of conservatism in the sense that the goal of Movement Conservatism has been to restore the Gilded Age of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, to reverse any law or reform enacted to help ordinary working people hold their own against Very Wealthy Men (don't call them "robber barons", you damn Red!).

Their perfect form of government is a banana republic: A wealthy stratum of "the right people" ruling, a somewhat larger stratum providing services for them, and a vast army of peons. And any of the lower orders who get out of line are put down by whatever means do the job.

Very little populist about that. But it's hardly what Reagan featured in his campaign ads.

[applegrove]

25. Exactly.

[Patton French]

24. Whatever, Will is an idiot..

But at least it shows that Trump is a pariah even to the likes of Will.