As it leaves behind American values, has the right gotten too strange to win elections?

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

Elite Conservatives Have Taken an Awfully Weird Turn
As it leaves behind American values, has the right gotten too strange to win elections?

An inkling of the Republican Party’s shocking underperformance in the midterms could be seen in a literal, not figurative, crusade. Allen West, former congressman and Texas Republican Party chairman, decided in September that the time was ripe to join the Knights Templar, the infamous sect of medieval soldier-monks. Photographed standing in a white robe emblazoned with a red cross draped jauntily over his tuxedo, West—a close ally of Donald Trump—tweeted that he had taken “an oath to protect the Christians in the Holy Land.”



The real Knights Templar, of course, were dissolved in 1312. The organization West joined is an American-based “chivalric order” that grants its members “knighthood” and, aside from its name, shares nothing with the actual Knights Templar.

West’s bizarre fascination with the imagery of medieval Europe does not exist in a vacuum: The right is getting weirder. That might begin to cost Republicans elections in years to come and undermine their own appeals to American patriotism in a way policy extremism alone could not. American voters see the political parties as equally extreme in policy, ignoring evidence that Republicans have moved right much faster than Democrats have moved left. However, a party fixated on genital sunning, seed oils, Catholic integralism, European aristocracy, and occultism can alienate voters not because of its positions but because of how it presents them—and itself. Among the right’s intellectual avant garde and media elites, there is a growing adoption of habits, aesthetics, and views that are not only out of step with America’s but are deliberately cultivated in opposition to a national majority that the new right holds in contempt.



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Indeed, as Democratic strategist David Shor noted, as those with college degrees become more left leaning, the remaining conservatives have gotten “really very weird.” In this well-off cohort, there exists a mirror of the excesses often attributed to the college-educated left, fairly or unfairly: an aversion to mainstream values and an extreme militancy.

https://newrepublic.com/article/169050/masters-vance-weird-right-republicans

The most outwardly visible element of the extremely online weird right is its often nonsensical lifestyle and consumption habits. The subculture has not only embraced vaccine hesitancy—once primarily a creature of the left—but also fringe health and dietary practices that recall the wildest excesses of 1960s new age spiritualism. The claims are varied and, to differing degrees, absurd: Real men don’t eat soybeans; seed oils are dangerous; meat substitutes will turn men into women and also are made from bugs (they aren’t); the best diet is all-meat. This is no mere online phenomenon: Representative Robbie Jackson of Texas has stated that if one eats artificially cultured meat, “you’ll turn into a SOCIALIST DEMOCRAT.”

[brush]

1. Well, Justice Alito cited a 1600s, anti-witchcraft source in justifying his Dobbs...

decision to snatch women's rights, now West is going even further back to 11th-13th century Knights Templar regalia and religiosity so it's all in keeping with republican extreme craziness. I say let them carry on, keep it right on up until they find the holy grail.

That's got to be next.

[Joinfortmill]

4. Kooky, but still dangerous

[brush]

34. Absolutely.

[DFW]

2. It's not that they have gotten too strange as a group.

Last edited Mon Nov 28, 2022, 08:03 AM - Edit history (1)

Think of them as a huge mass of Play Dough, able to be molded into many different forms. In the hands of a benevolent artist, they can be molded into the Eisenhower Republicans of the 1950s or even the Roosevelt Republicans of 1904. Unfortunately, in the hands of malevolent artists such as Fox Noise and National Hate Radio (not inconceivable that their Uncle Vladimir has been lending a helping hand), they can be molded into the mass of foaming-at-the-mouth crazies they now are, and will so remain until circumstances change. Maybe at some point, another version of our right wing will gain more favor than the (seemingly) worst case scenario they have morphed into. For now, it doesn't seem that way. There are no Romney Republicans or Murkowski Republicans. They are just two Republicans on the extreme fringe of their own party, barely tolerated. Because of the growing malignant tumor today's Republicans now are, Democrats are the only chemo/radiation therapy standing between them and national disintegration. We must take care that our own fringes stick to the discussion stage, or we will go down the same road sooner or later.

[Cosmocat]

6. There has been no more malleable

Subsection of the human species than American conservatives.

[DFW]

7. For a country that prides itself on its education

We certainly have some glaring deficiencies.

[leftyladyfrommo]

13. Boy Howdy. nt

[Mad_Machine76]

27. Most of the country prides itself on its education

a lot of folks on the right want to defund/control/"businessfy" public education and openly mock and discourage higher education

[Alexander Of Assyria]

16. You are too kind. Gullible beyond compare in the world. Sheep r no match!

White robes, white hoods…oddly familiar outfit.

Crusaders committed atrocious acts of genocide in the Middle East in the name of god, then went to the Americas to spread their genocide…in the name of god, ofc.

God gotta take back the name from these guys, not the intent to kill people before conversion and conquest!

[wnylib]

46. Crusaders slaughtered Europeans, too, on their way

to the Middle East. Thousands of European Jews were murdered by Crusaders. The Children's Crusade ended up with children being sold into sexual slavery by merchants when they reached ports on their way to the Holy Land.

[nuxvomica]

10. That's a brilliant way to look at the problem

I had not consider that but it helps explain the craziness. While they appear to be hidebound in their beliefs, often invoking the past and tradition, the truth is they have no underlying, long-held philosophy. Add intellectual laziness to the mix and you have a population primed to believe absolutely anything they hear repeated frequently.

[johnnyfins]

37. That is the goal

Have a listen to any conservative radio show. Constant harping that college isn't for everyone. People should go into trades. All about keeping people down. It's grade A horseshit.

[SouthernDem4ever]

45. And they try to make the ignorant think they are intelligent

that is the hook.

[634-5789]

3. West has been unhinged for decades.

[bucolic_frolic]

5. Too strange to who?

They seem normal to MAGA

[rampartc]

9. compare to the q anon shaman or their other cosplayers

[bucolic_frolic]

11. That's a term everyone can understand - cosplay. Orange Cosplay /nt

[OldBaldy1701E]

8. So, you want to go 'protect the Holy Land'?

By all means, you run right over there and do that.

[hatrack]

12. Actually, West's robe made me think of the Solar Temple . . .

I guess I'm just an optimist at heart!!

[Sympthsical]

14. I mean, they won this election

No, they didn't do nearly as much damage as they wanted to, but they still won the popular House vote by 3% (at latest count).

I feel like I've been reading obituaries of the Republican party my entire life.

They are never ever right. Just when the party's dead - behold! - they arise from the grave we've prematurely buried them in to wreak more havoc than ever.

I'm not sure any party can move to extinction at this point. Our entire political, corporate, and donor system is just so pervasively dug in and well-worn at this point. The biggest change is, if an entire party goes crazy, we are now tethered as a country to move into a crazy direction with it.

It's not great. And it's not going away.

[if..fish..had..wings]

15. Wha?

evidence that Republicans have moved right much faster than Democrats have moved left

What evidence do we have the the Democrats have moved left?

The right has sailed almost to the edge of the flat Earth they believe in and around a third of voters have happily gotten on board. All they need to do is convince enough of the others that the left has move too far left (what a joke that is) and they will win elections.

The good news is that eventually they will sail off the edge and disappear.

[Voltaire2]

19. The Democratic Party has also shifted right.

It did so deliberately in a strategy to occupy the center. Much of the party leadership still holds to this strategy, despite the fact that it has not really worked.

[Sympthsical]

24. One thing I've noticed over time

Union Democrats just don't seem as central to the party as they used to be. I remember people like my father and other family members - blue collar working and middle class types who loathed Reagan with every fiber of their being. It felt like they were the backbone of Democratic politics and played a central role not just in party machinery, but in the image of the party and how it thought about itself.

That feeling seems to have diminished in my adulthood. Maybe this is observation bias - could be - but somewhere along the way, it feels like that version of the party has fallen to one side of the road. I think Trump was able to pick up a lot of those people in 2016. He was like the AAA from hell.

[wnylib]

47. A lot of blue collar Dems went over to Reagan

in a backlash against civil rights. They opposed school bussing, desegregation of housing, and affirmative action. Reagan's 1980 campaign was full of dog whistles to attract them. That's what Reagan's line, "Government is the problem" was all about, because federal programs promoted civil rights.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

28. Utter mendacity.

And why are you bashing the Democratic party of a forum for Democratic loyalists?

[Voltaire2]

29. Bill Clinton: 'ending welfare as we know it'.

Democratic leadership joining in on the deregulation of the financial and communications sectors.
Democratic leadership going all in on draconian criminal laws.

The 90's was a big right shift for the Democratic Party that we have yet to deal with. Pretending it didn't happen is not the answer.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

30. Malarky.

This is the wrong forum to slander the Democratic Party.

[Whatthe_Firetruck]

38. It's not slander if it's true.

I lived thru the 90s. We were on welfare and it changed from merely humiliating to cold-bloodedly draconian. That's also when mandatory minimums and three strikes happened.

We do ourselves no favor by ignoring our mistakes.

[DBoon]

41. Look at the platform Hubert Humphrey ran on in 1968

It makes Bernie Sanders look moderate.

[Renew Deal]

17. The two articles on the freak show that is modern republicanism should be read together.

https://www.salon.com/2022/11/21/the-postliberal-crackup-the-gops-post-midterms-civil-starts-with-the-new-right/

[leftyladyfrommo]

18. A lot of these people have always been around.

I live in Missouri and we have a bunch of wacko churches and they've been there for years. If Trumpism boils down to just this sector it will be way too extreme for most people that live here.

The South hasxa long history of tent preachers and snake handlers and healers. People speak in tongues and work themselves up into hysterics. Holy Rollers and Bible Believing Baptists.

They are here in large numbers.

[The Wizard]

20. Barney Frank nailed it

"We're not perfect, but they're nuts."

[The Wizard]

21. Known lunatic Allen West

Was given a choice: Retire with a full pension of face a Court Martial for torturing prisoners in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. He's a war criminal, and yes a Republican.

[niyad]

49. Did not know that about him. Knew about powell and MyLai.

[Whiskeytide]

22. The Republican Party died years ago. This is the zombie looking for brains. n/t

[Fritz67]

23. I swear I saw that picture and thought West had joined the KKK.

Which would of course be deeply ironic.

But also in character for West.

[niyad]

26. I thought it was someone at a RenFaire.

[niyad]

25. JFC How much alcohol does one need before all that makes sense??

[DBoon]

42. Not alcohol. LSD

[niyad]

48. Never did any of that, but not sure even that would help.

[Wingus Dingus]

31. They're getting weirder because their mentally defective base is quickly bored by normalcy, or

by attention to serious policymaking, or legislation, or governing--that's RINO territory! Their base wants a circus, they want to be entertained and have their anger continually stoked ("angertainment"--thanks, Adam Frisch!) so the clowns oblige.

[DonCoquixote]

32. I hate to be mean, but

If there is one good thing that we get after we climb out of the wreckage, it will eb the ability to admit that a lot of the things that seem shocking and degusting are indeed parts of the American soul. These things were not summoned by Trump, they were there in 1776, hell, 1619, hell 1492!

The idea that you can weave some bit of lie about religion and race and use it to kill people is as Americana as apple pie, the only difference is, as Europe spent the 20th century killing itself, and lots of asians and Africans in the process, we in the US had a brief chance to beat back the dark forces of fascism. Sad to say, after Reagan, and with Trump. the same purtian/yahoos gained a chance to get back power, in short because the left acted like this was some discussion that could be dealt with over tea, and also because some working class union folk forgot who gave them their lifestyles, so they let themselves be played with race. Throw in the tech people, and I am tech lover, but some people speak of zuck, Gate, and musk as if they are misunderstodd prophets.

[Deminpenn]

33. The vast majority of Americans recognize bats--t crazy

when they see it despite whatever political policy difference we have.

[cally]

35. interesting and I think ideas Democrats can use for next election

MAGA is just crazy and we are not

[keep_left]

36. The "nonsensical lifestyle and consumption habits" come mostly from the alt-right.

Trump didn't create the antivax movement, but he knew how to dogwhistle to them, and he arguably grew their numbers. It's the same with the other things. You find all kinds of moronic alt-right "lifestyle" memes on Reddit and 4Chan/8Chan/whatever-the-hell-they-call-it-now. As time goes by, there is a 100% chance these memes will eventually feature a Nazi cartoon frog such as Pepe, Apustaja, or Groyper. Their dietary "laws" (by meme!) are inscrutable: they endlessly discuss "soy boys", the imagined harmfulness of canola and other seed oils, and post memes about how they will be forced to "live in a pod" and "eat the bugs".

They also love their antivax "pure blood" memes which are now being mainstreamed by politicians like MTG. And that's what's happening now; extreme alt-right ideology and conspiracy theories are being mainstreamed into the political discourse.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217404130
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217404130#post11

[Renew Deal]

39. kick

[DontBelieveEastisEas]

40. American Values Are Fluid & Varied

They just won a bunch of elections.

Poor Premise, Stupid Question.

[Skittles]

43. they are strictly performing for the cult now

it won't end well

[lambchopp59]

44. Unsustainability

Look at the number of confabulations getting reality checked:
Climate change denial while flooded or taps running dry.
Election integrity denial until they're on the brink of losing an entire Arizona County's votes.
Anti LGBTQ turning off many who love their LGBTQ sister, brother or cousin.
"Guns don't kill people" while assault weapon attacks multiply.
On top of the anti-vaxx, anti-health, anti-common sense stuff.

All raises the well worn adage:
"Which part of unsustainable don't you comprehend?"