When watching stalwart Republicans sprain their necks by looking the other way while a President attacks institutions, laws, mores, precedents, protocol, and principles, I've wondered: What is Conservatism today and who are real Conservatives?
Conservatism has several branches, but its hallmark has been the preservation of social and political institutions. This includes maintaining the Family Values mantle, Rule of Law, Order and Tradition. Change is not welcome.
But Life is all about evolution, which I keep in mind when recalling how my conservative Rock-Ribbed Republican Dad went from being a George Wallace backer and Nixon voter to eventually filling out his ballot for Barack Obama. Twice.
Over the years, he had always expressed reflexive support for the GOP. He was a Realtor and owned his own business. He felt quite comfortable with the Pro-Business Individualism that the party touted. He was a Fiscal and Social Conservative, Free Market/Low Tax & Interest Rate, Do-It-Yourself kind of guy. He loathed any government program that, in his mind, gave anyone "something for nothing."
But some things rankled him. Although he liked Reagan, he didn't like Iran-Contra. He was repulsed by the hard-line "anything goes" politicking represented by Lee Atwater/Paul Manafort/Roger Stone.
He didn't care for Bill Clinton, but felt that the GOP had gone way out of bounds to get him. "I'll never vote for another Republican!" he said after that Senate trial. Of course, he did so the very next Presidential election.
His perception really changed during George W's tenure. Dad hated waste and incompetency, and there was plenty of it - a tipping point occurred. The GOP was no longer a Small Government, Fiscally Conservative party. Its claim on Family Values/High Morality didn't hold water anymore. And Dad was no longer the social conservative he'd been. He was uncomfortable with the nonsense and hateful rhetoric spewing out from the top to the bottom of his party. He was shook by the Iraq debacle and the economy's collapse.
So he voted for Obama, something I couldn't have conceived back in 1968. He railed at the GOP for their obstructionism and reactive animus toward Obama. And in 2012, he proudly voted for Obama again. A person can evolve for the better!
And a political party can evolve for the worse. Through most of his life, Dad was aligned with the GOP -- until he no longer could. His party, representing his conservative views, changed even more than he had. Before Trump ever lumbered onto the scene, conservatives within the Republican Party had been turning themselves inside out to justify their membership. Even someone like Ronald Reagan would have difficulty getting nominated today. Consider:
Fiscal Conservatism? Welp - the GOP has become the champ for spending deficits, leading to record National Debt; moreover, its economic policies produced the second worst economic crisis in our nation's history. All Free Market and Laissez-Faire economic conservatism vanished with America First protectionism, wide-scale tariffs and massive subsidies ("socialism") to groups adversely affected by them. And the crazily escalating fissure between the wealthy and everyone else is not a conservative endpoint.
Religious Conservatism? It's going great, if you're a far-right white Evangelical or an ardent anti-abortion advocate. But the GOP has so firmly lashed itself to Trump that it must accept his enormous moral transgressions. Hence the narrative that he's The Chosen One, like David or Saul, an imperfect vessel who is used by God to enact His Will on Earth. The resultant hypocrisy is repugnant and makes any claim to the high moral ground a sham.
Social Conservatism has been about Family Values and Law & Order and keeping the lid on various social issues. Like No to Abortion, and limiting Women's Rights. Or No to Same Sex Marriage and LBGT Rights. Or No to No Public School Prayer and No to Sex Education. Or No to Gun Control Legislation. Or Criminal Justice Reform. Or Immigration Reform. Yet over the years, these and related issues have gained wide support with the American public. Republicans seem to be for Law & Order, as long as it's their kind of law.
Political Conservatism is listing badly. It's been a long time since Russell Kirk's "The Conservative Mind" sparked the imagination of folks like Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. Some things remain the same - support for a super strong military, rollbacks of regulations, and the pursuit of lower taxes. What has changed is kinda profound.
As a minority-rule entity, the GOP fully embraces ruthless Control above Responsible Governance. It is against protecting Voting Rights; it is for Voter Suppression and Gerrymandering. It supports refusing refugees and asylum seekers; it's for separating such families and putting children in cages. It supports Climate Change denial. It's for allowing a President to enjoy Emolument revenue from his personal government-derived business. It's for politicizing independent agencies like the Department of Justice, the EPA, DHS, on and on. It's for hiring incompetent true believers in place of those with expertise and experience. It's for the rule by Executive Order, after campaigning against it. It's for allowing our international alliances to founder. It's... oh fer cry-yi, it's all such a national disgrace.
In short, the GOP displays the characteristics of a party comfortable with subverting the Rule of Law, Order, Tradition and Decency so it can cover for the President, and so protect itself.
"It (the GOP) is a dark mirror of the authoritarian regimes we once fought," say former Republican strategists Reed Galen, John Weaver and Rick Wilson in a powerful piece titled "A Party Of Idolators". Like many others who've fled the party, they see Trump and the GOP as anti-conservative; instead, a National Conservatism or a White Nationalist Conservatism has emerged. The destruction of establishment institutions and resultant societal shock was always the plan of people like Steve Bannon and Steven Miller. As the dust settled, these great people would construct a whole new society bearing their extreme and autocratic views as the new normal rule.
Principled Conservatives believe in gradual change and the preservation of institutions and traditions. Therefore, they've been kicked out, or have self-exiled, from the GOP. The party has rapidly transformed into something more familiar to despots like Kim Jong-un or Vladimir Putin. Dissent will not be allowed. Only fulsome praise for Dear Leader will be heard. Yes, it seems that Conservatism in its traditional sense is flatlining. And the rest of the GOP smells funny, too.
Let's close with this appropriate quote from Hannah Arendt, the thinking person's George Orwell:
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