What is a Conservative?

What started as a political philosophy that promoted traditional customs and values has morphed into something few conservatives of the past would recognize.  The idea that the “conservative” we see today is in any way maintaining traditional values, conditions, and institutions, is almost laughable considering current conservative utterances and actions.  To even consider the abandonment of democracy to enforce some new order is by itself a contradiction of the stated values of conservative ideology.

Conservative tradition once avoided showy novelty and promoted the restoration of limited government, societal norms, middle-class values, and individualism.  Conservatives valued law and order and a strong military.  The conservative political ambitions of yore would not condone a Tommy Tuberville weakening our military.  They would not have stood for or supported the events of January 6, 2021.  They would not have made a statement that if Trump does not win in 2024, “…it is going to be the last American election that will be decided by ballots rather than bullets.” [Mike Huckabee]

Tradition to some “Trumpservatives” would entail a return to the latter part of the 19^th century’s Gilded Age and its spoils system and dominant political machines.  This win at all costs and to the victor go the spoils reeks of a bygone era that no one alive today experienced.  Nepotism and cronyism that were once rampant under the spoils system, were at least not proudly practiced as politics as usual until Trump invaded the White House. 

While politics has always paid well, Hunter Biden’s $1M annual salary from a Ukrainian natural gas company while his father was the VP, seems to pale next to Jared Kushner’s $2B “investment” from the Saudi crown prince after Jared left the White House.  Donald Trump Jr., worked during Daddy’s reign to expand their Aberdeen golf resort in Scotland, kick start sales at two Trump-branded luxury resorts in Indonesia, and sell condos in Trump towers in India.  This is all while the Trump International Hotel hosted government officials from Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and the People's Republic of China bringing in huge profits for the sitting president.

While Christianity is not exclusive to one political party, the distortion of traditional Christian values as identified by the biblical Jesus, seems to be a dominant trait of the religious right.  Hatred and violence were never values promoted by their proclaimed savior, but a new political Christianity has evolved that justifies an antithetical version of traditional Christian values.  There is an “ends justify the means” excuse prevalent in this political Christianity even while it contradicts the very premise of their religion.  There is a hatred for immigrants, LGBTQ people, and anyone they deem “unchristian” that justifies violence.  Those on the extremes of the Christian right have declared war on Democrats and have labeled them demonic.  Much of this new political Christianity is based on racism and their cloak of religiosity protects them in their search for the Holy Grail of white supremacy.  I doubt the Prince of Peace would have been amused.

Throughout our nation’s history, we have seen our political parties shift ideologies.  Democrats in the South, aka Dixiecrats, were the strongest promoters of segregation and Jim Crow laws.  The Republican Party of the Great Depression era advocated for small business, equal opportunity, and individualism.  It was a coalition of a few conservative Republicans and southern conservative Democrats that supported the New Deal and its liberal reforms.  This New Deal coalition included labor unions, blue-collar workers, and minorities.

During this time, the bulk of the Republican party, which was blamed for the Great Depression that began in 1929, had been big business allies.  They opposed the New Deal and its federal jobs programs like the Civil Works Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the WPA.  The WPA employed over 8 million people during the eight years of its existence that ended with the Second World War.  They built roads, bridges, schools, libraries, hospitals, waterworks, zoos, playgrounds, etc. 

Critics of the WPA were responsible for creating the Hatch Act of 1939, which is so much in the news today as it covered intimidation of voters, restricted political campaign activity by federal employees, and prohibited all persons below the policy-making level of the executive branch from any active part in political campaigns.  Isn’t that timely?  Revisions to the Hatch Act were vetoed by both Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush.  It was subsequently revised in 1993 and again in 2012 when Barack Obama signed the Modernization Act.

There is a saying that politics makes strange bedfellows.  None could be stranger than the GOP goulash of personalities that has slipped beneath the “conservative” covers of this new king-size berth.  One personality trait seems to dominate, the RWA or right-wing authoritarian is described as somebody who is highly submissive to authority figures, acts aggressively in the name of said authorities, and is conformist in thought and behavior.  This 2021 description is from the American Psychological Association and lists political conservatism, authoritarian submission, authoritarian aggression, and conventionalism as key predictors of prejudice, racism, and right-wing extremism.

The above RWA description was first used to describe the rise of fascism and explain the Holocaust.  Such individuals will submit to authorities whom they perceive to be legitimate in their society.  I’m guessing here that Donald Trump, the successful real estate mogul, and reality television host, fit their need for a social dominator.  These RWA types will also tend to be aggressive against various individuals or groups who are sanctioned by their authority figures.  Once selected to be their social dominator, that individual may not be criticized and anyone doing so is just a troublemaker.  RWAs will be loyal to authority figures who are dishonest, corrupt, and inept, and will insist that their chosen leader is quite the opposite dismissing any evidence to the contrary as false or inconsequential.  They will accept that rules or laws enforced on others do not apply to their authoritarian leader as they are morally above the law.

The “new conservatives,” that I have labeled Trumpservatives, believe they have the moral high ground, and that justifies putting tough leaders in charge.  Their new authoritarian dominator will silence, through any means necessary, anyone who threatens their lifestyle and religious beliefs.  One conservative Christian leader, Matt Walsh, told a cheering crowd that leftist opponents were satanic goblins and that he was “declaring war on every demonic, demon-possessed Democrat that comes from the gates of Hell.”  Another evangelical pastor, Charlie Kirk proclaimed, “Whiteness is great.  Be proud of who you are.”  These are no longer dog whistles of racism or white supremacy, but megaphone-wielding and outspoken critics of democracy.

One recent article written by a neuroscientist, in trying to describe the conservative acceptance of the numerous felony cases against Trump, and their acceptance of his lies in the glaring light of the truth, attributed it to cognitive laziness.  That would be that it is easier to accept the lies as truth than it would be to dwell on or even consider the facts.  It takes too much effort.  Disbelief is cognitively demanding and requires more mental effort than simply accepting something as true.  He found that Christian fundamentalist children begin to suppress critical thinking at an early age.  This makes it easier to accept Biblical stories as truth and not metaphors for life choices.  Accepting mystical causation for observed phenomena discourages analysis.  He theorized that such atrophied critical thinking made them more susceptible to deceit and manipulative narratives.  This would make them predisposed to accept improbable assertions.

While the radical ideologies I have described above are now wholly accepted by the GOP conservatives of today, they walk hand in hand with the old-guard Republicans.   These traditional conservatives must squirm at the very thought of what they have become but lack the courage to speak out against the new radicals for fear of reprisal.  I would imagine that many are hoping that this will all fade away when Trump exits stage left, or I guess that should be, stage right.

Until that time, however, we must contend with the likes of Donald John Trump and Ronald Dion DeSantis.  It will do no good to point to current authoritarian leaders like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Xi Jinping and describe what their leadership has meant for the economies, lifestyles, and freedoms of their countries.  No, this new breed of “conservatives” is myopic to both what has gone before and what lies in our future should they be successful in supplanting our democracy for an authoritarian promising salvation.  Our dystopian future awaits, perhaps as early as January 20, 2025.