“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit : There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect. There is nothing more or less to it, and there never has been, in any place or time.” Frank Wilhoit
We are living in the Puke era where white supremacist racists are emboldened to act and say out loud hateful garbage they only whispered amongst themselves a generation ago.
Please share widely!
This is the double standard of justice we live and die under today.
Conservatism is dead, at least as far as the USA is concerned. What remains of conservatism is a distilled slime of racist filth that knows it cannot be respected as a racist or nationalist or “Anglo Saxon” group, so it clings to the “conservative” label as a disguise.
I have recently cut all ties with a friend of over thirty years who justifies his support for Trump and proudly tells me he would vote for Trump in 2024 because, as he puts it “I am a conservative!”
He knows of my past as a former conservative. When I asked him how, as a conservative, he could support Trump’s fiscal policies that ran up debt, Trump’s foreign policy that alienated NATO and embraced Putin, his lack of military service, his apparent ignorance of government and the law., as well as Trump’s personal life of multiple marriages, infidelity, and an overall rejection of traditional values…..my “conservative” friend told me that none of that matters, all politicians do it, and so on….I pressed him to tell me exactly what it is about Trump that matters the most…..and he replied, “closing the southern border and saving us from the evils of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar.”
There is nothing conservative about that reply, but so much that is racist.
It’s unfortunate to see friendships fall apart. One of my uncles got into a bad first fight with his now former best friend over the 2020 election. I hope we can return to some civility, but the odious views of Trump and his supporters make it every difficult. Especially those that refuse to recoil at the horrors of January 6th or live in their own fact free reality.
You’re judging Trump on his personal life and espousing a rejection of traditional values?
Hijinx in the boudoirs of Washington would disqualify over half of our leaders. I’ll bet you a cigar on that one. Trump, Obama and Biden didn’t serve in the military, so?
Embracing Putin? Let’s just say he’s bad, but give him his pipeline.
There is nothing wrong with being more isolationist, but that is an opinion. It might not be your opinion but it is only that, an opinion. Do you really want more American troops to go to Europe for a WW3 because Russia wants to reassert control over Ukraine? It is an area of land which for centuries has had flexible borders, at one point being owned by the Poles, Swedes, Germans, Turks…. Russia already owned it for decades, think of the Falklands, it’s not our problem.
Democracy isn’t for everyone. Theocracy or Autocracy fits in certain areas of the world and if people want to change that they’ll need some homegrown George Washingtons. Afghanistan is crumbling before our eyes and in a year girls will be relegated to being barefoot and pregnant again. What solutions do Rashida Tlaib and Illhan Omar provide for that problem?
Now the Dems have the White House, House and Senate, again. Maybe they can put them in charge of that problem like Harris is fixing Central America. I don’t think a solution to that would be filibustered.
Should we tear down the wall that has been built on the southern border? Including the parts of the immigration control system built as part of the “Secure Fence Act 2006”? If we just want to evolve into a world with no borders that’s fine. “Imagine” Let’s just work on the necessary monetary and legal infrastructure needed before we take down every fence though.
Everyone who breaks the law by looting, trespassing, setting up autonomous zones, taking over state capitals, storming the Capital in Washington should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. A year in jail for the Oath Keepers.
Childish personal attacks don’t help make your points. I hope Trump won’t run again, Biden won’t be running again. If Manchin runs for President he will win with Reaganesque numbers.
I’m judging Donald Trump by what he did while holding office and after leaving office. I don’t care how many times he’s been married. He is doing everything he can to destroy democracy and create chaos. He has been relentlessly attacking the very bedrock of American rights and values at every opportunity.
Donald Trump behaves in ways indistinguishable from if he is a bona-fide Russian asset. That’s much larger than a specific pipeline. Destroying America’s faith in our own electoral system, damaging and destroying each and every alliance, amplifying the impact of the pandemic, intentionally spreading vicious lies, misinformation, and gaslighting all of us — these are all much more than just “opinion”.
The overwhelming majority of the assertions made about immigration are based in prejudice and racism rather than fact. A sane national policy starts with an enumeration of the various issues on the table and is connected to immigration status only when data and evidence suggests that immigration status is relevant. That excludes pretty much all of the anti-immigrant hysteria of the past few years.
Coordinated attacks on the US Capitol by heavily-armed insurgents — including some active duty law enforcement and military personnel — is different from protests, even violent protests, in urban neighborhoods. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the police, national guard, and military forces that have protected Washington DC for centuries were ordered to stand down on January 6, 2021. I’m far more interested in who gave those orders than in whether or not some dufus wearing funny clothes is arrested after the fact. I grew up just outside Washington DC. I was there for countless major demonstrations since and including the 1960s.
There has NEVER been anything like what happened on January 6, 2021. In particular, there has never been a similarly aggressive and violent attacking force met with virtually NO law enforcement response AT ALL.
I agree with you that childish personal attacks on Donald Trump are counterproductive. They only distract us from the very real and dangerous crimes that he committed and attempted to commit.
I agree. These are times during which the ghosts, anti-egalitarian ghosts, of the past, are emerging and haunting us in newly undisguised forms. It is time we acknowledged what is happening, and there is no productive point to responding to newly unashamed anti-democracy forces with atavistic politeness.
I recommend Ben Rhodes recent book on this subject.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55749283-after-the-fall
There’s another terrymcginty on this blog that thinks that the Russians benefit when we “gin up the cleavages” in America. You and he should get together and work out your differences.
It’s bad. Rep. Gosar of AZ having a fundraiser with self-proclaimed fascist (and insurrectionist) Nick Fuentes is just one example. And conservatism’s close ties to racists go way back in history. In 1957, not long after Emmett Till was murdered and after Brown v. Board, William F. Buckley (with his Yale education) wrote “Why the South Must Prevail” which includes these sorts of evil ideas:
Gosar for me will always be the Congressman who is so toxic his own siblings cut a TV ad endorsing his opponent.
It is indeed bad, and has nothing AT ALL to do with how many times anybody has been married or divorced.
Bill Clinton was impeached by the GOP because he admitted to lying about oral sex with a consenting adult who initiated the relationship. The Senate failed to convict him because every sane observer agreed that even if the alleged misconduct were true, it did not rise a level that warranted removal from office.
Donald Trump was impeached twice by the Democrats after committing a long list of abuses in his very conduct of the office he held. The Senate twice failed to convict him because every member of the GOP (except the few holdouts) placed their loyalty to Mr. Trump himself (and their fear of the mob that supports him) above their obligation to their oath of office and to the truth.
The GOP is showing, since January, that they have now purged themselves of all but the most rabid racists in America. The upcoming election of 2022 is perhaps the most dangerous of my nearly seven decades on this planet because this is the first time since the Jim Crow era that so many Americans have been so eager to choose tyranny, hate, autocracy, willful ignorance, and brute force over all other concerns.
Today’s GOP is a hate group. It should be treated as such.
If Republicans like Mo Brooks continue to refer to Democrats as Socialist Democrats, then let’s start referring to Pukes as Fascist Pukes.
I prefer “Fascist Republicans” — except that isn’t nearly insulting enough. Perhaps “Trumpist Republicans” comes closer.
It is worth repeating that the problem with today’s GOP is today’s GOP — NOT Donald Trump.
I’ve even started to move away from using “GOP” for the Republican Party. They are sadly no longer a grand old party.