Whatever "conservative" once meant in American politics, it's now just a flimsy rhetorical shield...

[marmar]

Conservatives are the new "good Germans," enabling and defending Trump's crimes
Whatever "conservative" once meant in American politics, it's now just a flimsy rhetorical shield for fascism

By CHAUNCEY DEVEGA
FEBRUARY 26, 2021 10:50AM


(Salon) Let me pose a riddle of sorts.

Donald Trump is a force of political, human, moral and economic destruction. He is the leader of an American neofascist and white supremacist movement. Today's Republican Party has fully become an extension of his political cult and crime family.

Trump incited a lethal attack on the Capitol as part of a larger plot to overthrow American democracy. Although Trump was defeated by Joe Biden at the polls, he actually received 10 million more votes than he did in 2016. This is a historic level of support, only surpassed by the 81 million votes Biden received in the same election. Biden may be president of the United States now, but Donald Trump is now positioning himself as a shadow president.

....(snip)....

The most benign and generous understanding of "conservative," in the traditional context of American politics, is drawn (however loosely) from the 18th-century Anglo-Irish philosopher and statesman Edmund Burke. It signifies an aversion to change, or perhaps even a belief that change, when necessary, should be gradual. "Conservative," at least in that conventional context, denotes a respect for stability, tradition and existing societal norms and institutions.

Donald Trump, his movement and its allies have almost no relationship to that tradition, and overwhelmingly reject such values. In the Age of Trump, American democracy is under assault by neofascism, white supremacy, authoritarianism, gangster capitalism and other antisocial values and beliefs. ..........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/02/26/conservatives-are-the-new-good-germans-enabling-and-defending-trumps-crimes/