General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: When and how did you figure out that American Conservatism was a scam? [View all]DFW
(54,369 posts)I sometimes used to help my dad in his office in the National Press Building in Washington, and he used to get the weekly newsletter (it was called "Monday" of the Republican National Committee sent to him. They sent it routinely to every office in the National Press Building. I couldn't believe the evil, mean-spirited tone of that party's rhetoric, and Nixon hadn't even been elected yet, although I despised him already. Goldwater had already started using the term "conservative," and the perversion of the word was in full swing four years later. It got progressively worse, until the word as defined in the dictionary had nothing to do with how it was being used by the Republican Party.
After I had moved back to the States from Spain, I noticed that Nixon's VP, Spiro Agnew had arranged to make a state visit to Spain on July 18th. Franco was still in power, and July 18th, 1936 was the start of the Fascist uprising that became the brutal Spanish Civil War. I had the occasion to ask Jim Buckley, the Senator from New York of the Conservative Party (he was William Buckley's brother, this is no joke) if he didn't consider this as going just a bit too far. No, he replied pleasantly, he thought it was just fine. That cemented it for me. He might as well have celebrated January 30th with some neo-nazis in Berlin.
The word "conservative," when used to describe a member of the Republican Party, meant nothing other than "Fascist sympathizer" as far as I was concerned. The meaning of the word "conservative" in English was relegated to linguistics students and investment strategists. Republicanese had perverted it for its own purposes, and given it another meaning entirely.