Kaylasdad99, a sincere question about conservatives and MAGA

[kaylasdad99]

@Irishman

From an exchange in the Stupid Republican Idea thread:

@kaylasdad99

I wish people would stop using the word “conservative” when talking about radically right-wing.

@Great_Antibob

The other conservatives DID go along with the MAGA takeover. Sure, there’s a remaining vocal minority decrying the current situation but they are decidedly a minority and have even less power.

The rest are either fine with it or have decided to stay quiet. Well, that’s on them. They decided MAGA as the conservative standard bearer was no dealbreaker.

@kaylasdad99

I’m not buying it. There are more of us (with respect for the language) than there are of those craven assholes.

@Irishman

@kaylasdad99

I’m not buying it. There are more of us (with respect for the language) than there are of those craven assholes.

Then why do you let those craven assholes run your party?

@kaylasdad99

He don’t know me vewwy well, do he?

@Czarcasm

We know the cwaven assholes awe still wunning the countwy.
Why is that?

@kaylasdad99

Why don’t you tell me? You’re the one who seems to be content with fucking Republicans getting away with calling themselves “conservatives.”

@kaylasdad99, this exchange has me a little puzzled. You say you are a conservative, but object to the radical MAGA being referred to as conservatives. I get you are trying to protect the label, to defend a space for people who are moderate right versus the people backing Trump and Boebert and Greene, et al.

Thank you for the humbling reality check vis a vis how noteworthy I am around here. That OP suggests that I have failed to make my inclinations clear over the past twenty-five years. Allow me an attempt at clarification:

I am a progressive, and a registered Democrat. I am STILL more conservative than today’s generic Republican. I won’t say that no Republican can put forward an idea that will make the country and the world better, but I will say that I’ve seen precious few of them. I believe there is value in the notions of incrementalism, and in the concept of Chesterton’s Fence (a quick google of the term should be instructive, although there doesn’t seem to be a wikipedia article on the term).

I’m not fighting for a label; I’m fighting for the language. The Republican Party basically ceded any right to the adjective “conservative” (and by extension, the noun) back in 1994, when they endorsed Newt Gingrich’s radical Contract On America. They have become even more radical in the intervening years.

You say there are a lot more of you than them.

Again, not a Republican, just a prescriptivist. I know which one I use as a snarl word.

So the question now arises why do the majority of conservatives allow the minority MAGA right control the Republican Party?

No idea, beyond what I said in my own post: they’re craven assholes.

Do you not consider yourself a Republican?

Not only “No,” but “Ew, no.”

That would raise more questions, but the key question remains - Why do the majority of moderate conservatives let the minority of extremist reactionaries control and dominate the conservative side of the political conversation?

See above allusion to craven assholes.

And to answer your question, American politics is thought of as a line. There are two halves: liberal and conservative.

Other categories are subsets. Just like conservative includes “reactionary” and “fascist”, liberal includes “progressive”, “socialist”, and “communist”. I’m not happy about that, either. The manifestation of communism as an actual government is by no means liberal. It’s totalitarian. But that’s the framework of thought in this country.

I reject the “line” thesis. You’re welcome to join me, if you’re really not happy about it.