# Your Mount Rushmore of post-1976 American Conservatives **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [February 18, 2021, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mount-rushmore-of-post-1976-american-conservatives/933253 "2021-02-18T21:25:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mount-rushmore-of-post-1976-american-conservatives/933253/21 "2021-02-19T07:13:24Z")
There are hills in Florida? ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mount-rushmore-of-post-1976-american-conservatives/933253/22 "2021-02-19T13:55:58Z")
I think this is the deeper question. ---
**Author:** ![SingleMalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/singlemalt/32/3961_2.png) [@SingleMalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SingleMalt)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mount-rushmore-of-post-1976-american-conservatives/933253/23 "2021-02-19T14:26:28Z")
I think a “Mt. Rushmore of Conservatives” built on the highest hill in Florida would still be low enough to piss on. Newt Gingrich, definitely. Nominations: Dick Cheney, Oliver North, Phyllis Schafly, Mitch McConnell ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mount-rushmore-of-post-1976-american-conservatives/933253/24 "2021-02-19T15:00:00Z")
He’s not well known among the general population but Richard Viguerie. He was the direct mail specialist who helped merge the pro gun and religious right into the Republican Party. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mount-rushmore-of-post-1976-american-conservatives/933253/25 "2021-02-19T16:28:26Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > I think that at its core, the modern American conservative movement is a white nationalist movement, and Trump embodies that perfectly. Beginning with Nixon’s southern strategy, conservatives have been pandering to white supremacists and with Trump that pandering has now reached its logical conclusion. But you could equally well argue that conservatives have been pandering to evangelical Christians. Trump mostly ignored that group and handed them off to Pence. Reagan pandered to people who were afraid of communists, Bush Sr pandered to people who were afraid of gays, Bush Jr pandered to people who were afraid of Muslims, Trump pandered to people who were afraid of non-white people. The pattern is conservatives making people afraid and then telling those people that conservatives will protect them from the things they are afraid of. The actual target of those fears is irrelevant. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mount-rushmore-of-post-1976-american-conservatives/933253/26 "2021-02-19T16:53:56Z")
When it comes to GOP pandering to evangelical Christians it should be noted that it has always been white evangelical Christians. Similarly, Bush and and Reagan’s pandering have always been subsets of whites. It is white fears that are stoked and pandered to. The message is always the same: unclean savages are coming to take away your special place in American society as white Christians. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mount-rushmore-of-post-1976-american-conservatives/933253/27 "2021-02-19T16:57:14Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Bush Sr pandered to people who were afraid of gays, Huh? Neither party really touched on gay issues in 1988, the HW campaign was on Willie Horton, the pledge of allegiance and the ACLU among other trivialities. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mount-rushmore-of-post-1976-american-conservatives/933253/28 "2021-02-19T18:14:19Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > When it comes to GOP pandering to evangelical Christians it should be noted that it has always been white evangelical Christians. Similarly, Bush and and Reagan’s pandering have always been subsets of whites. It is white fears that are stoked and pandered to. The message is always the same: unclean savages are coming to take away your special place in American society as white Christians. I feel that you’re projecting the current centrality of white nationalism back unto past Republican administrations. In the Reagan administration, for example, the primary enemy was the Soviet Union - and that certainly was not portrayed as a racial issue. I won’t say there weren’t appeals to white nationalists, like Reagan’s Neshoba County Fair speech and Bush’s Willie Horton ads, but they were never the primary message. ---
**Author:** ![Lantern2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lantern2/32/3010_2.png) [@Lantern2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern2)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mount-rushmore-of-post-1976-american-conservatives/933253/29 "2021-02-19T18:17:26Z")
In the spirit of the original Mount Rushmore, I am picking those who made a positive contribution to America and the world: Ronald Reagan George Shultz George HW Bush James Baker ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mount-rushmore-of-post-1976-american-conservatives/933253/30 "2021-02-19T18:20:01Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > Huh? Neither party really touched on gay issues in 1988, the HW campaign was on Willie Horton, the pledge of allegiance and the ACLU among other trivialities. Bush was mostly riding Reagan’s coattails in 1988 and denouncing the Soviets. It was 1992, when the communists no longer looked like a credible threat, that the Republicans needed a new enemy. That was when we heard about “culture war” and how the “militant homosexual rights movement” was attacking America. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mount-rushmore-of-post-1976-american-conservatives/933253/31 "2021-02-19T18:45:09Z")
Yes, but that was Pat Buchanan, the first ‘elite’ cultural warrior of the new conservatism, one which ignored GWB’s _Compassionate Conservative_ ethos. Buchanan’s GOP has no room, no time for compassion, in fact, the world must be saved from those who express it. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mount-rushmore-of-post-1976-american-conservatives/933253/32 "2021-02-19T19:46:26Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > There are hills in Florida? This hill is in an undrained swamp. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mount-rushmore-of-post-1976-american-conservatives/933253/33 "2021-02-19T19:56:06Z")
He’s like the Benjamin Franklin or Alexander Hamilton. Not on Rushmore but maybe if he’s on their imaginary $10 or $100 bitcoin note. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mount-rushmore-of-post-1976-american-conservatives/933253/34 "2021-02-19T20:00:14Z")
Newt and Mitch sucking on Trump’s moobs, with Dubyuh and Regan off to the side trying to figure out how to escape from a finger trap. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mount-rushmore-of-post-1976-american-conservatives/933253/35 "2021-02-19T20:20:28Z")
No, the modern Republican movement is white nationalist, but there are precious few conservatives left among them, and the few conservatives that are left hold almost no power. Conservativism has been replaced by white nationalism, which makes a piss-poor replacement. And for what it’s worth, I’m pretty sure I’ve read that the highest hill in Florida is a garbage-dump landfill. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mount-rushmore-of-post-1976-american-conservatives/933253/36 "2021-02-19T20:28:30Z")
Certainly since 1976, the date of the OP (and before), the GOP has always been racially and culturally conservative. It’s about racial purity now, it was about racial purity for Reagan. I’m 53 and I don’t remember a time when the Republican party wasn’t about tax cut and spend and maintaining white privilege. The idea that there was a time when the conservative movement was otherwise is demonstrably false. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mount-rushmore-of-post-1976-american-conservatives/933253/37 "2021-02-19T21:03:03Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Certainly since 1976, the date of the OP (and before), the GOP has always been racially and culturally conservative. I’ve heard of being “socially conservative,” “fiscally conservative,” and a few others, but I don’t think I’ve ever encountered the term “racially conservative.” Does it have a commonly-accepted meaning? ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mount-rushmore-of-post-1976-american-conservatives/933253/38 "2021-02-19T21:19:35Z")
Happy to educate. Here is the term in use from the linked academic paper (bolding mine), “We show that defection among **racially conservative** whites explains the entire decline from 1958 to 1980.” [‘Racially conservative’ attitudes led white Southerners to leave Democratic Party (journalistsresource.org)](https://journalistsresource.org/studies/politics/elections/racism-white-southerners-democrats-republicans/) [Why Did the Democrats Lose the South? Bringing New Data to an Old Debate - American Economic Association (aeaweb.org)](https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20161413) ([https://journalistsresource.org/studies/politics/elections/racism-white-southerners-democrats-republicans/](https://journalistsresource.org/studies/politics/elections/racism-white-southerners-democrats-republicans/)) [Racial conservatism, self-monitoring, and perceptions of police violence: Politics, Groups, and Identities: Vol 0, No 0 (tandfonline.com)](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21565503.2020.1782234) ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mount-rushmore-of-post-1976-american-conservatives/933253/39 "2021-02-19T21:30:50Z")
So are we talking about enshrining the worst that the conservatives have to offer, or the most reasonable, exemplary conservatives from our perspective? There’s no overlap between the two from what I can tell. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mount-rushmore-of-post-1976-american-conservatives/933253/40 "2021-02-19T23:08:32Z")
> [@bump](#): > > So are we talking about enshrining the worst that the conservatives have to offer, or the most reasonable, exemplary conservatives from our perspective? Yeah, several people have asked, and I don’t think the OP has clarified, so I guess it’s up to you to decide how you want to play it: Conservatives you admire most (however grudgingly)? Conservatives that other conservatives admire most? Most important or influential conservatives? Individuals who best represent post-1976 American conservatism? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mount-rushmore-of-post-1976-american-conservatives/933253.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mount-rushmore-of-post-1976-american-conservatives/933253.md?page=3)