An Oregon history professor tweeted about Trump conservatism and his Twitter feed blew up.

[Grasswire2]

The Oregonian did a very interesting and thoughtful interview with the professor Seth Cotlar about the incident. I'll post the link to the twitter feed below, but many of the messages are inserted into the interview, as well.

[link:https://www.oregonlive.com/expo/news/erry-2018/08/536bdf03c34178/oregon-history-professor-spark.html?utm_campaign=theoregonian_sf&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social|


Here was his original tweet:

1. I would love to read a sympathetic (yet critical) essay that assessed a central claim made by Never Trumpers like @davidfrum--that conservatism today is an embarrassing bastardization of what conservatism once was.

BOOM!

]

Link to tweet

?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1028680484786597888&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fpolicy-and-politics%2F2018%2F8%2F13%2F17683416%2Ftrump-republican-party-conservatives-seth-cotlar

[SunSeeker]

1. Conservatism was always morally and intellectually bankrupt.

The only real difference I see between 1990s conservatism and Trumpism is the latter's illiteracy and unapologetically boorish behavior.

[Cosmocat]

8. Yep - it was always bullshit

They just had spent a lot of time and energy crafting group tested talking points in the 90s, simple general statements that were bullshit, but required a 2,000 essay to refute.

But, post 9-11 they got lazy, used terrosrism as a sledgehammer for everrything for the next 6 years, then completely regressed into a petulent state of simply getting up in the morning, seeing something on cable news and screaming about Obama, then Hillary.

Completely forgot about any aspect of civil service/governance, spent half their time and power relentlessly making political hay over benghazi and emails, the other half hobnobbing with their rich masters/figuring out how to graft tax payer dollars.

I had heartburn in the 90s, saw where it was headed, and have felt so helpless since then seeing this country indulge their bullshit time after time after time after time ...

[blogslut]

2. This is good reading

The Twitter thread is good. The article is even better.

Thanks

[Hamlette]

3. good read

[KY_EnviroGuy]

4. Thanks, excellent article from OregonLive.

Will definitely be watching Prof. Cotlar's Twitter page.

See: https://twitter.com/SethCotlar

And, his Medium page: https://medium.com/@sethcotlar (see good articles there)

(sample snip)

If the GOP was a party comprised of thoughtful, evidenced-based politicos who thought they needed to craft good arguments to win elections, then they would all be reading this article and arguing about it. The author, Ben Judah, argues that the old Republican mantra from the 80’s (“WE are the party of ideas, the Democrats are the party of old, stale dogmas”) has persisted into the present, only it’s now largely inaccurate and prevents conservatives from seeing what’s happening around them.

Judah’s article points out that Progressives have built a strong bench of local candidates who have fired up voters around a range of sophisticated and appealing policy ideas. Meanwhile, the “best and the brightest” of the conservative “braintrust” have little to offer beyond name calling (libtard!) or hysterical yelps of “but that’s SOCIALISM!?!?” When Ben Shapiro is your movement’s intellectual heavyweight rather than its glib eye candy, you’re in trouble.

..............

[scarletwoman]

5. Excellent article! Thank you for bringing it here!

I've read the whole article at the link, but haven't read the Twitter thread (I probably won't).

[LittleGirl]

6. Great read, thanks for sharing!

[bluecollar2]

7. Very good article..worth reading n/t

[Takket]

9. Bumping for others to see. Must read!

[dalton99a]

10. "Fox News and Rush Limbaugh have done more than anything else to build that base

and deliver it for the GOP."

Excellent analysis

[genxlib]

11. Great read

Thanks for posting.

I would blame you for eating up my Sunday morning but that's on me.

[Greybnk48]

12. This is an insightful and excellent article!

Thank you so much for sharing.

[IluvPitties]

13. Conservatism has always been based on the fear of change.

That's why it will alwys be a losing proposition.

[yardwork]

14. Much more at the link. This section is very important:

From the interview:

Kevin Kruse's book "White Flight" does the best job of developing this argument, in my opinion. In the 1960s, as black people started moving into previously white neighborhoods, white people decided they were no longer interested in paying taxes to support public pools, public schools, public transportation, etc. They said it's because they preferred to keep more of their private property and spend it how they liked rather than having the government tell them what they should do with their money. "We like our private pools. We like our private religious schools (for which we get tax exemptions, right?). We like the federal government spending lots of money so we can build our all white suburbs and then drive our private cars into the cities with less money for schools and public transport now that we've taken our tax money out of those cities." Strangely, these same people hadn't had such a problem with public pools, public transportation and public schools until the government started saying they had to share these public accommodations as equals with black people, and then all of a sudden white people discovered the joys of lower taxes and privatization. Business people had their own, self-interested and economically rational reasons for wanting lower taxes and a smaller state, so they were more than happy to go along with this. The culture war stuff just added more weight to the argument that "those people" (civil rights activists, feminists, gay rights activists, etc.) were trying to use government power and tax money to help people who were undeserving of that help

[SunSeeker]

17. THIS

As usual, it is about race and/or greed.

[yardwork]

18. Yes. That's what it's all about.

[Grasswire2]

15. thanks to the thoughtful for reading...

I found it gratifying to absorb the review and analysis he puts forward. Look what happened, America.

And very rewarding to see the life of his mind on display in such depth in a CONSERVATIVE newspaper. The Oregonian is conservative centrist.

[Scruffy1]

16. This is why the current crop of of "never trumpers" deserve no respect.

There "beliefs" are no different than Trump, they just don't like his lack of decorum. We had one run in the Senate primary as a
democrat. He go about 13%.Screw them all. I think of them as people trying to save a dying belief and rats deserting a sinking ship. They built a career on beliefs trumping science, greed is good, selfishness is a virtue and white makes right. If I had possession over judgement day they woldn't have the right to pray.

[ooky]

19. Good read. Truth.