Conservatism has no values

[struggle4progress]

Jennifer Rubin
March 1, 2021 at 2:22 p.m. EST

... If conservatism no longer means belief in objective reality, reverence for the rule of law, fiscal sobriety, recognition of universal human rights or public virtue, the Republican Party has no value ...

... Whatever conservatism is these days — a reactionary stance, an irrational resentment, a delusionary cult — it has no principles at all. As we saw from the golden calf — er, the golden Trump statue — at CPAC .. and the utter lack of any policy discussion at the event, this is a party rooted in multiple lost causes ...

... Seething with resentment, the MAGA right considers revenge — “owning the libs” — to be an end unto itself.

... none of this has anything to do with politics, public policy or problem-solving. Even if Republicans held power, they could not abolish “cancel culture.” They could not make White Christians into a majority of the population, as they once were in America. They could not eradicate an overwhelming majority of voters who are roused by the Black Lives Matter movement and support the American creed that “all men are created equal” ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/03/01/worst-kept-secret-conservatism-has-no-values/

[Caliman73]

1. Conservatism does have values, just NEVER the ones Rubin mentioned.

To understand Conservatism, you have to realize where it came from. The father's of conservatism are Edmund Burke and Joseph de Maistre, who began fleshing out the ideas of conservatism while defending Monarchy as it was challenged during the French. Burke was a Whig, notorious for their unabashed support of monarchy. De Maistre believed in social hierarchy and that monarchy was the most stable form of government. As monarchy faded from history as a predominant form of government, conservatives never abandoned their core beliefs that hierarchy was the only legitimate social organization. They merely shifted their idea of the "great man" who was divinely ordained to rule.

Conservatives do not believe in objective reality. They have fought against rationalism and science since the 1700's. The founders of conservatism were Counter-Enlightenment. Conservatives were never for the rule of law. They were in favor of applying laws to control undesirables. Conservatives have NEVER been about "fiscal sobriety". They want only to control assets and keep money and power away from said undesirables. Universal human rights? Really? That is why conservatives have backed coup after coup, putting in any government into sovereign nations, that would support the financial interests of wealthy Americans?

Conservatism is about the "right" people being in charge. That is their value. That has always been their value. All that other shit that Rubin cited, is just about appearing virtuous for certain followers, just platitudes.

[Escurumbele]

4. They did have a bright spot for a few years, that of Teddy Roosevelt who was a progressive and

was more of a Democrat than a republican, but still insisted on being associated with the republican party while fighting the corruption within it.

[betsuni]

8. Yes, Teddy Roosevelt, despite myths, "was a great dealmaker-in-chief and proud of it."

There's a politician who insists Teddy Roosevelt wanted to "break up the big banks" and that Teddy, FDR and LBJ were actually democratic socialists as opposed to liberals and capitalists and the modern Democratic Party are both-sides establishment shills who have betrayed the nice democratic socialist ideas of FDR Democrats. Wrong! Ridiculous!

"It happens that Roosevelt did face a banking crisis that involved big banks failing. And we know what he did. He went straight o J.P Morgan, the biggest banker bar none, and asked him to help save the big banks! ... Most of these myths can be debunked this way ... ."

From Steven Stoft's "Ripped Apart"

[Caliman73]

9. Republicans have had good people in their party.

However, the statement was Conservatism, not Republican or Democrats. Right now, Conservatism is by far, the largest ideological concept within the Republican Party. There are conservative Democratic Party members and there are, or at least, there have been Republicans who have been more liberal.

Roosevelt was conservative on some aspect of policy, and progressive on others. He believed in the power of government to reign in the excesses of Capitalism. He also believed in militarism, which can be argued, is a more conservative viewpoint.

Rubin, in her op ed, was talking about Conservatism and the Republican party and my response was to try to understand where conservatism came from and what the core of the belief is.

There was a time in the US where the vast majority of politicians, even as they aligned more with certain ideals or others, used the world "liberal" to describe themselves. Liberalism came out of the Enlightenment, the idea that through reason, the scientific method, and effort, that people could achieve. Also (with various major blind spots in race and gender) that people possessed equal dignity.

Democrats in the South, during the Antebellum and Civil War period, were conservative, wanting to preserve the natural order of things with their strict hierarchy based on race and class. There were Radical Republicans who presented more as left leaning liberals, who wanted to use the power of government to enforce equal treatment of Black Americans.

We have to be somewhat careful about completely equating the political parties with the ideologies, because there have been changes historically, even as today, they each comport predominantly with one ideology over another.

Conservatism is a top down, hierarchical belief system, born out of the concept of monarchy, which promotes the idea of the "great man" ordained by god, to lead. It proposes different sets of rules for those "blessed by god" to lead and the rabble who must be controlled to be subservient to their superiors. Given no safeguards, conservatism will most likely lead to fascism.

[cstanleytech]

2. Not to mention no room for empathy or compassion.

[StClone]

3. Expedient Relativism

Whatever feels good at given any situation or moment, especially if it opposes science, causes a reaction and falls in line with the wishes of the wealthy.

[DeeDeeNY]

5. "Owning the libs"

She is onto something there. There are many Republicans these days who don’t understand much beyond the fact that out of spite they want Democrats to fail.

[Roy Rolling]

6. Cults

That is the uniting belief. Republicans are United by a common hate of non-Republicans.

Or rather, whoever they deem blasphemous to T-wrecks.

How many Republicans have also been thrown under the bus by the cult leader when it suits his fancy?

[modrepub]

7. Modern Conservatism

is now about holding power. All options are open to that end; voter suppression (applied to opponents aka "enemies" ), electoral college, Senate-like representation (one vote per group no matter how large or small that group is), gerrymandering, lying, whataboutism, et cetera (I'm sure I missed a few)