"As a conservative, I'm beginning to wonder: Are we the bad guys?"

[erronis]

From a Letter To the Editor - Washington Post
I don't have an actual link since I ditched it when it became the Bezos Post.

Robert P. George’s Dec. 7 op-ed, “There are valid debates among conservatives. This isn’t one.,” argued that conservatives should stop promoting “white supremacy, antisemitism, eugenics, the subjugation of women, and other forms of ideological extremism and bigotry.”

You know what this means. It means it’s too late. Telling conservatives to stop being bigots is admitting they’re bigots. And I’m pretty sure a professor of jurisprudence telling them to cut it out isn’t going to work. Hey, you guys — stop being bigots! Oh, okay.

I served in the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations and would like to believe conservatism wasn’t always thus, but I’m beginning to wonder. Was the virus from which today’s bigotry sprang lying dormant in us back then, like chickenpox leading to shingles? The moral herpes virus? Was it like a recessive gene long buried in our ancestral DNA that suddenly got switched on and has become dominant?

Are these new conservatives in fact our descendants? Were we always secretly like this but were pretending we weren’t? I’m hoping these new conservatives are mutants, but I’m not so sure about that anymore.

[Dave Bowman]

1. You better believe it.

[RandySF]

2. Yes

[Joinfortmill]

3. I'm 76 years old. Growing up, half my family was Republican.

The short answer is, YES.

[USS_Dauntless]

4. Yes. Yes you are.

The question is, what are you gonna DO about it? Are you going to take a long look in the mirror or are you going to continue to blame Biden, Obama etc?

[OldBaldy1701E]

24. Or, just decide that you are too embarrassed to do anything other than hide?

Because, if you are weighing options, your neighbors would want you to use that mirror and come out of the other side a better person.

Then, help us reclaim and rebuild our nation better than it was before.

(That would be my answer to the person who posed that question.)

[JI7]

5. They were willing to pretend until Obama became President

and was reelected.

[erronis]

17. Definitely. And remember when a Roman Catholic was elected president?

The gnashing of WASPy teeth was horrendous.

I'll guess a Hispanic or Asian heritage president would do the same.

Poor little white feelies.

[markodochartaigh]

23. In Texas

my older cousins told me how their classmates and teachers in junior high were happy and laughing when the news came out that President Kennedy had been assassinated, and proud that it had happened in Texas. Within five years all of my cousins had moved to California. And my cousins all made more from the appreciation of their houses than most of their classmates made in their whole lives.

When my Grandmother passed away we found a whole trunk with Kennedy memorabilia. I'm so happy that she didn't have to see what Bob jr. has become.

[cksmithy]

30. I was in the 7th grade in Monterey County, California, at a k-8 elementary school. The vice principal came in and told

that Pres. Kennedy had been shot. He came back maybe 10 minutes later and said our president was dead. Then he and my teacher started laughing and both agreed he deserved it. They whispered and snickered for a while. Lots of us cried and were shocked. It was one of the most horrible moments of my life.

[EncantoCatColony]

42. That's horrible

I was a second grader in Southeast San Diego in 1963. I knew something very bad had happened because all the cafeteria workers were crying. When we got back to class our teacher was also crying. She told us our President had been shot. It was the day before our family left for Thanksgiving break, a trip to Oregon and Idaho to visit our grandmothers. We watched the funeral proceedings from a motel room. It was such a dark and frightening time.

[rampartd]

57. the nuns at my school were distraught

it seems i was at st pius in 63. was that really sixth grade.

[Tetrachloride]

6. The rambling made me think the writer doesn't know what's going on.

Conservative chasing his own tail / tale

[Scott Alan Swaggerty]

49. Indeed

[BootinUp]

7. He should ask himself if he ever believed that the end justifies the means. nt

[Srkdqltr]

8. Im 84. They have always been there just not so much media. If you didn't live in it then

You may have never seen it.
I didn't live in it directly but thinking back i could see it. Now I know

[Swede]

9. The virus has spread to all of them.

[Timeflyer]

14. I was hoping someone would post this.

Can you post the whole scene with audio? Even if not, thanks!

[Boo1]

25. Sure

?si=-6Px_opbZrBshjoT

[rsdsharp]

10. Ronald Reagan, born in Illinois, rose to fame and power in California

launchd his run for the presidency in Mississippi. Philadelphia, Mississippi, where three civil rights workers were murdered in 1964.

Why? That wasn’t a dog whistle, that was a bullhorn blast to the racists that he was one of them.

It WAS “always thus,” Sparky.

[erronis]

11. Of course this did actually pre-date Reagan - Nixon and Goldwater and the "Southern Strategy"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy

In American politics, the Southern strategy was a Republican Party electoral strategy to increase political support among white voters in the South by appealing to racism against African Americans.[a] As the civil rights movement and dismantling of Jim Crow laws in the 1950s and 1960s visibly deepened existing racial tensions in much of the Southern United States, Republican politicians such as presidential candidates Richard Nixon and Barry Goldwater developed strategies that successfully contributed to the political realignment of many white, conservative voters in the South who had traditionally supported the Democratic Party so consistently that the voting pattern was named the Solid South. The strategy also helped to push the Republican Party much more to the right.[7] By winning all of the South, a presidential candidate could obtain the presidency with minimal support elsewhere.[8][9]

[hatrack]

62. Ah, yes the Golden Years of Lee Atwater . . . .

EDIT

Atwater: Y'all don't quote me on this. You start out in 1954 by saying, "Nigger, nigger, nigger". By 1968, you can't say "nigger"—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me—because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this", is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "Nigger, nigger". So, any way you look at it, race is coming on the back-burner.[19]

EDIT

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Atwater

[fujiyamasan]

67. I was about to post this

It’s perhaps the most honest and revealing profile of how republicans operated pre Trump. After Trump, it’s just all out in the open.

Dog whistles once again became bull horns. The past repeated.

Basically all the bad aspects the letter writer mentions (racism, sexism, etc) laid dormant, are just symptoms of the cancer (conservatism) that may have been in remission and just roared back.

[stage left]

47. Ain't that the truth?

I despised Reagan. The Great Communicater, my behind.

[Scott Alan Swaggerty]

50. +1

[twodogsbarking]

12. If the Gucci fits, wear it.

[GopherGal]

36. or the jackboot

[ShazamIam]

13. My view is the Republicans have been openly racist since the Goldwater candidance and were cemented into that corner by

Nixon and Reagan. Since Reagan there is no question that Republicans have been very openly race bigots.

[Martin68]

15. I read this letter in the Post this morning. I wondered if it was real. Probably, I suppose.

[hibbing]

16. Hahahahahaha...like to believe conservatism wasn't always thus

Yes, it has been. No idea about the author's life or experience, but come on man!
The author needs to review some history, Southern strategy, Willie Horton advert, where St. Ronnie announced his run for president, and many more examples.

[BurnDoubt]

18. It's who they've always been.

The difference is there were enough people who had actual personal knowledge of the damage done by horrible people. Now, History is “who won the Super Bowl in ’72?'” (Don’t bother me with all that nasty shit, I’m trying to watch the Game!).
We were lulled into complacency because they were ashamed of themselves until they weren’t.
That’s The Hill. Do they HAVE to die on it to finally not be horrible people anymore?

[Dave in VA]

19. The Republican party left Eisenhower's

Republican party behind when the decided to take on the Dixiecrats from the Democratic party in the 1960s. I'm 73 yo and watched the transformation of my racist family morph from the "always a Democrat" to "Nixon's the one!" And they never looked back.

Just my $0.02

[FakeNoose]

35. Absolutely right ... I call them "my Grandpa's Republican Party"

My Grandpa was a patriotic and upright American, but he passed away in December 1980 just as Ronald Reagan was planning to move into the White House. That was the end of it ... the "good" Republicans were weeded out or else they died off, and what was left were the evil, greedy, racist Repukes we have today. It took awhile for that to happen, but Newt Gingrich helped it along.

What's left now is no relation to the original GOP. Just ask all the people who have left since 1980. Being an earnest political "conservative" has nothing to do with today's Repukes, and that's the truth.

[UpInArms]

20. spawn of the devil himself

Guardians of Pedophiles

[mercuryblues]

21. Reagan was a racist cow.

Welfare queen; states rights; law and order...

He brought the southern evangelicals into the mainstream and gave them power.

more on his racism

https://www.colgate.edu/sites/default/files/2024-07/Cate%20Hughes%20RELG%20Dept%20Honors%20Thesis%20Final%20Draft.pdf

[NewHendoLib]

22. Yes. They are veritable pieces of shit

[WmChris]

26. If there WERE good guys.

They would be standing up and calling out the racist, fascist, misogynistic assholes that claim to be the conservative party today. If you're not loudly calling out the bad guys I think you are one.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

27. Yes, and they also need to stop calling themselves conservatives.

Another case of Rethugs abusing many words of the English language such as 'freedom' and 'liberty'......

Destructives is a more apt word IMO.......

And, to the question "Were we always secretly like this but were pretending we weren’t? YES! Every damned Republican I've known in my 78 years were cruel closeted racists and misogynists once we got to know them.

[raging moderate]

37. My mother was a non-racist Republican. But she finally voted for all Democrats.

My mother was descended from staunch Abolitionists, and they were all Republicans. Her mother's grandparents (he was a minister) had hosted Black houseguests several times because they were all attending a Methodist Church meeting together. And they waited on those Black people themselves; they never had servants. And they were proud to do so; each of them had had an older brother who had been killed fighting to abolish slavery in the Civil War, when the Republican Party was mostly Abolitionists and their sympathizers. My mother never let us use racist words or phrases; she always did what she could to educate us about the bad treatment Black people still endured. She was so happy when new laws helped Black people get good education and good jobs. She told me how her family, suffering poverty and hunger in the Great Depression, had mourned over the even greater suffering they could see in Black people they met. But, as the Dixiecrats and Northern racists began to take over the Republican party, she gradually voted for more and more Democrats (and so did her parents and her brothers and her sister). Right before the last election of her life, my mother told me, with widened eyes, "I guess I'm voting for all Democrats this time!" So Yes, there was a political shift in this country.

[erronis]

56. Thank you for your story. I think it mirrors what a lot of people/families have gone through.

Society was changing, and the political powers were changing as they were threatened by what the real social needs were.

They powers intentionally confused the terminologies (Republican/Democrat, Liberal/Conservative, Progressive/Socialist, etc.) so they could try to grab constituencies, and to paint the other camp with false labels.

[Turbineguy]

28. As my Friend and DU Member says....

"The First Step is admitting you're an Asshole!"

[ffr]

29. Here's the URL link

Paywall

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/12/12/small-business-tariffs-republican-bigotry-fuentes/

[erronis]

31. Thanks. And here's an archived link. It looks like the same content.

https://archive.ph/vUTVD

I left the author's name out of my OP for privacy reasons.

[JHB]

32. Fella, it's the bigots who gave conservatives their victories.

Surely, as someone active in conservative politics, you've heard of the Southern Strategy? Namely, once the Democrats decided to get out of the business of Koddling Klansmen, the Republicans set up recruiting tables to have all those disaffected bigots (formerly known as "conservative Southern Democrats" ) cast their votes for the elephant.

I mean, Reagan kicked off his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi and talked about "states rights." What kind of crowd do you think he was playing to? How about when he was talking about "young bucks eating T-bone steaks"? He wasn't talking about deer or rabbits, so who do you think he was trying to get his audience all riled up about? What buttons was he pushing?

Putting bigots on your team was all part of the plan. Every Republican success for the last fifty years has depended on it.

[GopherGal]

39. ah for the days when they at least had enough shame to use code words.

and dog whistles.
"states' rights"
"young bucks"
"Welfare queens"

Then came TSF and they adored him for the implicit permission to be openly racist.

[patphil]

33. I'm a 79 year old Liberal Democrat. Believe me, it was always there.

It took over 40 years to bring their intolerance and hatred out of the closet into the mainstream. From the early 80's on there's been a strong, growing, shift toward ultra right wing ideology that embraced a "white's only" view of who was worthy of leading the nation.
It was fueled buy a White Christian viewpoint that saw themselves as the new chosen people. Jesus became a useful tool in the process of justifying the marginalization of everyone who was not one of them. It never dawned on them that Jesus wasn't white....still hasn't.
The rise of Trump was the trigger point. His election in 2016 empowered them to "reach for the gold". Everything that's happened since then has been a prelude to project 2025, the ultimate power grab that would create a US equivalent of the German 3rd reich, that would rule for 5000 years.
As with Germany, this will end badly. Hopefully we can shut it down before it becomes a river of blood flowing through the streets of America.

[Skittles]

52. yup

Reagan made greed and ignorance fashionable, and Trump has made racism something for the knuckle-draggers to be proud of.....America keeps spiraling because of CONSERVATIVES.

[ColoringFool]

34. To be succinct: YES.

[JT45242]

38. Short answer yes.. reagan launched at KKK site for a reason

Nixon made black drug users the boogeyman.

Willie Horton...the list goes on and on.

[NNadir]

40. We're not wondering. We've always known.

[Jean Genie]

41. Yep

U da guyz

[LymphocyteLover]

43. Bwahahah-- yes, you are, motherfuckers

[DFW]

44. This label-hijacking has been going on since the 1960s

The exact date when "reactionary Republican" turned into "a conservative," I couldn't tell you, but I totally reject the popular definition. A label by any other name, so to speak.

There now seems to be a stark division between "a conservative (Republicanese for asshoile)" and "conservative (pretty much describes me)".

My usual response to queries from both ends of the spectrum (the center seems to get it) is as follows:

I am your classic conservative, at least as defined in a dictionary of the English language (as opposed to Republicanese).

I still work for the same outfit that recruited me out of college in 1975. I have been with the same wonderful woman since 1974. We have raised two solid, intelligent children who have grown up, think independently, did well in their respective colleges, and have jobs in which they earn their own living, have stable, long-term relationships, and are well-respected in their chosen fields.

I am risk-averse, and do not like to make rash, un-thought-out decisions. I have no debts. I have no addictions, not even to alcohol, religion, gambling, or nicotine. My favorite American philosopher is the 18th century Thomas Jefferson.

I am the epitome of “conservative.” Why am I a Democrat? Simple: I do not believe that having a different ethnic background, belief, or income makes one a superior or an inferior being to myself.

[overleft]

46. Republicans should not be referred to as conservatives.

They should be referred to as "regressives" since they want to take our society back to antebellum times. What you described as yourself is what I have always envisioned as the true definition of conservative.

[DFW]

66. After 20 years

They haven’t yet kicked me off of DU, so, at least a couple of people agree with us.

Way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I grew up in Virginia for a while. One of the year’s highlights was when my dad used to drive us down the Skyline drive and then walk with us through the Luray Caverns.

[Solly Mack]

45. lolololol Oh, sorry. Duh! Y'all have ALWAYS been this way. ALWAYS!!!!

[Scott Alan Swaggerty]

48. Yes. Yes, you are the bad guys.

[rustbeltvoice]

51. Do not have to read his response in detail

No shit dim Sherlock. Republicans didn't have much on the plus side since Lincoln, and under Lincoln there were a lot of war profiteers. After Hoover's Depression, and Roosevelt's saving American life, anyone who voted for Republicans was against America. Joe McCarthy, J. Edgar Hoover were monsters. Goldwater was nuts, and after him they got crazier and crazier. Reagan began the downhill slide. Gingrich was pure evil. The Bushes thought they were entitled to the presidency. Orange Caligula is the Devil's very own. Conservative is the American euphemism for fascist.

[Blues Heron]

53. Most of the good pukes went dem after Bush when it was clear the pukes were going full Nazi, total info awareness

[Upthevibe]

54. Kick. N/T

[malaise]

55. Great OP

Rec

[Conjuay]

58. - In ten words or less-

Yup.

[Jspur]

59. As a 42 year old US born Indian guy whose parents are

from India and someone who grew up in NC during the 90's and early '00s I'm going to say they were always like that. I jokingly say I grew up in a MAGA white middle class neighborhood and experienced all the hateful racist xenophobic stuff that they throw around today back when I was growing up during the 90's. They would scream in my neighborhood and school that Indians had come to take their jobs and were not real Americans. On top of that Jesse Helms was my Senator during the 90's who was an open white supremacist who would make Trump blush and look like a choir boy with his racist takes. They have always been hateful racist shit heads but if you didn't grow up in a conservative area you wouldn't know how bad they truly are.

[erronis]

60. The racism/sexism/bullying especially in the school years is still intense.

I'm sorry you experienced it.

[Jspur]

61. I agree I hear it all the time from parents of kids

and family members who have kids on how bad the racism and bullying in schools still are. For me it was the worst I have experienced in my life compared to adulthood. No toxic workplace has ever compared to what I went through as a kid dealing with these MAGA shit heads.

[UTUSN]

63. Hah - DUH

[flashman13]

64. Yes Robert the virus fully took root as far back as the racist Nixon southern strategy administration.

By the Reagan administration the Republican body politic was fully infected. Trump is the Frankenstein monster you have been constructing since Republicans started hating on FDR in the 1930s. Along the way you folded in the religious nuttery that has infected the country since the arrival of the pilgrims. And now here we are, up to our arm pits in MAGATs.

So yes Robert, you are the bad guys.

[calimary]

65. Um... you really have to ask?

[soldierant]

68. It has taken until now for you (whoever you are)

just to wonder? You (whoever you are) might want to get a cognitive test or two,

[Deminpenn]

69. The party's have switched roles

starting in the 1960s with LBJ pushing through the voting rights act and other civil rights legislation. The Democratic Party was full of southern racists, then Nixon's "southern strategy" began to embrace racisim, bigotry, grievance and many of those southern Ds followed their hearts and became Rs. The GOP's appeal to racism and bigotry has only grown over the decades, first just as an election strategy, but now it's become it's identity.

[LudwigPastorius]

70. It's only been 7 years since Trump started tearing families apart and...

locking up kids in cages, Flash.

But, you’re beginning to snap to it.