General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Someday it will be crystal clear to all just what a terrible president Ronald Reagan was- [View all]Hortensis
(58,785 posts)moderate conservatives who created liberal democracy.
After 40 years of conservative-dominated government, starting with reaganism, and reading about how conservatives tend to think, I've come to the conclusion that strong conservatives are unfit to hold power in our liberal democracy. For that matter, they tend to be bad leaders of conservative societies as well.
The saying that power corrupts holds very true for strong conservatives (and also for extremists on both sides who by nature are very bad at defining limits), but far less for liberals.
As everyone should be seeing so clearly by just looking at what's happening in our nation. It's as binary as politics could ever be.
Our new plutocrat/wannabe kleptocrat classes didn't corrupt and work through the Democratic Party, but not because they wouldn't have been eager to corrupt both parties. Only the Republicans, taken over by strong/extremist conservatives, were their natural allies/victims. Liberal Democrats instead opposed their growth over the past 40 years and their very existence. ("We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Liberal Nancy Pelosi to the nation at the opening of congress)
Putin couldn't destroy America fastest and easiest by going after both parties. Only the strong-conservative Republican party was amenable to his methods of destroying nations by infiltrating corruption through them.
Democrats, unfortunately for his ambitions, said a big no and will make attacking us a very big mistake when the electorate gives us the power.