As a typical kid growing up in the 80’s and 90’s, I just looked at guys like Reagan, Bush Sr, and Clinton as regular presidents. I didn’t think about political parties. By the time I was old enough to actually consider donkeys and elephants, I started to lean a little right. Maybe because I was in a small town. Maybe because it was slightly cooler at the time. Or maybe because my parents were democrats. And if you weren’t around during the 90’s, let me tell you: rebelling against authority was everything.
But all things evolve. I still enjoy the fiscally responsible nature of the right. But hold on: Are they still the fiscally responsible party? Bush Sr, Bush Jr, and now Trump all left their successors in an economic recession. While recent Dems like Clinton and Obama left office with a high-trending economy (check the stats if your memory is short).
What’s going on? Am I even politically aligned with conservatives at all anymore? Well, I’m not Christian. I’m pro-choice. And I support same sex marriage, and… Okay, maybe I’ve changed. But maybe conservatives have, too.
I’m actually not quite sure what a conservative is anymore. And I’ve tenuously struggled to figure out one attribute that all conservatives have in common. Thus far, I have largely failed.
Conservatives want low taxes — except they really don’t, because they embrace a huge military and an aggressively policed populace. They love freedom — except they really don’t, because they want to restrict everything from LGBT rights, to individual representation, to a woman’s reproductive rights, and even the right to peacefully protest at a sporting event. They endorse a small government — except they really don’t, because they love patriotic imperialism and partisan majorities that stomp out decent from their social adversaries.
One thing they really all seem to have in common is some illusionary ideal of a bygone past that never actually existed. They revere a specific lifestyle that could best be tipified by old sitcoms like Leave it to Beaver or Father Knows Best. They have a boundless affection for what was the nuclear family and “traditional values.”
But even their worship of these ambiguous values are figments of an era that could never be replicated today. These 50’s and 60’s TV shows were built on a systemic reality where any robust middle-class, sole provider could comfortably take care of his suburban family of five.
Yet today’s conservatives have a steadfast opposition that prevents this ideal from being even remotely close to a feasible reality. How are we empowering the middle class right now by bailing out corporations and slashing taxes for the rich — while the poor are desecrated and minimum wage is stagnant? Embracing the oft-debunked “trickle down effect” and imagining themselves as part of the American dream, today’s average right-winger ironically lives far beneath that fantasy — due to the very policies they embrace.
Ultimately, I see modern conservatives as backwards-thinking fools who hold a hundred contradictory ideas in their heads at any given time. It seems they make decisions or actions based solely on emotion. They have no grounded stake in belief or overarching philosophy anymore. It’s just the instinct of the lemming. The comfort of their tribalism and the petulant demand that they always get their way.
They’ve become adversarial humans who believe in whatever is necessary to win their argument in the given moment. But neither the narrative nor the truth matter anymore — they are defined by being perpetual adversaries to the left. Screaming “snowflake” and “sheep” and “lamestream media” to reaffirm some self-appointed hierarchy. They reject any reality that doesn’t agree with their current mood.
And since most scientists and respected people in their field espouse information they’d rather not hear, facts get thrown into the sewers. The right has been skeptical (to say the least) of any science that doesn’t suit them over the last 20 years. Science-driven policy has now become a thing for “brainwashed libtards.” But it goes far beyond any one field — conservatism is now about sheer defiance. Period.
Denying science. Denying any positive trends of politicians on the left. Denying what you said yesterday. Even rejecting any media arm that isn’t right-wing propaganda focused on fear-mongering and vilifying liberals.
But none of this is based on principle nor any tangible goal for the nation. The goal is merely to oppose democrats, fact-checkers, experts, or anything else: “Don’t tell me to wear a mask!” “Don’t tell me not to pollute the environment!” “Don’t tell me I can’t open carry automatic weapons around a daycare center!”
I suppose I believe the right wing is irrevocably lost for the foreseeable future. Whether influenced by someone like Donald Trump or simply exposed by him, I don’t see even a glimpse of hope that conservatives want unity. If anything, this election has proven to me that they want anything but that. And that makes me sad for both our society today and our society back when I joined a more sensible Republican party.