“American Democracy Requires a Conservative Party”

“Every nation needs parties of the left and the right, but America’s conservative party has collapsed—and its absence will undermine the recovery of American democracy even when Donald Trump is gone.”

“The immediate problem America faces is that it no longer has a center-right party that represents traditional conservatism, or even respects basic constitutional principles such as the rule of law.”

“The United States, like any other nation, needs political parties that can represent views on the left and the right. There are areas of disagreement, and every functioning democracy needs parties that can contest these issues within the circumscribed limits of a democratic and rights-respecting constitution. Today’s Republican Party rarely exhibits such commitments to the rule of law, constitutionalism, or democracy itself.”

“The current GOP is not so much conservative as it is reactionary: Today’s right-wing voters are a loose movement of various groups, but especially of white men, obsessed with a supposedly better past in which they were not the aggrieved minority they see themselves as today. They reject almost everything in the current social and political order because everything around them is the product of the hated now that has displaced the sacred then.”

“America needs an actual conservative party, but it is unlikely to produce one in the near future. The movement around Trump will come to an end because it is primarily a movement of older people. Although the cult will someday dissolve, the authoritarians his movement spawned will still be with us, and they will prevent the formation of a sensible center-right party in the United States.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/daily/

Does America’s democracy need a representative conservative voice? And what dangers does our democracy we face without one?

America has always been a nation of separate political parties representing defined principles and ideologies, but today we lack a represented conservative voice. As much as Trump and the MAGA militia say they are conservative, they are not, nor do they represent core conservative principles whose presence is necessary for an operating democracy.

As the opinion states, the real danger here isn’t Trump, or the MAGA militia, but what follows and the appetite to descend into authoritarianism.

 

Too many extremists are holding the narrative and the unwillingness to compromise by the extremists got us here.

 

I miss debating with the republicans from the bush years. We mostly agreed on reality, the only issue was a matter of what policy was the best approach. It all changed with Obama who was a Kenyan born muslim and also a black Christian separatist who sold crack and did gay stuff.

 

But our complacency is what has led to those extremists having that much influence, for example, just a presidential candidate, or exPresident, implying some critics should be executed would have hurt that candidate but today it gets barely any attention

 

That “Obama being a Kenyan born Muslim” etc disqualifies you from any legitimate exchange

 

It's not our complacency, it is Fox News and other extremist RW media outlets poisoning the minds of their audience 24/7, for profit of their CEOs and shareholders. Apparently, the RW propaganda peddled by these outlets is highly addictive, to the point that they convince their viewers that their fellow, more liberal Americans are their mortal enemies.

 

I almost read the article but I opened the link, saw the name Tom Nichols, and closed the link. So I probably already know what the article is about.

 

Well then you should be able to exchange of the thread, an ad hominem argument is not valid

 

I agree completely. Republicans did not stand up to Trump and now they a loose prima donna cannon they can't get rid of.

 

Great post!

We need the conservative perspective. I'm a very liberal, but I had to agree with conservatives when they were right.

As a liberal, I think the country needs to aim towards progress. But we definitely need a "conscience" to know if we are going about it the wrong way. And, to tell the truth, the fact is that most of us weren't aware of this until now that we lost it.

 

Nah, the only thing that's changed is/was Trump. Hatred found a following and it's been DNC illogic and mind control ever since.. Anyone paying attention can see the only people surrendering their rights and county are those on the left.. The right is still clinging to those core values, "the old school folks" anyway while the left young and old are being groomed and conditioned to OBEY!

In all my years I would have never thought American Left or right could be convinced to lock themselves in to their home at the fear that a virus could be deadly.. Never in my time could I have thought that American would defend a country, corporation and politicians that benefited from manipulation people by fear propaganda tactics!

Under Bush, we united against a common enemy, now, our government has manipulated "We the people" to be one another's enemy..

Welcome to the digital world and users not intelligent enough to see thru it's potential to pursued and manipulation and should never have been expose to it's lure..

TO LATE NOW!!

WOW
Biden Says Climate Change Poses Greater Threat Than Nuclear War - Bloomberg

 

If you understand the context it doesn’t. It’s how republicans talked about him

 

Remind me again who’s admin told us to shut down and lock down?

 

You really that manipulated STILL?

Sad

 

Pretty ironic when you consider the fact that birtherism started with a Hillary campaign worker.

 

I agree, the Republican Party is no longer the party of traditional conservatism. It has chosen to follow a man who is devoid of a political ideology. The 7-time party switcher today’s republicans are following adopted the political philosophy of the political party he belonged to at the time. Trump never had a political ideology of his own and still doesn’t. Neither does the GOP today as the man has replaced the traditional conservative ideology that the Republican Party once believed in. I also agree that the GOP is a reactionary party. A party whose sole existence is to automatically oppose any and everything that Democrats propose regardless of the merits of the proposal.


The republican party’s recent history is being united while in the opposition but fractionized when it comes to governing when they’re in power. Great in opposition, very poor at governing. This isn’t the Republican Party under Reagan or G.H.W. Bush or even G.W. Bush, leaders who believed in the ideals and values of conservatism. It has become a party which believes in nothing but a single man who doesn’t believe in any political philosophy let alone believing in conservatism. Perhaps the campaign slogan these days for the GOP is, “Elect me, I will oppose the liberal agenda although I don’t have an agenda, a conservative agenda to push and adhere to. I have no idea what a conservative agenda is.” Which leads us back to Trump being devoid of a political philosophy, so too has the republican party become. It’s a man they follow and believe in, not a political ideology or philosophy.

 

It’s so interesting that you can see Left hate Trump, but you don’t see Trump’s hate?

For 8 years long Trump rant and lied about President Obama and his birth certificate. How do you explain that?

All your life you didn’t think “American Left or right could be convinced to lock themselves in to their home at the fear that a virus could be deadly”. You are right, I didn’t think that either. Simply because in our lifetime no deadly virus ravaged thru the world and killed millions and millions of people.

It’s not the American who locked themselves up in home are at fault, but your ignorance to accept the reality .

You are again right, under Bush we united against the common enemy, but in 2020 when we had a common enemy ( COVID-19) Trump was more interested in winning election to save lives and the RIGHT would rather inject themselves with Lysol then put a face mask.

 

Hilary started it so , it makes it ok to be racist?

 

When the likes of William F Buckley jr roamed the corridors of power and shared his conservative wit and wisdom are long gone and I, an Independent, miss him sorely. He would be EVISCERATING the current feckless and incompetent GOP and revealing the naked PERVERSION of Justice that currently sits on the conservative side of the SCrOTUS bench.

The BALANCE of power between liberal and conservative ideologies does NOT have to be contentious, more often than not it is just a matter of how a common goal is achieved, need vs pragmaticism, cost vs reward are all NEGOTIABLE when both sides comprise of REASONABLE people.

The current bad JOKE of a rightwing party RECRUITS unreasonable bigots instead. That creates an ODIOUS feedback loop where the NORMALIZATION of unacceptable terminology occurs. The calling for the EXECUTION of the head of the Pentagon Joint Chiefs of Staff would have DESTROYED a political career in 2015 but now that is ACCEPTABLE because it came from their cult leader who will be ANNOINTED as their 2024 nominee even if he is INCARCERATED for treasonous crimes against We the People.

Absolutely America DOES need to have a SANE conservative voice in Congress.

What America does NOT need is the INSANE screeching of the extremist zealots playing a game of Congress Critters and Other Vermin.

 

America and the rest of the world needs to figure out how to sustain much smaller governments with far less power. IOW, at this point, radical change.
Conservatives have always been about maintaining the status quo. There is no longer a significant base of support for the status quo.

 

Yes, but the ideologues are often more dangerous than the idiots.

 

That’s a good point and probably true as all get out.

 

And ended with dems in 2007 with the first BC.

 

It will take a collapse at this point and the powers that be see it coming and have prepared themselves for it.. We the people will be the ones left out in the cold and penniless!

 

Trump was unequipped to deal with the den of thieves and manipulators in Washington! How does anyone lay blame on this guy when THEY-THEMSELVES are being manipulated and not the common sense to even see it driving their reactions, hatred, fear and illogical behaviors!