I recently had breakfast with two former faculty colleagues. The bulk of our conversation focused on the upcoming election, and thinking back on it, a couple of things struck me: despite MAGA folks’ belief that all college professors are left-wing socialists or communists, in a former, more rational time, all three of us would have been considered somewhat right of center.
But of course, the center has moved. A lot.
In 1980, I ran for Congress as a Republican. I won a Republican primary. I was pro-choice, and (to the extent it even came up then) pro-gay rights. For a couple of years after I lost the general election, people came up to me and said things like “I just couldn’t vote for you because you were so conservative.”
My husband and I met as officials in a Republican city administration; when we married, a reporter who covered the city (we had those back then) told me “the press guys like both of you, but you are both kinda right-wing.”
I don’t think I was ever “right-wing” –my positions were more consistent with what was then the GOP mainstream than with the Rightwing fringe of the party–but I was a traditional Republican.
Since 1980 I’ve changed positions on a few issues, because I learned more about them, but my basic political philosophy and approach to policy has not changed–yet today, I’m considered “far Left.”
I stood philosophically still, but the Overton window moved.
Part of the problem is political vocabulary. Americans talk about Liberals and conservatives, but those terms don’t describe our contemporary politics. MAGA and Trump are anything but Conservative as that term has historically been understood. (For that matter, they lack any coherent political philosophy at all, unless grievance and animus can be considered political positions.)
That reality has left genuine conservatives politically homeless. There’s a reason so many prominent conservative Republicans have endorsed Kamala Harris. (When George Will supports Harris, you know the GOP has jumped the shark.)
To the extent Trump has any policy positions, they are anathema to real conservatives. When the GOP was a genuine center-right party, it championed free trade, not tariffs and protectionism. Conservatives wanted limited government– Barry Goldwater insisted that “Government doesn’t belong in your boardroom or your bedroom.” As Reagan left office, he made a speech about the importance of immigration. In foreign affairs, conservatives were strong supporters of NATO and opponents of dictators–and they understood the importance of joining with liberals in a unified approach to issues beyond the “water’s edge.”
Real conservatives venerate the Constitution and its checks and balances. They celebrate freedom of speech and a free press. When the GOP was conservative, it stressed the importance of respect for democratic processes and institutions, for law and order. Trump and MAGA constantly attack the very foundations of a working democracy– the press, the Department of Justice, the FBI, even our military leadership and especially the integrity of the electoral system. The old GOP might have disagreed with Democrats and liberals about how these principles should be applied, but they endorsed the principles.
Let’s be accurate: whatever else today’s GOP may be, it is not conservative.
As an essayist in USA Today recently put it,
As someone who works in the world of words, I understand that their meaning – and use – can change over time. Yet, something I greatly resent is how the Republican Party has conflated Donald Trump with conservatism… To me, conservatism means a belief in free markets, individual liberty and limited government.
As a result of the party’s move toward neo-fascism and theocracy, authentic conservatives have found themselves homeless. Thoughtful conservatives–appalled by what the GOP has become and unwilling to call themselves Democrats–have nowhere to go. Many of them will vote Blue this year rather than holding their noses and voting for Trump (or, in Indiana, for our Hoosier Christian Nationalists). Some won’t vote at all.
The disaffection and homelessness of genuine conservatives will help Democrats this year, and in a year where our choices really are between good and evil, that’s something to celebrate. But going forward, the transformation of one of the major parties in a two-party system into an anti-democratic cult is a disaster, and not just for real conservatives.
Good policy requires negotiation and compromise among good-faith advocates of varying perspectives. Civic peace requires respect for democratic institutions. This country needs two adult parties equally committed to the democratic process.
It is increasingly doubtful that the GOP can be redeemed from its current status as the new Confederacy, but unless that happens– or a third party somehow emerges– genuine conservatives will remain homeless.
NOTICE: TOMORROW evening at 7:00 P.M. I will introduce a Zoom event featuring four candidates who have the ability to shift four seats in the Indiana House from Republican to Democrat and break the super-majority’s stranglehold: Josh Lowry, District 24; Tiffany Stoner, District 25; Victoria Garcia Wilburn, District 32 (incumbent); and Matt McNally, District 39. I will begin the event by explaining why one-party rule keeps dragging Indiana in the wrong direction.
Should I be questioning my political views; I voted for you in 1980 in both elections because you were progressive! But it was a different world then and Indiana still hasn’t caught up with the changing times. I was an Independent voter till 2000; living in Florida at the time so I was paying closer attention to all candidates, all strangers to me, and Jeb Bush was Governor. If I hadn’t already moved away from all Republicans, the presidential vote recount would have ended all consideration of the Republicans I thought I left behind with Steve Goldsmith’s destruction of Mayors Lugar and Hudnut’s Republican party foundation.
Today I may be supporting all Democrats as protection against all things Republican but I am not “at home” here because I have no choice but to become a straight party voter. Republicans have taken my choices away, virtually at gunpoint, and I resent the loss of that civil and voting right.
This paragraph on the blog struck me:
“As a result of the party’s move toward neo-fascism and theocracy, authentic conservatives have found themselves homeless. Thoughtful conservatives–appalled by what the GOP has become and unwilling to call themselves Democrats–have nowhere to go. Many of them will vote Blue this year rather than holding their noses and voting for Trump (or, in Indiana, for our Hoosier Christian Nationalists). Some won’t vote at all.”
Thank you for this post today, Dr. Kennedy. I’ve been reading a book concerning how we got this way. Entitled “Partisans” it’s by Nicole Hemmer. A few names stand out, but, surprisingly (to me, anyway) is Pat Buchanan. Newt Gingrich also got us there, one of the main reasons being his “Contract on (sic) America” which stirred the post of hate that Buchanan had cooked up – and, of course, Rush Limbaugh.
In the end, though, I’m beginning to wonder if all the hatred & resentments have not always been part of our politics, but it was the electronic mass media that let it grow and redefine the traditional definitions of the terms of ‘liberal’ & ‘conservative’.
There have always been some on both sides who have worked at the edges of proper democratic norms. Now it seems that one side has blown up the very fabric of those norms. We really need to overwhelm tfg and his minions in the coming election.
The Council for National Policy was founded in 1981 and many members of the Moral Majority moved to CNP when it closed down (Falwell).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_for_National_Policy
The CNP is the who’s who of the right-wing extremists, including the Kochs and Leonard Leo, the gifter of our conservative court. As several of us point out on this blog, it’s been happening for decades. Obama pushed it over the edge and brought Trump to the forefront.
I remember Ian Haney Lopez’s book, Dog Whistle Politics, written during the Trump presidency. Ian talked about how Ronny Reagan used racially coded words to draw racists toward him. The Tea Party blew that door wide open during Obama’s presidency, and they’ve never looked back since. The racists and Christian Nationalists are one and the same. It’s the modern-day KKK.
Bill Clinton consciously moved the Democratic Party to the center/right, and the DNC has followed the GOP even further to the right. Progressives and socialists no longer have any representation in the US. Even the unions are middle/right. That’s why people are being left behind as the Donor Class drags both parties further to the right. The parties are chasing the donor dollars!
It’s the Oligarchy that is dragging us to the right.
“Real conservatives venerate the Constitution and its checks and balances . . . When the GOP was conservative, it stressed the importance of respect for democratic institutions.”
One might argue, then, that the fall of the GOP from a conservative party to the chaotic, dystopian, fascist mess it is today began when party leadership decided they could get their way by stacking the courts. Of all the sabotage of democratic principles and institutions, that was the most damaging.
First and foremost, history tells us that we are the safest, most comfortable humans ever. So, how has MAGA become a threatening, if loose, coalition of the disaffected?
The answer is entertainment media, which specializes in making comfortable people more uncomfortable and safe people feel threatened—constantly, every day, drip by drip. That sells well here and now.
I hypothesize that that paradox can be explained by an unintended consequence of being too safe and comfortable: life becomes without purpose, which is one of the things we are wired to have.
That also explains the increasing frequency of depression, oppression, suicides,
drug use, murders, and MAGA.
I found this interview very enlightening.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia6m3pIIS2k
I will certainly buy the professor’s book; Virtue Hoarders.
Nobody mentioned the egregious Lee Atwater or Dick Armey, the creatures who developed he southern “strategy” to allow the equally egregious Gingrich and G.H.W. Bush to “discover” Karl Rove and promote inflammatory rhetoric. These party/power before people sowed the seeds for the Tea Party and, subsequently, MAGA.
Conservatives and traditional Republicans saw this coming and did nothing to stop it. Getting elected (winning) was the first and only purpose for Republican political philosophy. They even made the honorable Bob Dole embarrass himself with policy flips.
I have no sympathy for the Republican party no matter who they are or ever were. Putting party/power over the good of the people grows those seeds into monstrous beanstalks like MAGA.
This was one of your best. I, too, was a Republican for many years, but changed as a result of Reagan and many of his choices which included disregard for people who had genuine problems. His closing of many of the mental health facilities was shameful, and that tendency certainly seems to be evident with the Trump group. It infuriates me that those people claim to be strong Christians – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Let’s make America great again in its treatment of everyone! No matter what someone’s faith is, and they’re all important, let’s use the best of those faiths, and figure out how to be a special American “kind” and use it.
IBJ had an article today about polling for the November election. They contacted 1000 Indiana voters. 75% of them said they were Republican. Depending on how you look at it, it could be good news, or bad news, because 57% of them said they would vote for Trump. It’s good news because a significant percentage wern’t going to vote for Trump. It bad news that 57% still said they would vote for the Republican candidate despite being a convicted criminal etc….
But I do find one bright side in all of this. All through the primaries, Trump polled about 10% higher than then actual vote he got in almost all of the polls. I suspect Indiana is going to be a lot closer race than the polls are currently predicting. I know a few dyed in the wool Republicans that will not be voting for anybody for President, so Trumps lies and vitriol are having an effect, but not in the way he would like. I have no idea how this will fall out in down ballot races.
Are those Republicans who won’t vote at all, vote for the WCN candidates who populate their party slate all down ballot?
Not voting at all seems to be a copout, a way to distance themselves from the responsibilities of citizenship. They can truthfully state that they didn’t vote for him or those who claim to be his followers, but did they really? They have a choice to make regarding the common good. If they choose not to vote, what is their justification for allowing others to make that choice for them?
Voting is the number one responsibility of every citizen. Yes, that does mean that we have to make decison about whom to vote for. And it is decision that needs to seriously consider which candidate espouses a desire to actually govern for the benefit of the entire population, and not just a favored minority. (Do I have to spell that out?)
I can empathize with you Sheila.
When I came to Indiana, we had “Hi – I am pro-life, pro-gun, anti-tax, pro-tiny government – I am your Democratic candidate for Senate” – I usually define myself as an RFK Democrat (although after Jr, I may stop using that line to avoid confusion)
JD – I will welcome “not voting” Republicans. If we are ever able to fix things, it starts with denying Trump another term in office.