Trump didn't "kill" conservatism, he simply carried it through to its natural conclusions. It was always just a kind of fascism too timid to show its face.

Reagan's political speech strawman of the black woman "welfare queen" was so memorable, it became a caricature of black women and black single mothers. Most people who recognize that stereotype have never listened to a word of Reagan's speeches. For his campaign and the ones before and after, the Republican Party launched ads showing a black man's mugshot and telling a tale of how this black man was let out due to Democrat rehabilitative prison policy, then went on to kill/rape white people.

The entire War on Drugs was a way to harass and suppress Civil Rights protestors (accused of storing heroin) and the anti-Vietnam War movement (for marijuana).

The Bush dynasty's core policy was ripping aid from USAmericans in need and using it to terrorize the Middle East; and to strip privacy away from folks in the USA... oh and terrorizing people of color.

And let's not forget the original Conservative insurrection in the USA - the Confederacy, who broke ranks over fears they might one day not be able to enslave black people. Did Trump Kill Conservatism? No more than a house is killed when its moldy ceiling crashes in on its rotten floor.

These people are not conservative. They are regressive. They seek to go back to some imagined golden past that never existed.

The ugliest passions within the GOP is the very core of conservatism.

Are we pretending that conservatism and all that ugly shit are somehow separate? People don't get all excited to go out an vote for tax policies to send more money to the wealthy and deregulate businesses. Not really. They want to make liberals cry and make POC second class citizens and punch down on women and gays. Just look at the shit they get supposedly "cancelled" over from various platforms. They get ostracized for hate speech, not because they want to dismantle the EPA or whatever.

I disagree. What Trump did was simply expose the truth of conservatism. If there's anything to thank Trump for, through his evil actions, it was to show that the right are fucked in the head and cannot hide it anymore.

With MAGA, there is no intellectual connection to traditional conservatism. Think Tacitus, Hobbes, Edmund Burke, their ideas of conserving social and economic norms to avoid chaos and social disorder are completely disconnected from MAGA. Instead, MAGA is a radical movement that seeks total cultural revolution and uses chaos and disorder to achieve it. Trump is Maoist in that he uses the tactics of Mao's cultural revolution to retain power and destroy the old social and political order.

He killed its subtlety maybe, but the hatred has always been there. It’s always been entitlement and greed driven by shortsighted, reactive decisions.

I am a fiscal conservative. Which means: I want my money to go where it makes sense:

Defense? Yes. War? No - Cooperation is more profitable than destroying countries for their resources. Universal Healthcare? Yes. We spend a lot more in healthcare than any other country, yet we get jack. Environment? Yes. Having clean air and clean water is cheaper than treating diseases, and reversing pollution. Food Stamps, WIC, housing assistance, etc.? Yes, people are not productive on an empty stomach. People are not creative when they worry about the roof over their head.

GOP Conservatives say they are conservatives, but they are actually worshipers of billionaires, and haters of the poor. They are okay letting the money accumulate in a few hands so long as "we are not spending money to give handouts". It is not handouts, it is an investment.

It worked. I FUCKING HATE REPUBLICANS.

Republicans aren't conservative. I am WAY more conservative than any of them, and Im liberal.

They aren't religious, they are disgusting scum and exceed my tolerance for morality (for obvious reasons). They are corrupt, seeking only to benefit themselves. They overspend. They start wars for profit or to hide certain scandals. The only "conservative" belief they adhere to imo is the want for smaller government ... because they do in fact want a dictatorship.

Trump was elected President because of the stupidity of the Democratic Party. They selected an old man who was too far to the left. For example, Biden let illegal migrants flood in despite polls showing most Americans wanted secure borders. Then when he dropped out, it was too late to have another convention to select a replacement. Instead, Kamala Harris was appointed, a person who so dumb said she would have done nothing different than Biden despite knowing that the Republican strategy was to associate her with Biden.