HN title: "Conservatives..."
Are conservatives regarded as indistinguishable from Trump fans these days?
HN title: "Conservatives..."
Are conservatives regarded as indistinguishable from Trump fans these days?
Domestically in the US? I would generally say yes. It's hard to argue that Trump hasn't entirely co-opted what's left of the Republican party and conservatives for the most part. How much of that is self-serving is hard to say. I wouldn't be surprised that 5-10 years down the line you have a lot of people on the GOP side who change their tune on Trump once he no longer has power because as it currently stands, going against Trump on the right side of the aisle is generally political suicide.
Currently loyalty is rewarded above all else in the Trump era of the conservationism, and so if you want to stay in the game, you generally tow the line.
Personally I find it pretty gross. but in a lot of ways it's also laid bare the extreme level of cronyism in politics. When someone who was harshly and openly critical (rightly so, even) of you before you held power is now your public mouthpiece and saying the exact opposite of what they said before that was the case it's hard not see that in action.
I find it hugely depressing that the GOP has become the party of Trump, not just because I think Trump is terrible, but because it's just served to increase the divide between the population in general.
It may not be "conservatism" in some outdated sense of the term, but people who use that label vote for him in droves. Linking the two is not unfair.
He's governed more conservatively than the last two Republican presidents.
Since they're so poorly behaved, they have to seek out alternative spaces that will tolerate their misbehavior. r/T_D didn't get quarantined on Reddit because Reddit has it out for Trump supporters—it got quarantined because it's a hate-filled shithole where bizarre and paranoid ignorance, racism, misogyny, and rampant glorification of hypothetical violence against their political enemies form the baseline for discussion.
In the US, sometimes conservative is used as a synonym for Republican in the same way that liberal is used as a synonym for Democrat.
There is also a different political science meaning for the words conservative and liberal that don't map to the two major political parties.
Yes
In what meaningful way can they be distinguished?
>First off, I'm a registered Republican. I only seem liberal because I believe that hurricanes are caused by high barrometric pressure, and not gay marriage.
The Republican party hasn't been about responsible small government in decades.