Introduction

I was once a conservative republican member of the NRA – but I recovered. I grew up “lucky” (read privileged), had a good education, was not exposed to the injustices that women, poor, dark-skinned, immigrant, or sexually non-conforming people suffered. In those days, it was the threat of communists that was in the news, along with Reagan’s fabled “Welfare Queens.” My one-time devotion to its indoctrination was a squandered investment in a fantasy that could never fulfill its promises and, in practice, is too easily corrupted by avarice, hypocrisy, and the bare-faced will to power.

The Enchantment

Long ago and half a continent away I was under the thrall of what passes for the conservative mindset. I was young and moralistic. I was enchanted by the narrative that people less fortunate than I were too lazy to improve themselves (rather than lacking the same opportunities that I had). Instead, the narrative went, compassionate government policies promoted laziness. This attitude freed me from any obligation of compassion (and the pain of empathy), or any need to look into the complexities of racism and its relationship with unbridled capitalism and other economic policies. Free markets received more lip-service than reality, and were only afforded to a privileged elite – our American aristocracy.

I bought into the notion that government was not to be trusted; that a smaller government is better, free of “unaccountable bureaucrats;” that power was best invested in local government and so states’ rights were paramount; that patriotism meant uncritical support of government (as long as we could also arm ourselves against it, of course). Capitalism was the ideal economic system because the power of the market was the power of the people to regulate commerce by how they spent their money. Christianity shaped our government, values, and society. Liberals had no spine and just wanted to throw money at problems; and they were soft on communism and crime. Reformers and “agitators” were communist “fellow travelers,” and socialism was just a step toward communism.

These values were not theoretical positions for me. I worked in an election as a poll watcher (going to a voting site and watching the voting machines being opened to take the tallies). I really thought there were only three things keeping us from “liberty and justice for all” and they were communism, big government, and lazy people.

Dis-Illusionment

The slippery slope from the heights of conservative ideology to the realities of the world came gradually but relentlessly, with one realization after another. I began to notice the fruits of this conservatism – who benefited, who suffered, and what lies were told. I watched the banner of conservatism cast a shadow that hid racism, subtle forms of genocide, misogyny, homophobia, economic slavery, neglect of vulnerable citizens, and environmental degradation.

Let’s take a look at some of the sacred cows and dog whistles of modern conservatism one by one.

Small Government

At first blush, the idea of small government had its appeal. Government had to be restrained lest it intrude into our private lives and curtail freedom. Small government also meant lower taxes for everyone. But in a country of more than 327 million people, the idea of “small” government is ludicrous because of the influence of corporations larger (in wealth) than some countries, because of military and cyber threats from other countries, and because of internal shadow organizations and (again) corporations of unimaginable power.

So who benefits from this idea of “small government”? Keep government small and it will be unable to protect citizens from predatory corporations that have enough money to evade paying their fair share of taxes, escape government supervision, and avoid market forces. They buy elected leaders, manipulate legislation, and put small businesses out of business while creating subsidies for themselves. The business establishment itself has become a shadow government.

States’ Rights

Decentralized authority – a.k.a. “states’ rights” – also had its initial appeal. After all, not all areas of the country had the same interests, needs, or resources. The insidious nature of states’ rights, however, became evident when they were used to try to block common civil rights. Peaceful activists were murdered, gassed, and water cannoned by state authorities. African American churches were burned with children in them – in the name of protecting a state’s right to maintain its racism.

Free-Market Capitalism

Competition and free markets were supposed to promote better products, greater efficiency, and higher profits; but there is no competition on an unequal playing field when huge corporations can buy up, starve out, undermine, or sue their smaller competitors into the dust. So, we now have a diminishing number of huge corporations controlling media, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals, agriculture, and communication. This is not a free market, nor is it competition, or democracy.

The economy grew when corporate profits were taxed at a high rate. That was an incentive for corporations to put money into wages and development which wouldn’t be taxed. Money that used to go toward workers’ wages and benefits, and re-investment in the company now goes to shareholders and CEOs. In this fraudulent “free market” we watched the wealthy become an aristocratic oligarchy with privileges of political influence not equaled by any ordinary citizen.

“Trickle-down” economics never worked, partly because it relies on the delusion that wealthy corporations and individuals will give their largesse to workers – instead of to management, shareholders, multiple houses, boats and buying legislative influence. Yet the lie continues.

What’s worse, free market advocates seem disinclined to support anything that helps people’s welfare. They were (and still are) against social security and are happy to leave elders, no longer useful for generating profits, to languish and die. They also oppose collective bargaining that would limit the power of corporations to abuse workers and establish economic slavery.

“Regulations” became a pariah because it meant corporations might have to be responsible for the impact of their policies and actions. This amoral evasion of responsibility has become a hallmark of conservatism and corporate protection. Even the idea of a mandatory “living wage” is controversial. Just give that some thought. What kind of person wants citizens to exist with less than a living wage?

Myths of the self-regulating marketplace and trickle-down economics were lies perpetuated by those who wanted to avoid regulation and paying taxes so they could (can) steal fruits of the labors of working people.

De-Regulation

Because of the threat to corporate profits, large corporations have been active in suppressing the realities of science because it might tell us what industrial chemicals, particulate matter, tobacco, fossil fuels, and gun violence are doing to our health, society, and government.

Conservatives have always opposed any revelation of industrial toxins, as well as the impacts of tobacco, pollution, acid rain, the ozone layer, climate change, and now pandemic diseases. If it could be sold, it was good. If it cut costs, it was good. If someone suffered, it wasn’t their problem and government shouldn’t be looking into it or trying to remedy it. Worse, because scientists’ research threatens corporate profits, conservatives have been actively disseminating disinformation (read “lies” and “deception”) and attacking sincere scientists trying to save our health and lives.

The Second Amendment and the NRA

I was and am a gun owner (and I have a permit to carry). I’ve heard constantly of the threat of confiscation at any suggestions of registration or regulation – the same things we hear today, 50 years and many lives later. Over time, it became obvious that the National Rifle Association was more invested in gun sales than safety or owners’ concerns. The gun was promoted as an icon of individual power, and become an icon of toxic masculinity.

Now the NRA fights against even simple things that most Americans and most gun owners want, like universal background checks. The NRA has become a special interest group for manufacturers and, apparently, Russian interests.

American Values and Its History

The people I’d looked up to as pillars of American democracy began to look petty, privileged, spoiled, racist, homophobic, misogynous, and predatory. They sought any advantage they could leverage over anyone else – especially the vulnerable classes that did not conform to their vision. The great icon of conservative republicanism cut taxes of the wealthy, taxed social security, ignored the AIDS crisis, supported illegal arms sales, and betrayed the unions he promised to support. His efforts began the decline of the middle class and intensified the growing wealth disparities we see. Betrayal, lies, profiteering, and pseudo-religious posturing became the ways conservatism imposed its grip on the country. Christianity was used to promote domination and theft: whites over people of color, men over women, wealthy over the common poor, Americans over the world, humankind over nature.

Conservatives ignore the fact that the constitution was originally written for white male property owners. Women didn’t have the right to vote until after my mother was born and women of color were long excluded by state-created barriers. We’ve been crippled by our cave-man Christianity.

Over time, I discovered what was done to the indigenous people of this land: their children taken from them, their language suppressed, and their religion outlawed. The language we use today distorts the reality. Invaders were called “settlers”, “adventurers,” and “missionaries” as they took the land, the lives and culture of human beings inconveniently in the way of their conquest or profits. Genocide, slavery, and rape have been common European methods of domination.

Equal treatment under the law has been a myth, given lip-service but fought against by both conservatives and modern Republicans who act out their pathological fear and hatred by finding some vulnerable populations to hate, blame, and oppress; and enlist bizarre versions of Christianity to support them.

I don’t care anymore what their empty claims and fantasies might be. I look now at the fruits of their actions: bigotry of various kinds, misogyny, murder, massacres, children abused, unconscionable distribution of wealth upward, and on and on.

We revere a constitution drafted at a time when non-whites were non-people, when women had no place in a man’s world of government and business. In the 21^st century, conservatives have attempted to use lies about biblical teachings to make various populations into second-class citizens and to block civil rights, voting, marriage equality, justice reform, etc. They tried to dismiss the reality and dangers of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic while undermining the brightest scientists who had a grasp on what was happening and what is needed to save human lives – and they did so in service to solely economic interests. People’s lives have been traded for commerce – a new form of human trafficking.

Today’s Conservatism

Conservatism now means little more than greed, self-centeredness, racism, religious bigotry, destruction of families, misuse of the American military, destruction of the middle class, upward distribution of wealth, misogyny, subversion of scientific realities, perpetuation of racism through discriminatory application of law enforcement, judicial sentencing with a for-profit prison system, violation of American treaties, gross and public corruption in politics, limited regulation, and wanton destruction of our ecosystem with the adverse consequences falling on the shoulders of the poor while benefiting the wealthy and powerful. There is no interest in resolving the causes of our problems but in ignoring them and suppressing those who suffer and object.

Too many conservatives persistently lie about too many things: the cause of the Civil War and a denial of the Confederacy’s investment in slavery, about the capabilities of women and people of color, about climate change, about systemic racism, about the beliefs of various religions, and about the adverse effects of our economic system, and the recent tax cuts. There was a peculiar lack of conscience about reasons for war, about the criminal history of Ronald Reagan and his destructive policies for the middle class, about those who perpetuate white terrorism, and those who are dying because of their lies and prejudices.

This conservatism turned a blind eye to the reality that, as the Berlin Wall fell, the greatest threat to our freedoms was the growth of unregulated, irresponsible, greedy, capitalistic, multi-national corporations who now suck at the teat of American wealth but evade taxes through self-designed loopholes, shelters, and off-shore accounts – in legislation written by purchased legislators.

The perfidy of the conservative position became solidified at my realization of the degree to which it opposed attempts at rectifying the evils of the modern world – without proposing any initiatives of their own to solve very real problems that threaten our well-being. What’s more, those waving the conservative flag seem to make every effort to deny the very real consequences of their actions such as continued global warming, toxic chemicals in the environment, increasing inequality, corporate and political corruption, etc. Rather, they call any attention given to reality “fake news” as if that solved the problem. They actively opposed any attempt to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, protect the vulnerable, house the homeless, and care for ordinary citizens as well as the women and men they love to send to war.

The only thing they seem to conserve is the right to continue this system of corporate dominance, the economic advantages of racism, violating treaty rights of the people indigenous to the land,  stealing the labor of women and immigrants (and others without representation), and general bigotry against any who do not conform to their privileged standards.

Thus, conservatism and the republican party have become little more than a cover for the worst of human behavior promoting  propaganda that our problems are caused by people who don’t look like us, despite that fact that it is white men in suits running their/our lives.

This current president is good example of their underlying values: he is unrelated to reality, predatory, greedy, misogynist, bigoted, racist, entitled to unearned advantages, and heartless. As others have said, he is not the cause of our current degradation and divisiveness, but the personalized epitome of a structure built by the republican conservative machine that no longer pretends to care about human suffering and social issues. There is no longer the veneer of civility, compromise, and social responsibility.

Like any cult, conservative Republicans have a rigid set of beliefs and demand conformity. They promote unquestioning loyalty to professed values and to cult leaders and icons. Leaders are allowed to violate basic values with impunity. Anyone who exposes the dear leaders’ perfidy, hypocrisy, or damage are roundly attacked and excommunicated with the expectation that “true believers” shun them. Their greatest fears are exposure, truth-telling whistleblowers, and an uprising of ordinary citizens.

Large corporations and centralized wealth, election corruption and religious oppression have become the great dangers to our democracy – more so than communists ever were.

“The Party” has become an immoral criminal enterprise in service to corporate interests and wealthy individuals – the middle class be damned.

Conclusions

Clearly, I found conservative Republican ideology, practice, and people inadequate to face the realities of our time. The conservative experiment was a failure, not only for its inherent inadequacies, but also for the way it attracts authoritarians with a theocratic bent and an emotional hypersensitivity to threat. Furthermore, it was too easily subverted by corporations and oligarchs who astutely take advantage of its impotence.

Thus, today’s conservative Republican party and its supporters have become channels promoting policies of authoritarianism, fascist sympathies, racism, denial of scientific realities, Russian infiltration, election disenfranchisement, misogyny, use of federal troops to attack peaceful protesters, homophobia, religious bigotry, suppression of dissent, faked photographs, social media memes generated by far-right propaganda outlets, false accusations, intimidation of citizens and legislators, innuendo, and outright lies – a far cry from the idealistic enchantment that first captured me.