I've said it before and I'll say it again -- I'm not getting more liberal, but I am definitely getting more anti-"conservative," as that term is degraded and debased by the modern Right.
https://radleybalko.substack.com/p/tyre-nichols-wasnt-murdered-because
Exactly. Consider William F Buckley Jr — if anyone could be said to have personified 'intellectual conservatism' it was Buckley. The guy had a national weekly show on PBS for 3 decades.
But he was such an unrepentant mccarthyite that he literally wrote and published a book of mccarthy fanfic a few years before his death.
Serious conservatism has been a thin, highly-polished veneer over this roiling, inchoate madness the entire time.
William F. Buckley, Jr. was a prominent conservative American political commentator who was known for his rhetorical brilliance and frequent wit. In his eighty-two- plus years, he founded National Review, wrote fifty-five books, thousands of columns, hosted hundreds of Firing Line television shows, and became recognized as the founder of the modern conservative movement. The first major conference on William F. Buckley, Jr. was convened by the Portsmouth Institute, in 2009, specifically to explore the role William F. Buckley, Jr.'s Catholic faith played in the formation of his thought and work. This volume of the Portsmouth Review, edited by Portsmouth Institute director James MacGuire, contains the proceedings of that conference with contributions by James L. Buckley, Peter Flanigan, Father George Rutler, Maggie Gallagher, Kathryn Jean Lopez, Roger Kimball, Joseph Bottum, E.J. Dionne, Lee Edwards, Clark Judge and Neal Freeman. There are additional articles by Christopher Buckley and Doms Damian Kearney and Paschal Scotti O.S.B.William F. Buckley, Jr., though blessed with an impervious faith, was not always predictable in his Catholic views. He resisted reforms of Vatican II, questioned many of the Church’s teachings, and was the first to confess that he was no theologian. With all this in mind, The Catholic William F. Buckley, Jr. is an essential resource for understanding what animated and inspired one of the great public intellectuals of the second half of the 20st century.
@dangillmor @Popehat It's hard to do otherwise when the US House of Representatives includes "conservative" members who are active conspiracy theorists.
At some point, the media can't ignore that and has to describe the political movement based on the behavior of its highest-ranking members (including, obviously, the one that thinks a massively-distributed electoral process run at local and state levels was somehow "stolen" from him).
The idea of a political spectrum is so deeply embedded in the American political press.
They don't have a problem identifying multiple, competing extremist factions when reporting on foreign countries. But in the US, the only lens they've got is "liberal - centrist/moderate - conservative" and it warps their coverage of everything, not just maga but of the democrats too where actual conservative democrats like manchin are never given that label.
Conservatism is becoming proto-fascism. There is nothing strange about being opposed to fascism, even if you're OK with conservatism.
Interesting article. Well written.
@Popehat My family is extremely conservative, and frankly there are values to a number of conservative viewpoints.
But not -these- conservative viewpoints. Not these ridiculous dehumanizing things, the sheer hatred of things that are different, the absolutely mind boggling terrible ideas (oh god the tax thing)...and frankly I'm just not going to vote for anyone who hates me for being gay.
It would be nice to have two parties, not one party and captain planet villain group.
IDK what the Libertarian Balko's of the world have done to help the situation. They spread a mindset that the government exists mainly to protect property, and we live in a country where the group most associated with poverty and crime is Black people. Does Balko offer any perspective to interrupt the conservative narrative about Black men ("they're just more violent")? Or would citing poverty rates alongside crime rates be too Liberal for him?
@Popehat My dictionary defines "conservatism" as "disposition to keep to established ways; opposition to change."
Let's call them what they are: Retrograde assholes (fascism, racism). They want to go backwards. There is nothing "conservative" about them.
One thing they will never understand is the only "constant" in the universe is "change." You can't go back.
Never was conservative, never will be.
@Popehat
It's a political "optical illusion" because the GOP has really tilted the political spectrum (Fig. 2).
I don't think the Left side of the American political spectrum, in general, has moved any further left. It is just a "misconception" by the Right since the GOP has slid way further to the extreme right (Fig. 1).
@Popehat As best I can tell, the current Republican party is only still "conservative" on two issues: guns (in favor) and abortion (against.)
They seem to have given up on the few things that used to attract me, as a former swing voter. Things like fiscal responsibility, rule of law, US leadership around the world, etc.
I wish I had known back then that they never actually believed in that stuff: I could have become a staunch Democrat decades ago.
Caleb Spronk
Ken White
Dan Gillmor
Aaron Ross Powell ☸️
Spicewalla
Mark Tomczak
Bob Blaskiewicz 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇬🇱
Lucy Steigerwald
Gojira1000
Adam R. Smith (AmericanScream)
Rich Puchalsky 
Brian Hawthorne
Mirishuli
Quinn A.
Pyperkub
Dan Hulton
Warren Terra
William B. Turner
Alan Twigz
Al
Troy Patterson
Oggie
Virtue signal 💉💉💉🇺🇸 🇺🇦
BoredomFestival
yum_Benichon
Kinene⭐🐻
Steve Langenderfer
Cameron Purdy
MarkTink
Marie Angell
argonaut
Raille
Becky Wiren
Walter Dunham Ll.B.
Kansas Grant
Nigel Purchase