"That’s where I am. As my former party careens toward authoritarianism, nationalism, isolationism, populism, and sometimes even racism and violence, I’m one of the few conservatives left standing, with my feet planted on the principles of traditional, limited-government conservatism..."
Well said. You left out just one important "ism" however, fascism. The overt rejection of principled governance in exchange for a cult of personality. All that was needed at that point was an objective to rally white working class grievance. This grievance needn't be rooted in fact, just perception. Examples are: "immigrants are violet predators who will steal your jobs", "the election was stolen", "there were election irregularities", "Covid is a fraud perpetuated by leftists who want to shut-down business and keep Trump from being elected", "Antifa, BLM, and the Democrats were responsible for the Capitol insurrection". Most of these sentiments are parroted by at least 3/4 of the party. There can be no conservatism, constitutional conservatism, or any other flavor of conservatism in a party directed solely for the purpose of driving grievance. The Republicans in one election cycle went from a party with a platform that at least paid some lip service, to a party of pure cultist white grievance with no apparent principals or values, and a platform of Trump, the whole Trump, and nothing but the Trump, so help us God.
"That’s where I am. As my former party careens toward authoritarianism, nationalism, isolationism, populism, and sometimes even racism and violence, I’m one of the few conservatives left standing, with my feet planted on the principles of traditional, limited-government conservatism..."
Well said. You left out just one important "ism" however, fascism. The overt rejection of principled governance in exchange for a cult of personality. All that was needed at that point was an objective to rally white working class grievance. This grievance needn't be rooted in fact, just perception. Examples are: "immigrants are violet predators who will steal your jobs", "the election was stolen", "there were election irregularities", "Covid is a fraud perpetuated by leftists who want to shut-down business and keep Trump from being elected", "Antifa, BLM, and the Democrats were responsible for the Capitol insurrection". Most of these sentiments are parroted by at least 3/4 of the party. There can be no conservatism, constitutional conservatism, or any other flavor of conservatism in a party directed solely for the purpose of driving grievance. The Republicans in one election cycle went from a party with a platform that at least paid some lip service, to a party of pure cultist white grievance with no apparent principals or values, and a platform of Trump, the whole Trump, and nothing but the Trump, so help us God.