From the slaveholding South to Jim Crow, Reagan’s billionaire revolution, and Trump’s police state, the same dangerous pattern keeps repeating. Is fascism conservatism’s ultimate destination?
The 2022 election in Brazil rejected oligarchs and a criminal eventually convicted in 2025 and the election in 2026 had a similar result in 2026 rejecting oligarchs again and the son of the convicted criminal. But Trump was elected in America in 2024 as a disgusting convicted criminal felon who is constantly lying, incited insurrection on January 6, 2021 and should be in jail. Trump was elected and supported by conservative billionaire Republicans to immediately install a lawless fascist autocracy in 2025 as planned in Project 2025. And Republicans in Congress have supported Trump and his billionaire oligarch oil buddies with tax cuts, low wages, cuts to healthcare and food (SNAP …) and with wars and tariffs causing the destruction of affordability and ICE raids with murders of innocent American citizens. Republicans have attacked democracy, healthcare and science for decades since the 1970s and Trump with RFKJr confirmed by Republicans is just a continuation of the attack. But Trump and everything he does is still supported by 50 million conservative Republican voters who are largely white male supremacists who hate women, democracy, immigrants, intelligence, truth and the rule of law. Vote out all Republicans and vote in progressive Democrats.
Where power, and the ones who hold it, is not checked, fascism and militarism will take over. Unfortunately, authoritarianism is humanity's default setting, based as it is in emotions of fear, hate, and greed. It takes work and effort to maintain a democracy, especially a social democracy, which is based on knowledge, truth, trust, and maturity.
Reaganism, as Reagan described it, is what fascist MAGAism is today. It brings to mind pet dogs in the dining room eagerly sitting with their tongues hanging out, hoping for table scraps to trickle down to the floor so they can share in the feast. Sadly, that metaphor still aptly describes our capitalist democracy, where we have the illusion of prosperity rather than the real deal.
As Thom notes, Trump's view of the economy is very positive. Billionaires do not buy groceries or fuel for their limos. They have people for that. The only economic indicators they experience are reflected in the stock market and their personal holdings. Corrupt Trump has more than doubled his wealth since taking office. My ETFs are all in the red since last May. I do not expect Santa Claus to turn them green for Christmas. Every economist I know - Nobelist Paul Krugman especially - is predicting a recession in 2027, maybe sooner if Trump screws up Iran much more.
I watched the CLOSETocracy documentary last night. In it, one of the men interviewed, Cory Burns, alleges that the client he later identified as US Senator Lindsey Graham said something to the effect of:
"I really like to be degraded. The more degrading, the better."
I say that the above applies to any "American" who votes for any GOP candidate, anywhere.
#VOTE BLUE
#MUSK and the GOP are BUGs, NOT Features of the US Gov't
An underlying question: Why is Democratic leadership seemingly satisfied with fascism lite, reliably working to undermine the efforts of anyone who personifies the resistance, even to the extent of parroting fascist lies and misrepresentations about their qualifications and intentions? Try getting a straight answer from Schumer, Gillibrand, Jeffries, Carville, Tanden, etc., about Bernie, AOC, Mamdani, El-Sayed, Angie Nixon, etc. One obvious answer: They fear upsetting their cash cows, especially those that support their own corruption (see: AIPAC). Defeating fascism will be pointless if we fail to clean up our own house. Bernie says there shouldn’t be any billionaires; that’d be a good place to start.
You wrote: "The reality is they’re not “conserving” anything. They’re instead echoing the thousands of years of modern history of kings and kingdoms where the ruler had absolute, life-or-death power over a nation’s subjects, and citizenship and freedom were both dependent on his whim."
And in contrast you briefly described the general structure of our Native American, so-called tribal societies, which for the most part were horizontally organized and recognized that being a 'chief' was just a job with the aim of bettering society as a whole. You mention that our founders drew upon this view and some of the forms of at least one of those groups, The Illinois Confederacy, which lasted for more than 600 years before the combination of European 'guns and germs' resulted in their failures. How sad some of those founders must be that their aspirations have been and continue to be ground into the mud o historic greed and privilege.
But those roots live on in us. Only time will tell if we can again grow a society worth the name on our shores.
PS I read somewhere recently that 'conservatism is a personality disorder.' Wish I could remember where.
For anyone interested google/research "how many congresspeople/senators had ancestors who owned slaves?" Then how many congresspeople/senators in office owned slaves? First answer to first question - Mitch. Not all were today's Repub ancestors though. And some of these were the people who helped found the country or were closely involved. So the question of "Is fascism conservatism's ultimate destination?" A scary fuzzy answer that's hard to think about.
On a slightly different theme, I have been watching videos of Sheldon Whitehouse & Jamie Raskin. They seem to be ethical, smart & knowledgeable. I don't know if they are charismatic enough to be President. That doesn't matter to me, but it does attract people. Gavin Newsom has charisma, but I question his commitment to the average person. To repair Trump's financial & reputational damage will take skill & determination. Hopefully the Democratic party can assemble a team to quickly start the process of healing.
With his current essay, Thom has opened the door to an underlying issue that both explains and transcends the current imminent danger we are in. And, it is perhaps the first time I disagree with Thom’s core message.
If I read his position correctly, he tells us that conservatism “thrives on fear and resentment while it embraces violence, authoritarianism, and great wealth…” To my mind, and in my experience, this is wrong. If we replace the term “wealth” with “power”, Thom will have also given us a perfect definition of Soviet style communism.
No, we have to look deeper into this because it is exactly this misrepresentation and purposeful abuse of meaning that is super-charging the descent into mindless choices that has allowed millions of people to surrender any form of critical thinking when it comes to making socio-political choices.
My background began with twelve years of Catholic education back when kids in this country – whether in public or private school – really got an education. Roughly during the ‘50s and ‘60s. Until university I was what I believed was “conservative”.
If someone had asked me what I meant by conservative, I would have said it means I do not agree with the state owning everything. Clearly, I was affected by the Soviet boogeyman image. Now, I understand that fear of state ownership of everything was used by those who wanted to reduce to zero community control of all forms of wealth.
Events, and my ability to understand them, changed my position. Among them were JFK’s killing, Civil Rights action, and the war in Vietnam.
More importantly, I received a deep education in history. Two things I remember clearly. One was a high school teacher telling us that America is a constant struggle for balance between Liberty and Equality.
And, two, in college, a professor of American History – my undergrad major -- impressing upon us that when the founders spoke of Liberty, they meant the RIGHT TO OWN PROPERTY: A right denied them, and their immigrating forefathers, by power in Europe.
So, if we can agree that in order to define Conservative, we should know what is balanced against it, I would say it the definition must be a person’s placing an emphasis upon Liberty… to own some part of the commonwealth, as opposed to Equality… the right for all to share freely in the common wealth.
If I am asked to consider the bastardized form of Conservative that Thom describes, then, yes, it is an infection. I might add just as much as is Bolshevism an infection on Equality.
Is it of value to take the time and make the effort to take these false constructs out of the hands of FOX, or the PRC’s messaging machine? I cannot speak for China, but I think there is real and lasting value in framing basic understanding of why MAGA is not true American Conservatism. And then to take out of the Alt-Right’s echo chamber’s hands the ability to use this false construct.
Instead of damning Conservatism and Conservatives, why not damn the liars and expose their fouling legitimate positions on liberty and explain how, as a nation, we must open a deep, constant, and forward-looking discussion, as a people, on where we all think the balance between Liberty and Equality lies.
Every child has a father. Every idea has an origin. And it is my affliction to look for origins and I think that I found it.
It starts with that group of Brownists, led by William Bradford, which we call Pilgrims, they were only 32 of the 102 Puritans that landed that fateful day on (supposedly) Plymouth Rock.. By Ben Franklin's time they had gained political control of Massachusetts, and their ideology had infected the northern colonies.
A decade prior to the revolution a group of Typhoid Mary's, like George Whitefileld, Gilbert Tennet and Jonathan Edwards journeyed into the Southern Colonies to infect the population. After the revolution, a new version of the virus mutated and traveled to the newly created Southern states, and the nascent states then Indian country led by men like Lorenzo Dow the virus has the name the Great Awakening https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Awakening. it was enthusiastically accepted and spread rapidly because, for one thing, it promoted slavery female submission and male dominance as divinely sanctioned, and there is enough ambiguity in it's authorizing document to justify any action from rape and incest to genocide. And that those that refuse him are to be slain
Luke 19:27
E.G,. Job's daughters, the slaughter of Jericho and the Amelkites, 1 Corinthians 14:34–35 and 1 Timothy 2:11–15..Luke 22:36 and Jesus himself said that he did not come to replace the old testment (the law) Matthew 5:17
Buckley came by his white Southern sympathies through his mother,
Aloise Steiner Buckley. Aloise was a Catholic native of New Orleans and had an ancestor who died at the Battle of Shiloh while serving in the Confederate Army.
The 2022 election in Brazil rejected oligarchs and a criminal eventually convicted in 2025 and the election in 2026 had a similar result in 2026 rejecting oligarchs again and the son of the convicted criminal. But Trump was elected in America in 2024 as a disgusting convicted criminal felon who is constantly lying, incited insurrection on January 6, 2021 and should be in jail. Trump was elected and supported by conservative billionaire Republicans to immediately install a lawless fascist autocracy in 2025 as planned in Project 2025. And Republicans in Congress have supported Trump and his billionaire oligarch oil buddies with tax cuts, low wages, cuts to healthcare and food (SNAP …) and with wars and tariffs causing the destruction of affordability and ICE raids with murders of innocent American citizens. Republicans have attacked democracy, healthcare and science for decades since the 1970s and Trump with RFKJr confirmed by Republicans is just a continuation of the attack. But Trump and everything he does is still supported by 50 million conservative Republican voters who are largely white male supremacists who hate women, democracy, immigrants, intelligence, truth and the rule of law. Vote out all Republicans and vote in progressive Democrats.
Totally agree with your comments but please...use some punctuation.
Edited my comment now with punctuation as you suggested
Where power, and the ones who hold it, is not checked, fascism and militarism will take over. Unfortunately, authoritarianism is humanity's default setting, based as it is in emotions of fear, hate, and greed. It takes work and effort to maintain a democracy, especially a social democracy, which is based on knowledge, truth, trust, and maturity.
A 'conservative' is someone who has already got his, and now doesn't want anything to change.
Perfect succinct description.
Reaganism, as Reagan described it, is what fascist MAGAism is today. It brings to mind pet dogs in the dining room eagerly sitting with their tongues hanging out, hoping for table scraps to trickle down to the floor so they can share in the feast. Sadly, that metaphor still aptly describes our capitalist democracy, where we have the illusion of prosperity rather than the real deal.
As Thom notes, Trump's view of the economy is very positive. Billionaires do not buy groceries or fuel for their limos. They have people for that. The only economic indicators they experience are reflected in the stock market and their personal holdings. Corrupt Trump has more than doubled his wealth since taking office. My ETFs are all in the red since last May. I do not expect Santa Claus to turn them green for Christmas. Every economist I know - Nobelist Paul Krugman especially - is predicting a recession in 2027, maybe sooner if Trump screws up Iran much more.
I watched the CLOSETocracy documentary last night. In it, one of the men interviewed, Cory Burns, alleges that the client he later identified as US Senator Lindsey Graham said something to the effect of:
"I really like to be degraded. The more degrading, the better."
I say that the above applies to any "American" who votes for any GOP candidate, anywhere.
#VOTE BLUE
#MUSK and the GOP are BUGs, NOT Features of the US Gov't
#NO VOTES for the Kiddie Rapist's Minions
An underlying question: Why is Democratic leadership seemingly satisfied with fascism lite, reliably working to undermine the efforts of anyone who personifies the resistance, even to the extent of parroting fascist lies and misrepresentations about their qualifications and intentions? Try getting a straight answer from Schumer, Gillibrand, Jeffries, Carville, Tanden, etc., about Bernie, AOC, Mamdani, El-Sayed, Angie Nixon, etc. One obvious answer: They fear upsetting their cash cows, especially those that support their own corruption (see: AIPAC). Defeating fascism will be pointless if we fail to clean up our own house. Bernie says there shouldn’t be any billionaires; that’d be a good place to start.
Apparently there is nobody willing to challenge Schumer for Democratic leadership in the Senate. Pretty damn sad state of affairs.
My hope is that likely challengers are keeping their powder dry ‘til after the election.
You wrote: "The reality is they’re not “conserving” anything. They’re instead echoing the thousands of years of modern history of kings and kingdoms where the ruler had absolute, life-or-death power over a nation’s subjects, and citizenship and freedom were both dependent on his whim."
And in contrast you briefly described the general structure of our Native American, so-called tribal societies, which for the most part were horizontally organized and recognized that being a 'chief' was just a job with the aim of bettering society as a whole. You mention that our founders drew upon this view and some of the forms of at least one of those groups, The Illinois Confederacy, which lasted for more than 600 years before the combination of European 'guns and germs' resulted in their failures. How sad some of those founders must be that their aspirations have been and continue to be ground into the mud o historic greed and privilege.
But those roots live on in us. Only time will tell if we can again grow a society worth the name on our shores.
PS I read somewhere recently that 'conservatism is a personality disorder.' Wish I could remember where.
For anyone interested google/research "how many congresspeople/senators had ancestors who owned slaves?" Then how many congresspeople/senators in office owned slaves? First answer to first question - Mitch. Not all were today's Repub ancestors though. And some of these were the people who helped found the country or were closely involved. So the question of "Is fascism conservatism's ultimate destination?" A scary fuzzy answer that's hard to think about.
On a slightly different theme, I have been watching videos of Sheldon Whitehouse & Jamie Raskin. They seem to be ethical, smart & knowledgeable. I don't know if they are charismatic enough to be President. That doesn't matter to me, but it does attract people. Gavin Newsom has charisma, but I question his commitment to the average person. To repair Trump's financial & reputational damage will take skill & determination. Hopefully the Democratic party can assemble a team to quickly start the process of healing.
An incisive summary! Thanks.
With his current essay, Thom has opened the door to an underlying issue that both explains and transcends the current imminent danger we are in. And, it is perhaps the first time I disagree with Thom’s core message.
If I read his position correctly, he tells us that conservatism “thrives on fear and resentment while it embraces violence, authoritarianism, and great wealth…” To my mind, and in my experience, this is wrong. If we replace the term “wealth” with “power”, Thom will have also given us a perfect definition of Soviet style communism.
No, we have to look deeper into this because it is exactly this misrepresentation and purposeful abuse of meaning that is super-charging the descent into mindless choices that has allowed millions of people to surrender any form of critical thinking when it comes to making socio-political choices.
My background began with twelve years of Catholic education back when kids in this country – whether in public or private school – really got an education. Roughly during the ‘50s and ‘60s. Until university I was what I believed was “conservative”.
If someone had asked me what I meant by conservative, I would have said it means I do not agree with the state owning everything. Clearly, I was affected by the Soviet boogeyman image. Now, I understand that fear of state ownership of everything was used by those who wanted to reduce to zero community control of all forms of wealth.
Events, and my ability to understand them, changed my position. Among them were JFK’s killing, Civil Rights action, and the war in Vietnam.
More importantly, I received a deep education in history. Two things I remember clearly. One was a high school teacher telling us that America is a constant struggle for balance between Liberty and Equality.
And, two, in college, a professor of American History – my undergrad major -- impressing upon us that when the founders spoke of Liberty, they meant the RIGHT TO OWN PROPERTY: A right denied them, and their immigrating forefathers, by power in Europe.
So, if we can agree that in order to define Conservative, we should know what is balanced against it, I would say it the definition must be a person’s placing an emphasis upon Liberty… to own some part of the commonwealth, as opposed to Equality… the right for all to share freely in the common wealth.
If I am asked to consider the bastardized form of Conservative that Thom describes, then, yes, it is an infection. I might add just as much as is Bolshevism an infection on Equality.
Is it of value to take the time and make the effort to take these false constructs out of the hands of FOX, or the PRC’s messaging machine? I cannot speak for China, but I think there is real and lasting value in framing basic understanding of why MAGA is not true American Conservatism. And then to take out of the Alt-Right’s echo chamber’s hands the ability to use this false construct.
Instead of damning Conservatism and Conservatives, why not damn the liars and expose their fouling legitimate positions on liberty and explain how, as a nation, we must open a deep, constant, and forward-looking discussion, as a people, on where we all think the balance between Liberty and Equality lies.
DL
Every child has a father. Every idea has an origin. And it is my affliction to look for origins and I think that I found it.
It starts with that group of Brownists, led by William Bradford, which we call Pilgrims, they were only 32 of the 102 Puritans that landed that fateful day on (supposedly) Plymouth Rock.. By Ben Franklin's time they had gained political control of Massachusetts, and their ideology had infected the northern colonies.
A decade prior to the revolution a group of Typhoid Mary's, like George Whitefileld, Gilbert Tennet and Jonathan Edwards journeyed into the Southern Colonies to infect the population. After the revolution, a new version of the virus mutated and traveled to the newly created Southern states, and the nascent states then Indian country led by men like Lorenzo Dow the virus has the name the Great Awakening https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Awakening. it was enthusiastically accepted and spread rapidly because, for one thing, it promoted slavery female submission and male dominance as divinely sanctioned, and there is enough ambiguity in it's authorizing document to justify any action from rape and incest to genocide. And that those that refuse him are to be slain
Luke 19:27
E.G,. Job's daughters, the slaughter of Jericho and the Amelkites, 1 Corinthians 14:34–35 and 1 Timothy 2:11–15..Luke 22:36 and Jesus himself said that he did not come to replace the old testment (the law) Matthew 5:17
Buckley came by his white Southern sympathies through his mother,
Aloise Steiner Buckley. Aloise was a Catholic native of New Orleans and had an ancestor who died at the Battle of Shiloh while serving in the Confederate Army.