The title is one of my hypotheses. It's based on long experience as an ardent conservative back in the 1960's, and on my continuing interest in all major political and economic philosophies up through today. From Edmund Burke to Russell Kirk to William F. Buckley, Jr. and beyond, I'm well-versed in the personalities & principles of conservatism. I haven't been a conservative for decades, but remember it all. Some people have said, "But conservatism has changed since back then.". No, and here's why: the bedrock principles of a philosophy do not change. The "change" is as follows: conservatism has been displaced & co-opted by neoconservatism and neoliberalism (there's not a lot of difference between the two), and they have principles totally different from those of conservatism.
The term, "conservative" or "conservatism" once stood for honor, duty, conservation of high values, integrity, truth, acting in a civil manner, and minding your own business. That's why the co-opters of the Conservative Movement retained the label rather than owning up to their real identity. They wanted the (mostly) good reputation of being a conservative.
Russell Kirk (R.I.P.) is well known as the Father of American Conservatism. His iconic book, The Conservative Mind" (1953), had seven editions with total sales over one million copies. I doubt there are even ten so-called conservatives today (under the age of 50 of so) who know much of anything about him, or about the principles he espoused.
From Kirk:
"When every person claims to be a power unto himself, then society falls into anarchy. Anarchy never lasts long, being intolerable for everyone, and contrary to the ineluctable fact that some persons are more strong and more clever than their neighbors. To anarchy there succeeds tyranny or oligarchy [emphasis added], in which power is monopolized by a very few."
~ The Russell Kirk Center
[Yes, I also had to look up the definition of "ineluctable". It's an adjective meaning: unable to be avoided or resisted, inescapable. Kirk was an intellectual of the highest order, hence the fancy language. He laid the philosophical underpinnings for American Conservatism, and did so almost singlehandedly.]
Kirk on civil society and change:
"Conservatives are champions of custom, convention, and continuity [as in the peaceful transition of power] because they prefer the devil they know to the devil they don't know... necessary change, conservatives argue, ought to be gradual and discriminatory, never unfixing old interests at once."
From---
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2021/07/ten-conservative-principles-russell-kirk.html
No time to go through all ten principles from the link immediately above. Just from the quotes cited so far, it should be obvious that Trump & Crew (and many others who claim to be Right-Wing) are not conservatives at all. Some of them think they are, but that's only because they are completely unfamiliar with the founding principles of American Conservatism. For example, such principles do not support threatening violence to election officials, or to those of us who are exercising the freedom to wear a pandemic mask, or those who believe a woman should have control over her own body, or those who believe human rights violations by Saudi Arabia, or Israel, or any other country disqualify them from being our ally. Such principles do not support initiating violence or "first strikes" of any kind. They do not support egregious lying or fraud, nor do they support wanton destruction of Nature in the name of capitalism.
True conservatives conserve good things rather than destroy or damage them for little or no reason.
So, what's my point here? To those few of you who still are genuine conservatives, I suggest the following. Politically and philosophically, get as far away as possible from the unprincipled, unethical, uncivil, phony "conservatives" who have co-opted the Conservative Movement. Their ideology is much closer to fascism than it is to conservatism. In the long run, History will judge them as either fascists or precursors to such.
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Not only my opinion. Be Well
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