I’m going to violate a long-standing policy that I’ve followed in my posts: I’m starting this one by quoting someone who wrote a letter to the NY Times editor (11/6/2023):
“Not ‘Conservative’
Re “The Roots of Republican Dysfunction,” by Jamelle Bouie, 10/22/2023):
The MAGA supporters who call themselfves ‘conservative’ yet supported the Big Lie are not conservative. Overthrowing a legitimate election and installing a strongman you like is radical; it is not the least bit conservative.
I wish America had a real conservative party, which would serve a legitimate purpose in balancing the urges of us liberals. But nobody should be allowed to impose authoritarianism on fellow citizens and call it ‘conservative.’ That is radical extremism.
Brett Lindenback
North Haven, Conn.”
The only thing I’d change here is the last sentence. My minor editing change would be “That is fascism.” MAGA Republicans are fascists. Period. While we need both progressives and conservatives, the first perhaps to go where no one has dared to go before, and the second to temper that exuberance and search for unintended consequences in progressives’ plans, we don’t need fascists and should work hard to exclude them from our political discourse. History has proven over and over again that fascism can only create chaos and violence generated by those facists, among them racists, bigots, and neo-Nazis, and their violent proclivities are used by fascist leaders to get and maintain power. The extremes of the political spectrum, both far-left and far-right extremes, often bend around and join at fascism, and this is where evil raises its ugly head as psychotic sociopaths scream, “Agree with me or die!”
The far-right SCOTUS judges aren’t true conservatives; they’re fascists. Ex-Speaker McCarthy (remember him?) wasn’t a conservative; he was a fascist. Current Speaker Johnson, McCarthy’s replacement and a more dangerous and devious character, is a fascist for many reasons, the principal one because he’s claimed that the Bible justifies his fascism. (In fact, most memebers of the SBC are facists, not Christians—and some of their leaders are perverts as well!)
While many far-left politicians are fascists too (AOC and her “squad” come to mind), their far-right counterparts are the most dangerous right now. Most of the Good Ole Piranhas nowadays are fascists, not true conservatives; the few who weren’t have left politics because their colleagues’ actions disgust them. And, of course, that “f&^%ing moron” was never a conservative; he’s always been a fascist driven by psychotic sociopathic impulses. True conservatives (Cheney, Kinzinger, and Romney come to mind) once provided some of the balance that the NY Times letter writer would like to maintain. They led the exodus from the Good Ole Piranhas, giving up on a lost cause. America absolutely needs true conservatives. Instead, we have fascists. And the latter will most assuredly destroy American democracy if we give them a chance.