It doesn’t matter to me if they’re Republicans or Democrats, I have— and have always had— a great deal of animus towards conservatives. From its inception, conservatism has often been at odds with the ideals that drive progressivism. The tension between these two ideologies is rooted in their fundamentally different approaches to society, economy and governance. At its heart, conservatism is all about preserving the existing social order, which inevitable over time will have grown corrupt and putrid. This inclination towards maintaining the status quo manifests as resistance to change. Historically, conservatism has aligned itself with the defense of established hierarchies and traditional institutions, such as monarchy, aristocracy and religious authority— an obstacle to social progress, an obstacle to challenging and dismantling oppressive structures, an obstacle to equality, social justice and the expansion of democratic rights. The conservative defense of the status quo has been a defense of inequality, whether in the form of slavery, feudalism or unfettered capitalism.
Conservatives have championed economic policies that prioritize the interests of the wealthy and powerful, often at the expense of working people. From the Industrial Revolution to the present day, conservatism has been associated with the protection of property rights, the deregulation of industries and opposition to labor movements, perpetuating economic inequality and social injustice. Conservative policy inherently leads to the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few, while leaving the majority to struggle with poverty and exploitation. On top of that and throughout history, conservatism has aligned itself with opposition to civil rights and social liberation movements. Whether it was the fight against the abolition of slavery, the struggle for women’s suffrage, or the civil rights movement, conservatives are always on the side of maintaining existing power dynamics and resisting calls for change.
Historically, conservatism has been associated with nationalism, imperialism, authoritarianism and has been a precursor to fascism, ideologies that are premised on domination and exploitation. Let’s not ever forget that conservatives invariably align with authoritarianism when existing social structures are threatened, from monarchies, military dictatorships to fascist regimes.
I’m always suspicious, and on my guard, when Republicans— conservatives— leave their party and decide to make a new career inside the Democratic Party and Democratic Party-aligned organizations, MSNBC being a perfect example, which is lousy with conservatives now, from former Florida Republican Congressmen Joe Scarborough and David Jolly to former Bush comms director Nicole Wallace, GOP strategists Steve Schmidt and Rick Wilson, RNC chair Michael Steele and major conservative commentator Charlie Sykes. Some of these people are incredibly talented and entertaining . When their conservatism starts manifesting as part of the discussion, however, things can get confusing.
In Congress, you have Republicans who switch parties and who become full-on liberals like Elizabeth Warren (MA), Mark Takano (CA) and Robert Garcia (CA). And then you have Republicans who leave the party, generally a part of careerism, but maintain their conservatism the way Charlie Crist (FL) and Tom O’Halleran (AZ) did, often voting with their old party as well.
Obviously if every Republican who decided to become a Democrat was like Elizabeth Warren or Mark Takano, I’d become a recruiter. And anyone who was once a Republicans but who now wants to vote for progressives… God bless. My problem comes when a Republican decides he or she wants a leadership role and works to pull the Democratic Party further in a conservative or neo-liberal direction.
Did you notice all those Trump dissidents at the convention? There was no Arab-American permitted to speak, but there seemed to be plenty of Republicans, weren’t there? David Graham even did a column about what it felt like to be a Republican at the Democratic convention. Former Georgia Lt. Governor, still a Republican with his conservative suits, power ties, and neatly coiffed hair, makes no bones about it. He’s a conservative who hopes to rescue his party from Trumpism. At least he admits it. “Let’s get the hard part out of the way: I am a Republican. But tonight I stand here as an American— an American that cares more about the future of this country than the future of Donald Trump. Let me be clear to my Republican friends at home watching: If you vote for Harris in 2024, you are not a Democrat. You are a patriot.”
Others included former Trump spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham, Olivia Troye, who worked in the Department of Homeland Security under Trump, former Jeb Bush aide Ana Navarro, Mesa, Arizona mayor John Giles and former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL).
Democrats are happy to celebrate Trump critics. The harder task is getting ordinary Republicans to vote for Harris— or at least to stay home and not vote for Trump. The Harris campaign sees the large number of GOP primary votes cast for Nikki Haley and other non-Trump candidates— including after he had sewn up the nomination— as an opportunity in November. The campaign even has a Republican on the payroll, running outreach to GOP voters. Democrats don’t expect a mass exodus, but they believe that in battleground states a small number of Republican defectors could make a difference.
That will require winning over not just longtime Never Trumpers, but people who previously were open to Trump and might still be. That’s why the DNC has featured speakers, like Troye, who haven’t been fiercely anti-Trump since the start, and why many of them emphasized their continued political disagreements with the Democratic Party and with Harris herself.
During her speech, Troye described her upbringing as a conservative, a Catholic, and a Texan. “Those values made me a Republican,” she said. “And they’re the same values that make me proud to support Kamala Harris, not because we agree on every issue but because we agree on the most important issue: protecting our freedom.”
Freedom has been a big motif at the Democratic convention, an attempt to frame Harris’s agenda in a way that steals a traditional issue away from Republicans. Democrats in Chicago have embraced the idea. But whether many Republicans are convinced, besides those in attendance here, is a question for November.
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