In a NY Times opinion piece the author tries to make the case that the conservative movement has won the hearts and minds of America. For real? Because it looks to me like th conservative movement is dead and gone, Trump and MAGA having buried it and stomped on its grave. Or is he saying that Trump and MAGA are the true conservatives? That would be funny as I remember when conservatives were really big on the whole law and order thing. So they were wrong and the insurrectionists that Trump just gave a get-out-of-jail-free are the true conservatives? How about when GW went on and on about compassionate conservatism, was he just a libtard in disguise? Will the real conservatives please stand up? Were there every any real conservatives?
Oregon happens to have had two governors that fit the bill. Mark Hatfield was one. Conservative to the bone. Supported the timber industry, good christian, anti-abortion. He also authored the first bill making racial discrimination illegal in state hiring, and he was strongly opposed to the Vietnam war. Then there was Tom McCall. He came out of deep red eastern Oregon to usher through some of the most sweeping and long lasting environmental legislation in the country. Thanks to Tom McCall the Oregon coast is as pristine as it was 100 years ago, because no one can own the beach up to the high tide mark, and land owners must provide public access to the beach. There are no private beaches in Oregon. McCall also spearheaded a program to clean up the at-the-time very polluted Willamette River. By definition aren't conservatives into conservation?
You know who else is a true conservative? Me. That's right an old hippie bike rider who favors Bernie Sanders is more conservative than any of the yahoos now in government. Heck I used to farm with draft horses. None of this new fangled gas guzzling tractors for me! I spent the better part of the 1970's and early 80's living in the backwoods of Oregon and Washington, learning to be self reliant, learning the real value of food when you have to grow it yourself, learning the real value of staying warm when you have to cut your own firewood. For a growing family. I was really ill prepared for such a life having grown up in the suburbs of New York, but I think it taught me the meaning of true conservative values. And not just me but thousands of my peers who embraced that lifestyle even if they could not sustain it for long.
But back to the so called conservative movement. I think the cat is out of the bag once and for all. They were full of shit from the get go. They were never about family values. They were never about law and order. They were never about making careful well thought out decisions. They were about power and greed and money. Goldwater, Regan, Gingrich, Bushes, the lot of em. Phonies and con artists. And so now the conservative movement has reached its apex with the biggest con man of all time. A true conservative, convicted felon, convicted sexual abuser, serial liar, etc. etc etc. Yes, something won the hearts and minds of America but it sure as hell wasn't conservatism.