Many conservatives are embracing big government, from police-state immigration tactics to socialist economic policies.
Based on the troubling goings-on in Minneapolis, it's hard to describe former GOP Rep. Justin Amash's post on X as hyperbolic: "They're building a police state right before our eyes—which will ultimately be deployed against conservative Christians and gun owners and those who refuse the jab—and a lot of 'Republicans' with Gadsden flags in their bios are like, 'Yeah, FAFO!'"
There's no hope for anyone cheering, but "responsible" conservatives have a rationale for defending these actions: It's better than having Democrats in charge. Had, say, Kamala Harris won the presidency, she would have imposed socialistic policies, they say. That's probably true, but have you noticed the latest policy plans from Donald Trump? His economic proposals echo the Democratic platform.
As part of an affordability agenda designed to mitigate ongoing inflation caused in part by his own tariff policies, Trump has announced a few initiatives.
First, he plans to cap interest rates on credit cards at 10%. The president recently called U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a progressive Democratic rabble-rouser, to hash out this idea.
...
pull down to refresh
related posts
Republicans love wielding state power. They don't like being on the receiving end.
I've noticed a pattern where the party in power loves state power and the party out of power suddenly becomes freedom fighters.
The effect is stronger the longer the party is incumbent for. That's why in the 8 years of Obama the Democratic party suddenly became the party of trusting the experts.
I've noticed the same thing, at all levels of all types of organization.
Was that ever not the case? Not my bailiwick, but my perception was that the official Dem narrative has always been expert-friendly, and the official Rep narrative has always been something-something-business-and-god.
During the Bush years, at least, the Democrats preached a lot of skepticism of the intelligence agencies and corporate science.
That's pretty different from, say, the Covid era.
Yes, especially the Democrats' level of trust for what the FBI and the CIA says has entirely 180'd from the end of the Bush years to the start of the Trump years (and it's 180ing again)
Big Pharma was a bad guy for the left, too. I'm sure, as with other corporate interests, the politicians were always on the take, but lefties didn't used to knowingly parrot whatever pharma execs said.
Sort of. The Democrats never really act like they hate state power, though. They just whine about it being abused or wielded in inappropriate ways.
When Republicans are out of power they often adopt very anti-state rhetoric: i.e. abolishing departments, eliminating taxes, even abolishing the FBI.
True. They'll use different rhetoric, but it's all just post-hoc rationalization.
Of course, but the reason the right seems more reachable is that they at least stumble upon decent rationalizations sometimes.
Like everything else consumed by woke and big government, it died.
They were always "go tread on them" safe to ignore bumper sticker reciters on all sides.