Mark, thank you a thousand times for fighting back to try to preserve clarity and honesty in our language. Of course Project 2025 and Trump are complete Fascists.
You should have underscored in your quote from the Heritage Fdn president his direct threat that their purported "Second American Revolution" will only be bloodless if "the left" obeys and knuckles under to them. Very clearly, democracy goes out the window with them.
Present day republicans are about as far removed from being “conservatives” as possible. It’s almost funny that the Orange Turd is so stupid and self absorbed that he doesn’t even realize that he’s being used by the modern day fascists in the former GOP to bring about their Christo-fascist revolution. It would be hilarious if we, the rest of America, weren’t going to be the victims.
Trump is absolutely being used, but I believe that the "Christos" are being used too -- by billionaire and mega-multi-millionaire and corporate money. They don't have the votes to get elected to anything, nowhere close, but what they want -- what they've always wanted -- is a "free" market: a market free of protections for workers, consumers, the environment, etc., etc. They've been preparing the way for many decades, almost two centuries, by trashing anyone who speaks up or organizes for any of the above (especially workers) as socialist. Which is one reason the Democratic Party is so gutless, and why the insiders trash the outsiders as "Far Left." It's Red-baiting in recycled labels.
Thank you Mark for continuing to make and report real news and fight the MSM propaganda. Just a heads up. We need to ready for their skewed pols. The MSM pushes an anti-Biden narrative and then amplifies poor polling that they help drive. Steel yourselves. I don't know about you but they're not jerking me around anymore. So grateful to substack for giving voice to amazing writers, thinkers and journalists and providing an alternative for those of us who can no longer stomach the mainstream media.
Excellent column - your bullet points highlight the disconnect I've been feeling ever since Trump emerged on the political stage. And it keeps getting worse.
See if you can work "corporatist" into the mix. "Radical right corporatist" has a nice ring to it. Fascism contains corporatist elements for sure, but that's not what springs to mind when we think of Mussolini or Franco or Hitler. Look at the money behind, e.g., ALEC, the Federalist Society, the Heritage Foundation.
You hit the nail on the head when you wrote that Trump’s political faction does not want to conserve the founding principles of the republic.
They want privilege and power to which they believe themselves entitled, to the exclusion of others. Only they get to have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They are overlords by right and the rest of us are to submit to their regime and fund it for them.
And if Project 2025 is any indication, they are also some sick people.
So, when is the Epstein evidence going to go mainstream?
Deficit spending also used to be an obsession of the mainstream media but only when Democrats were in charge. When Clinton was first elected the media was constantly harping on the debt and reporting on the “debt clock of doom”. Then Clinton and the Democrats — and only Democrats — balanced the budget in part by raising taxes mostly on upper incomes. Not only that they had a significant budget surplus that the Clinton adminstration was using to pay down the debt.
When Gore ran against Bush he campaigned on continuing that policy of bringing down the debt so that it would be easy to meet future obligations, particularly the coming temporary shortfall in SS as more and more baby boomers retired. In contrast — stark contrast — Bush explicitly ran against the surplus, destroying it with tax cuts. He claimed the surplus proved taxes were too high and, after all, it was “our money”. No one, not even all those deficit hawks in the media, pointed out that it was also “our debt”. Bush exploded the debt with his tax cuts but the media stayed mum, maybe because he was “more fun to have a beer with”?
The media’s concern about debt stayed dormant when Trump added a cool $2 trillion to the debt with his tax cuts but it returned with a vengeance when Biden spent big to keep our economy from collapsing from the covid shutdown. They blamed inflation on that spending —- meaning the increased debt — despite the fact that countries around the world had the same problem with inflation even if they hadn’t spent big to keep their economies afloat. Then the media buried the fact that the US economy bounced back from covid better than any other advanced country because of Biden’s spending/investment in our economy.
Just recently the media ignored the fact that the World Bank revised its prediction of global growth explaining that the US economy is “powering the world”. This is the best economy of my very long adult life.
I disagree that there is anything Christian about what those people support. Trump is the antithesis of a Christian. They need to read the Gospels to find out what Jesus really taught and the example he set by his actions.
I agree that Tyrump and his gang of MAGA leadership mock religion by claiming they are Christians when in fact their actions are totally opposite.
What I am seeing is devout Catholics with a Catholic education who are unaware of how government works, or what the Constitution says or how it was created, or how the legal system works or that anyone who claims to be a Christian IE TYrump would lie to them.
They themselves don’t lie so they subscribe to “Conservative” Broadcast and publications mistakenly believing those are religion based.
And since they are not educated otherwise, believe the absurd lies about our politics and government etc
I agree about Trump mocking religion which people who know him says he does. However I was referring to MAGA Christian nationalists who actually believe they are good Christians and that people like me who disagree with them are going to hell. Unfortunately I have several of them in my extended family. They claim to follow Jesus but use the Old Testament to justify their anti-gay and anti-abortion beliefs because Jesus did not care enough to ever bring either of those issues up according to what is in their Bible. These people also profess to believe that Jesus is God so clearly they believe they are smarter than God which is putting themselves and their own beliefs above God’s teaching which is a colossal sin according to what they claim to believe. The hypocrisy is mind-boggling. They really are acting like cult members.
Although I am not a believer I was raised Catholic in a family that made a point of educating us about the teaching of that religion and Christianity in general and went to a Catholic college where I took a required year of theology. I have read all four Gospels. What these people believe has nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus which is why they have to turn to the Old Testament to justify themselves. Ironically they are also anti-Semitic. They make my brain hurt.
Another thing - Trumpublicans have twisted the word "Patriot" into something ugly, and...well...fascist. We either need to retake it or come up with a new word that embodies the principles upon which our nation was founded.
I have said for years I am more of a conservative than any of today's GOP members. I have been a lifelong Democrat - ever since my WW2 combat veteran father voted for JFK. At the ripe old age of 13 I experienced my first political moment of angst when Nixon was elected. When the GOP put an unintelligent B actor in the White House, I was sure it marked the beginning of the end of our grand experiment in democracy. That repulsive lizard Gingrich convinced the rest of the GOP that party loyalty was more important than the good of the country. That was the end of his party's political integrity and the end of all hope for decency in our legislature. When the ironically named Freedom Caucus holds sway among lawmakers and the likes of MTG, Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert are taken seriously, then you know the country has gone completely insane.
George Will, a true conservative, wrote a piece in 2016 called, "Donald Trump is as American as Huey Long." It was pubished, appropriately, in the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate. Our 45th president is a professed Republican. Gov./Sen. Long was a professed Democrat, Demagoguery by any other name is still demagoguery. The ideological distance between "Every Man a King" and "Make America Great Again" isn't that wide, though separated by 85-90 years. Both are pretty good jingoistic tag lines. The sad part is we have to learn the same lessons over again every two or three generations. As Churchill and others have said, those who don't know their history are fated to repeat it.
This message needs to be on headlines all over the country! Nothing “conservative about being for the abominable things the radical so-called “republicans” are pushing. They are anti-American, hurtful and disgusting.
Mark, thank you a thousand times for fighting back to try to preserve clarity and honesty in our language. Of course Project 2025 and Trump are complete Fascists.
You should have underscored in your quote from the Heritage Fdn president his direct threat that their purported "Second American Revolution" will only be bloodless if "the left" obeys and knuckles under to them. Very clearly, democracy goes out the window with them.
Present day republicans are about as far removed from being “conservatives” as possible. It’s almost funny that the Orange Turd is so stupid and self absorbed that he doesn’t even realize that he’s being used by the modern day fascists in the former GOP to bring about their Christo-fascist revolution. It would be hilarious if we, the rest of America, weren’t going to be the victims.
Trump is absolutely being used, but I believe that the "Christos" are being used too -- by billionaire and mega-multi-millionaire and corporate money. They don't have the votes to get elected to anything, nowhere close, but what they want -- what they've always wanted -- is a "free" market: a market free of protections for workers, consumers, the environment, etc., etc. They've been preparing the way for many decades, almost two centuries, by trashing anyone who speaks up or organizes for any of the above (especially workers) as socialist. Which is one reason the Democratic Party is so gutless, and why the insiders trash the outsiders as "Far Left." It's Red-baiting in recycled labels.
Thank you Mark for continuing to make and report real news and fight the MSM propaganda. Just a heads up. We need to ready for their skewed pols. The MSM pushes an anti-Biden narrative and then amplifies poor polling that they help drive. Steel yourselves. I don't know about you but they're not jerking me around anymore. So grateful to substack for giving voice to amazing writers, thinkers and journalists and providing an alternative for those of us who can no longer stomach the mainstream media.
Excellent column - your bullet points highlight the disconnect I've been feeling ever since Trump emerged on the political stage. And it keeps getting worse.
What is the new term for conservative? Use pejorative terms that are simple to remember and reuse, like those minted by Gingrich.
Radical far right fascist
Far right radical
Ultra right
Radical right fascists
???
See if you can work "corporatist" into the mix. "Radical right corporatist" has a nice ring to it. Fascism contains corporatist elements for sure, but that's not what springs to mind when we think of Mussolini or Franco or Hitler. Look at the money behind, e.g., ALEC, the Federalist Society, the Heritage Foundation.
Gee, going back in time…
Capitalist corporate pigs
An outstanding read that I will share on my Facebook page.
You hit the nail on the head when you wrote that Trump’s political faction does not want to conserve the founding principles of the republic.
They want privilege and power to which they believe themselves entitled, to the exclusion of others. Only they get to have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They are overlords by right and the rest of us are to submit to their regime and fund it for them.
And if Project 2025 is any indication, they are also some sick people.
So, when is the Epstein evidence going to go mainstream?
Deficit spending also used to be an obsession of the mainstream media but only when Democrats were in charge. When Clinton was first elected the media was constantly harping on the debt and reporting on the “debt clock of doom”. Then Clinton and the Democrats — and only Democrats — balanced the budget in part by raising taxes mostly on upper incomes. Not only that they had a significant budget surplus that the Clinton adminstration was using to pay down the debt.
When Gore ran against Bush he campaigned on continuing that policy of bringing down the debt so that it would be easy to meet future obligations, particularly the coming temporary shortfall in SS as more and more baby boomers retired. In contrast — stark contrast — Bush explicitly ran against the surplus, destroying it with tax cuts. He claimed the surplus proved taxes were too high and, after all, it was “our money”. No one, not even all those deficit hawks in the media, pointed out that it was also “our debt”. Bush exploded the debt with his tax cuts but the media stayed mum, maybe because he was “more fun to have a beer with”?
The media’s concern about debt stayed dormant when Trump added a cool $2 trillion to the debt with his tax cuts but it returned with a vengeance when Biden spent big to keep our economy from collapsing from the covid shutdown. They blamed inflation on that spending —- meaning the increased debt — despite the fact that countries around the world had the same problem with inflation even if they hadn’t spent big to keep their economies afloat. Then the media buried the fact that the US economy bounced back from covid better than any other advanced country because of Biden’s spending/investment in our economy.
Just recently the media ignored the fact that the World Bank revised its prediction of global growth explaining that the US economy is “powering the world”. This is the best economy of my very long adult life.
https://thehill.com/business/4715951-world-bank-impressive-us-economy-is-powering-the-world/#:~:text=The%20World%20Bank%20upgraded%20its,growth%20predicted%20for%20the%20year.
Calling them Wingnuts would do. I want to reclaim patriot, conservative/pragmatic for us who are not them.
Not sure recovery of this terms is possible. Too much taint and stench at this point.
Mark
These points you write here are important! I hope the media and religious people who confuse “Conservative” as meaning Christian read this article.
————
If I could just get my relatives to read!
I disagree that there is anything Christian about what those people support. Trump is the antithesis of a Christian. They need to read the Gospels to find out what Jesus really taught and the example he set by his actions.
I agree that Tyrump and his gang of MAGA leadership mock religion by claiming they are Christians when in fact their actions are totally opposite.
What I am seeing is devout Catholics with a Catholic education who are unaware of how government works, or what the Constitution says or how it was created, or how the legal system works or that anyone who claims to be a Christian IE TYrump would lie to them.
They themselves don’t lie so they subscribe to “Conservative” Broadcast and publications mistakenly believing those are religion based.
And since they are not educated otherwise, believe the absurd lies about our politics and government etc
I agree about Trump mocking religion which people who know him says he does. However I was referring to MAGA Christian nationalists who actually believe they are good Christians and that people like me who disagree with them are going to hell. Unfortunately I have several of them in my extended family. They claim to follow Jesus but use the Old Testament to justify their anti-gay and anti-abortion beliefs because Jesus did not care enough to ever bring either of those issues up according to what is in their Bible. These people also profess to believe that Jesus is God so clearly they believe they are smarter than God which is putting themselves and their own beliefs above God’s teaching which is a colossal sin according to what they claim to believe. The hypocrisy is mind-boggling. They really are acting like cult members.
Although I am not a believer I was raised Catholic in a family that made a point of educating us about the teaching of that religion and Christianity in general and went to a Catholic college where I took a required year of theology. I have read all four Gospels. What these people believe has nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus which is why they have to turn to the Old Testament to justify themselves. Ironically they are also anti-Semitic. They make my brain hurt.
I understand
My relatives have all blocked me! Most of my extended family is MAGA.
It’s heartbreaking!
Another thing - Trumpublicans have twisted the word "Patriot" into something ugly, and...well...fascist. We either need to retake it or come up with a new word that embodies the principles upon which our nation was founded.
I always thought they were hiding their true intentions and were using the term conservatism as a shield to throw people off.
Always. Wolves dressed like sheep!
I have said for years I am more of a conservative than any of today's GOP members. I have been a lifelong Democrat - ever since my WW2 combat veteran father voted for JFK. At the ripe old age of 13 I experienced my first political moment of angst when Nixon was elected. When the GOP put an unintelligent B actor in the White House, I was sure it marked the beginning of the end of our grand experiment in democracy. That repulsive lizard Gingrich convinced the rest of the GOP that party loyalty was more important than the good of the country. That was the end of his party's political integrity and the end of all hope for decency in our legislature. When the ironically named Freedom Caucus holds sway among lawmakers and the likes of MTG, Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert are taken seriously, then you know the country has gone completely insane.
George Will, a true conservative, wrote a piece in 2016 called, "Donald Trump is as American as Huey Long." It was pubished, appropriately, in the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate. Our 45th president is a professed Republican. Gov./Sen. Long was a professed Democrat, Demagoguery by any other name is still demagoguery. The ideological distance between "Every Man a King" and "Make America Great Again" isn't that wide, though separated by 85-90 years. Both are pretty good jingoistic tag lines. The sad part is we have to learn the same lessons over again every two or three generations. As Churchill and others have said, those who don't know their history are fated to repeat it.
Hiel Hitler wannabe
This message needs to be on headlines all over the country! Nothing “conservative about being for the abominable things the radical so-called “republicans” are pushing. They are anti-American, hurtful and disgusting.