Stop saying “conservative” when you mean fascist

Media must emphasize that Republicans have trashed bedrock principles

It’s obvious why mainstream news organizations like to use the word “conservative.” It’s a long-accepted term that doesn’t seem to offend anyone. And it’s the word that many people on the right prefer.

But it’s not accurate. The modern right wing is not trying to “conserve” American values. Instead, it’s attempting to trash bedrock principles established over two and a half centuries. It seeks to create an America that has never existed before. An America whose president has the powers of a king. 

In 2018, Trump told the Conservative Political Action Conference: “Do you remember I started running and people would say, ‘Are you sure he’s a conservative?’ I think now we’ve proved that I’m a conservative, right?”

No, Trump proved he was an authoritarian, and the vast majority of so-called conservatives decided to become authoritarians along with him. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” theme exploits our country’s old-fashioned flaws, such as racism and xenophobia, while ignoring old-fashioned values that actually made our country great – and that real conservatives long supported.

Just listen to Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, which is pushing the Project 2025 blueprint for a radical right-wing government. “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be,” Roberts said last week.

Does that sound “conservative” to you? Of course not. By Roberts’ own word choice, it’s revolutionary. And threatening. 

The Heritage Foundation’s definition of conservatism is “an ideology rooted in American founding principles. It prioritizes individual choice and rights over big government, one-size-fits-all solutions and viewpoints.”

Yet what could be more “big government” and less “rooted in American founding principles” than a Supreme Court decision giving the president sweeping immunity from our laws? Trump and the Heritage Foundation applauded that court ruling because they’re not really conservatives. 

Here are other examples of how conservatism is pass in today’s GOP:

• Deficit spending used to be an obsession among conservatives. Now Republicans care about it only when Democrats are in charge. In just four years in office, the Trump regime was $7.8 trillion in the red – nearly a quarter of our total national debt.

• Conservatives used to oppose Russian dictators. Now Trump brags about how friendly he is with Vladimir Putin and how antagonistic he is with our European allies. He warned our NATO partners that if their military spending didn’t satisfy him, he’d “encourage” Russia’s army to “do whatever the hell they want” with them.

• Republican President Chester Arthur signed civil service reforms into law in 1883. But Project 2025 calls for a purge of workers who are insufficiently pro-Trump and the installation of an army of political lackeys.

• Conservatives long trumpeted a “law and order” message. But now Republicans don't seem to mind that Trump is a convicted felon and vows to pardon the thugs who assaulted the Capitol on Jan. 6.

• Conservatives were stalwarts for morality in public life, but now Republicans are all-in for a man who cheated on all three of his wives, bragged about grabbing women’s private parts, and was found by a jury to have committed rape.

• Conservatives were super-patriots, but today’s Republicans worship a man who called fallen soldiers “suckers” and “losers.” 

When the media refer to today’s Republicans as “conservatives,” it’s as if they missed some major news updates. It’s like praising Benedict Arnold’s exploits early in the Revolutionary War but overlooking that unpleasant treasonous stuff he did later.

The topper came last week when the Supreme Court gave Trump criminal immunity for “official acts,” in effect turning the president into a king. But the news media kept referring to the court’s “conservative supermajority.” What were they “conserving” – King George’s dominion over the 13 colonies?

Clearly, the MAGA mob is not made up of conservatives. But what do we call them? “Right-wingers” seems OK to me. But “authoritarian” and “fascist” are also accurate and more descriptive.

Merriam-Webster calls fascism “a political philosophy, movement, or regime … that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.”

Trump says he wants to be a dictator on “Day 1,” and there wouldn’t be much to prevent him from extending that reign, given the Supreme Court’s alarming ruling. As for an emphasis on race, MAGA has pushed the “great replacement theory,” based on the bogus idea that the left wants to “replace” white Americans with immigrants. MAGA also pushes for “social regimentation” on issues ranging from abortion rights to what books schoolchildren are allowed to read.

Trump’s rhetoric is clearly fascist. He uses the term “vermin” – popularized by dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini – to describe his enemies. And he threatens to use the Justice Department for “retribution” against those enemies.

If Trump ever regained the White House, we’d be in enormous trouble on Day 1. And that’s a conservative estimate.