Ever notice it's always the same 30%? What's wrong with THOSE people?
Conservatism writ large. I'm pretty sure they have always existed, have always impeded progress.
Imagine where we might be today without them.
I've mentioned before that I used to consider myself to be "conservative". But the meaning of the word has changed so substantially, or maybe I have. I always thought it meant "to not change things that are working without a good reason," but also not retain things that don't make sense. That phrase has a lot of caveats: "working"; "good reason".
Today., though, those are not considerations for conservatism. Even things that are not working are kept, and no reason is good enough for change - unless it is to change back to an ersatz past, warts and all - emphasis particularly on the warts. Slavery was an abomination, and Jim Crow despicable, yet some people pine for those days and call them "conservative values", although thinky disguised with different words. Conservatives used to laud "good government", now they despise it.
Yes, those "values" we can live better without. But, I think my perception was
always wrong. I don't think conservatism ever meant those things I thought, but those were the liberal nostrums that conservatives coopted and only paid lip service to. Today, everything of value only comes from "progressives." I now believe that has always been the case.
