Allow me to oversimplify the world for a minute…let’s divide the world into conservatives and progressives. Progressives tend to downplay the importance of traditions and existing (old school?) institutions, calling for change, claiming they know how to remake social structures for the better. Conservatives tend to be more cautious. They say that things are more complicated than progressives understand and argue for a different pace of change than progressives. Change should be more limited and gradual, as the world functions based on rules, traditions, and existing social and political structures.
However – conservative parties have now been hijacked by unconservative leaders like Donald Trump and been transformed into radical revolutionary parties. Instead of doing their best to retain existing institutions, they are highly suspicious of them. They seem to reject the traditional respect shown to scientists, civil servants and many others, showing them contempt. They even attack fundamental structures like elections, refusing to admit defeat and arguing for changes and their own people.
Leaving aside whether this is right or wrong (many people argue either side) it is fundamentally not conservative. It’s revolutionary.
So when I think about my old friend who said he was voting for Trump “because I’m a conservative,” I think to myself…does he really understand that the guy he voted for is in fact NOT a conservative? He is just voting for “his team” instead of the conservative principles he believes in. I think that’s a shame.
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