"Leave me alone, but do what I tell you to do". Freedom for me but not for thee.
Ultimately, it is based on a belief that only certain people are worthy of freedom. It is a belief as old as the country, and has been the battle line between the left and the right since the days of Jefferson and Hamilton.
For centuries, Jeffersonian Democracy had progressed, first as Jacksonian Democracy (political freedom for all white men) to Lincolnian Democracy (political freedom for all men), then Wilsonianism (political freedom for all men and women around the world).
While many on the Right were upset by this, especially among the "Old Right" in Europe's monarchies, many on the small l liberal right were okay with it, and even supported it (TR, Reagan, etc.).
So what changed? Simple, FDR changed the game. He said that true political liberty and democracy cannot be unless you have economic democracy. So we got the New Deal. One can debate certain aspects of the New Deal and whether it worked, but there is no question that the impact of the New Deal are still with us to this day. On the Left, Dems even relatively conservative Democrats, became supporters of the idea that government had a role to play in preserving economic democracy.
The Right in this country lost its collective minds have been in a tizzy ever since. At first, it was unsuccessful, as many Americans, especially White Ethnics, supported the New Deal as well as many of the spinoff programs like the GI Bill, Interstate Hwy Act, Social Security, Medicare, NASA, expanded US participation overseas and the increasing defense budget.
It all began to unravel when JFK and LBJ proposed expanding the benefits of the New Deal to all Americans, especially Blacks and other POCs. Add to this the rise of Feminism and the LGBTQ movements, and the Right could no longer countenance America.
To the Right, America must either be what it once was before the Civil War or it must not be. To those who think this is hyperbole, just look at the tripe disguised as intellectual thought coming from Claremont, Heartland, American Renaissance, and other RW "think tanks".
At the beginning of the Civil War, many in the border states wanted a negotiated peace, presumably with President Lincoln resigning or surrendering some of his power, especially over the slave issue. Lincoln was no liberal on slavery; he had always supported the legal practice where it already existed. However, Lincoln refused to negotiate. As Lincoln said when the Confederacy bombed Fort Sumter, "We must not allow the Confederacy to accomplish by the cannon what it could not accomplish with the ballot". There was an election and the Democrats lost; therefore in a democracy the Republicans get to decide, not the losers. There could be no compromise on that principle, or the whole system of government would fall. You would end up in a Lebanon situation. We saw what happened next.
Again, people in this country need to prepare themselves for the possibility that this could get violent and we must also be prepared to respond accordingly. Sorry, but I don't see how this ends happily.
Again, modern conservatism in a nutshell:
"Leave me alone, but do what I tell you to do". Freedom for me but not for thee.
Ultimately, it is based on a belief that only certain people are worthy of freedom. It is a belief as old as the country, and has been the battle line between the left and the right since the days of Jefferson and Hamilton.
For centuries, Jeffersonian Democracy had progressed, first as Jacksonian Democracy (political freedom for all white men) to Lincolnian Democracy (political freedom for all men), then Wilsonianism (political freedom for all men and women around the world).
While many on the Right were upset by this, especially among the "Old Right" in Europe's monarchies, many on the small l liberal right were okay with it, and even supported it (TR, Reagan, etc.).
So what changed? Simple, FDR changed the game. He said that true political liberty and democracy cannot be unless you have economic democracy. So we got the New Deal. One can debate certain aspects of the New Deal and whether it worked, but there is no question that the impact of the New Deal are still with us to this day. On the Left, Dems even relatively conservative Democrats, became supporters of the idea that government had a role to play in preserving economic democracy.
The Right in this country lost its collective minds have been in a tizzy ever since. At first, it was unsuccessful, as many Americans, especially White Ethnics, supported the New Deal as well as many of the spinoff programs like the GI Bill, Interstate Hwy Act, Social Security, Medicare, NASA, expanded US participation overseas and the increasing defense budget.
It all began to unravel when JFK and LBJ proposed expanding the benefits of the New Deal to all Americans, especially Blacks and other POCs. Add to this the rise of Feminism and the LGBTQ movements, and the Right could no longer countenance America.
To the Right, America must either be what it once was before the Civil War or it must not be. To those who think this is hyperbole, just look at the tripe disguised as intellectual thought coming from Claremont, Heartland, American Renaissance, and other RW "think tanks".
At the beginning of the Civil War, many in the border states wanted a negotiated peace, presumably with President Lincoln resigning or surrendering some of his power, especially over the slave issue. Lincoln was no liberal on slavery; he had always supported the legal practice where it already existed. However, Lincoln refused to negotiate. As Lincoln said when the Confederacy bombed Fort Sumter, "We must not allow the Confederacy to accomplish by the cannon what it could not accomplish with the ballot". There was an election and the Democrats lost; therefore in a democracy the Republicans get to decide, not the losers. There could be no compromise on that principle, or the whole system of government would fall. You would end up in a Lebanon situation. We saw what happened next.
Again, people in this country need to prepare themselves for the possibility that this could get violent and we must also be prepared to respond accordingly. Sorry, but I don't see how this ends happily.