Was Trump the Inevitable Endpoint of Conservatism?
A reckoning for conservatives, liberals, and America.
This isn’t the first time we’ve worked this corner, but as Trump’s fascist takeover becomes more obvious it’s worth talking about it again. Because it’s really three questions:
Is there a straight line from Reagan to Trump?
Or did the left goad conservatives into embracing Trumpism?
Or is Trump less about left and right and more about America itself?
Let’s go deep today.
1. Straight Lines
About once a day I get some variation of,
JVL, it’s nice to have you on the side of liberal democracy, but you’re the reason we got here in the first place. You spent the first half of your life as a conservative Republican. You might have been surprised by Trump, but Democrats and liberals were not. There’s a straight line from your sainted Ronnie Reagan to this authoritarian monster.1
Is this true?