| | | Bizarro Conservatism
ICYMI over the weekend, interesting piece by Maggie Haberman about Trump's cartoonish version of conservatism.
From holding a Bible aloft for a photo op outside a historic church, to scolding NASCAR for banning the Confederate flag at its races, to heralding the “heritage” of the South, Mr. Trump repeatedly elevates to the public stage what he imagines are the top priorities for the voters who back him.
Liam Donovan, a Republican strategist and former National Republican Senatorial Committee aide, said that Mr. Trump’s “preternatural ability to sniff out and tap into what Republicans hate” got him to the Oval Office.
“His intimate connection with the base is one of shared grievance,” Mr. Donovan said. “But when it comes to what they’re for, it inevitably comes off like a cartoon version of what a New York billionaire would think conservatives believe.”
When Mr. Trump first became a presidential candidate in 2015, his view of the conservative voters he was looking to cultivate was informed by his own experience as a wealthy real-estate scion who periodically waded into the culture wars of late-20th-century New York City. More recently, his view has been influenced by right-wing television, especially Fox News.
This is the thing about Trump: he does often sound like he is saying things that he thinks a conservative would say, like the time he suggested that women who have abortions should be jailed. The result is often a bizarro version of conservatism; it looks familiar and has some of the same outlines, but horribly distorted.
But, here is the problem: most rank-and-file conservatives seem okay with the caricature. Either they don't recognize that it is a cartoon version of themselves, or they simply do not care. Much of the right's punditocracy has chosen to look the other way attempted the heroic task of trying to translate Trump's version of right wing politics into something that looks and sounds more reasonable.
That's a hopeless and thankless mission, but as Haberman's piece makes clear, Trump is convinced that he's got it right. And maybe he has:
Mr. Trump is convinced he’s right about his supporters — and he can point to the 2016 election and the high approval rating he still enjoys among Republicans. For years, few Republican elected officials have bucked him, remaining silent and suppressing any discomfort they might feel when he deploys racial demagogy as a favored campaign tool, or uses the presidency to help allies.
“Trump has remade conservatism and the Republican Party as a single cult of his own personality,” Jonathan Last, the executive editor of the Bulwark, wrote recently. “And precisely because he never provided steadiness and seriousness, he will control this cult even after he exits the White House.’’
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