The Fatal Flaws of American Conservatism
How America's Right Wing continues to fail
50. The conservatives are fools: They whine about the decay of traditional values, yet they enthusiastically support technological progress and economic growth. Apparently it never occurs to them that you can’t make rapid, drastic changes in the technology and the economy of a society without causing rapid changes in all other aspects of the society as well, and that such rapid changes inevitably break down traditional values.
-Theodore Kaczynski, Industrial Society and its Future
If progressivism is getting in a car and stomping on the gas, then conservatism is holding on to a rotting corpse. A passive existence, never taking action but reacting and clutching to what once was.
Conservatives love to talk about how they wish they could return to the 1950s. I see the appeal, and it once gripped me too. An America that was on top of the world, wealthy, prosperous and happy.
The 50s aren’t coming back. The wealth, the gender roles, the American power, the “happy people”, the tech, and the wealth.
Society has irrevocably changed.
You could try to freeze society at a certain point. You can try to keep things the way they were. But the globe will turn, the world around you will change, and you’ll be left holding on to something stagnant and rotten.
It’s the classic example of a high school athlete trying to relive their glory days.
There is another example I’ll bring from across the pond. An example from our crooked toothed cousins, the English.
According to a recent poll, 62% of British people still support the monarchy.
These royalists will claim that the monarchy is an important national tradition and icon. Philip Blond, a BBC contributor, even argues that the monarchy is an important protection to ensure democracy.
He is, of course, wrong, and his essay is justification for fascism and autocracy despite claiming the opposite.
That’s what any argument amounts to. Either the monarchy is an archaic, autocratic institution, or a parasitic tumor. The institution is incompatible with modern government and social structures.
Royalists will ignore that the monarchy exists on taxpayer dollars while being exempt from any sort of tax.
A known pedophile, Prince Andrew walks free and was even given the queen’s corgis. He will probably never face any consequences for his horrific actions.
The British monarchy is held on too, despite its harm. It’s outlived its usefulness, but royalists desperately hold on while babbling about tradition. The world has moved on from monarchies. We’ve developed much more complex protections for democracy.
It’s important for American conservatives to critically examine the traditions they “uphold” and cling to.
The Cultural Backfoot
You’ve seen this phenomenon before, and you’ll see it again. A company will come out with a liberal slogan or collaborate with a liberal figure. Think Dylan Mulvaney and Bud Light.
The conservatives will throw a tantrum; they’ll look for alternatives, and the more entrepreneurial ones will make some overpriced “patriot product.” In the case of Bud Light, the oh so imaginative Ultra Right Beer.
It extends to every sort of cultural export that America has, movies, art, video games, music, and fashion.
Progressives set the tempo, and conservatives are forced to dance along.
Occasionally, something “conservative” will come up that they can clutch to and call their own. Sound of Freedom, Top Gun Maverick, Yellowstone, Country (*twangy pop*) music, and Christian movies. A tiny piece of pie compared to the industrial bakery that is American media.
It’s entirely conservative’s fault. They’d rather whine about what once was, what could’ve been, and how things used to be than take any actual action.
Instead of creating and funding independent films, they’d rather whine about how “woke” Disney is.
This will fly over their heads, but I’ll say it anyway. Winnie the Pooh just passed into the public domain. I could sit here and cook up six or seven stories with actual conservative themes for a Winnie the Pooh movie, show, or story. But conservatives would rather complain about how Snow White isn’t white.
Policy and People
This cultural back foot and reactionary mindset have made conservatives predictable and easily manipulated.
If you ever want to kick the conservatives hornets nest, you can include a few choice words in legislation, LGBTQ, gay, vaccines, COVID-19, DEI — you know the words, I know the words. It could be something as mundane as “you can now get the chicken pox vaccine at the dentist,” and conservatives would blow a fucking fuse thinking that you’re trying to manipulate children into getting the COVID vaccine.
God forbid they read anything.
It affects how they vote for policy and people. If the wokes like something, then it must be the downfall of America. The actual benefits be damned. If the wokes hate someone, then they must be Jesus return.
You know who I’m talking about; don’t act dumb.
The Nature of Tradition
In the past, tradition had value and weight. When your grandparents, parents, children, and grandchildren would all be born, live and die in the exact same house, there was value. Tradition would be an anchor, a cornerstone, and a uniting factor. Now, the world of our parents is wildly different from our own. To paraphrase the Harbinger, you can’t make drastic changes in society and expect things to remain the same.
So what now? Where do they go from here? What position do they take?
You could go back to the pseudo-libertarian positions the GOP used to hold and actually hold to them. The entire movement could take a good, hard look at the traditions and ideas they hold so fervently and look at them critically too. What can work now? What can’t? How can we reshape them in new ways?
Or heaven fucking forbid, create new traditions to exist and anchor people.
Figure something out because your current course isn’t working.
This is the sister article to A Critique of Modern Progressivism. To answer the question, “Michael, are you a fence-sitting centrist who only says both sides are bad?” Yes ❤ but actually no. While my other critique is more partisan, this one is more personal in nature. I actively despise both sides of the American political spectrum and take the road less traveled. Until my next piece, this has been Michael Vincent Hawthorne.