Trump is ushering in a dark new conservatism

[misanthrope]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/15/trumps-nostalgia-1930s-republicans

Excerpt:

Thus the nostalgic moment for this White House is not the 1950s, usually recalled warmly by American conservatives, but the dreadful 1930s, when fascists of the new right defeated conservatives of the old right in Europe. Whatever one might think of conservative nostalgia for the 1950s, it is notable for what it includes: American participation in the second world war and the beginnings of the American welfare state. For conservatives, it all went wrong in the 1960s.

For the Trump administration, it all went wrong rather earlier: in the 1940s, with the fight against fascism and the New Deal. Stephen Bannon, who promises us new policies “as exciting as the 1930s”, seems to want to return to that decade in order to undo those legacies.

He seems to have in mind a kleptocratic authoritarianism (hastened by deregulation and the dismantlement of the welfare state) that generates inequality, which can be channeled into a culture war (prepared for by Muslim bans and immigrant denunciation hotlines). Like fascists, Bannon imagines that history is a cycle in which national virtue must be defended from permanent enemies. He refers to fascist authors in defense of this understanding of the past.

[mountain grammy]

1. Yes!

[katmondoo]

2. Bannon wants to bring back the soup kitchens and the great economy

we had selling pencils and apples on the street corner

[misanthrope]

3. With an exception.

He wants to do it without the New Deal.

[Boomerproud]

4. He wants to brings back the 1930's? Both America and Germany were in terrible shape.

One country fought to change things for the better, the other went off a cliff. Bannon's worldview is completely off the charts.

[grantcart]

5. It is not conservatism and it isn't new

To be an ideologically based party it would have to identify an integrated world view that supports a consistent set of principles that are expressed in a range of principles.

Trump has simply embraced old fashioned tribalism. Once he got the herd together he lit the match.

It is both nativist and racist but that was only because it could amass the hottest crowd reactions.

We have seen it before in movements like the "Know Nothing Party".

It is true that it has appropriated may right wing and Republican policies to keep the herd together but it is also true that it has abandoned key bedrock principles as well.

[jaysunb]

6. +1 n/t