Do I have this right?

[Caliman73]

21. You have almost everything right.

Everything except the last part.

The GOP wouldn't be THAT shameless------unless they thought they would be allowed to get away with it.

The above is the part that isn't correct and maybe not for the reason you might think. Conservatives and the Republican party would absolutely be what we call "shameless". Their concept of shame is different from what liberals would consider shame. I would preface this with the obligatory "not all conservatives" but generally, as an ideology the purpose of conservatism is to structure society in a hierarchy with rich White men at the top and everyone else underneath in subservient roles. As such, anything in service to the vision is fair game. If conservatives can maintain power through democracy, they will do so. If they need to do away with it to do so, they have little problem doing so. We need to remember that the foundations of Conservatism were created in the defense of Monarchy, and while they no longer defend the institutions of monarchy, the ideology has not changed significantly. They still support RULE by inherent superiors. They have replaced Kings, Queens, and nobles with wealthy business people.

Liberals want to flatten society and will advocate for a generally equitable distribution of the benefits of society, we recognize that there are people who have specific needed talents and skills, but generally would reward that with perks, not by stating that those people are inherently superior and destined to be in charge. Liberals can be conflicted about aspects of society and their ideas. When we learn that a tradition or way of doing things is damaging others, we may feel torn and struggle with shedding traditions, but ultimately we respond to the new information and make the changes.

When "liberal ideals" fail or we fail to live up to them, we feel a sense of shame for our own failure or the failure of our ideals to help people. Conservatives, in my experience, do not feel that or if they do, they very quickly convert the shame into aggression and backlash. Whenever conservatism fails (which it does ... a lot) conservatives will blame the individual, the politician, anything except the ideology.

It is clearly the ideology that is a failure. If it wasn't a failure, we would all still be ruled by monarchs.