General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: First it was Liz Cheney and now Cassidy Hutchinson [View all]Caliman73
(11,760 posts)Both women came to a point where they decided that the system as it is, that is, our way of life as a nation, was more important than the power desired by people within their political party. That is a good thing that we can admire. Especially since there are many people who have not and will not reach that point, or if they do, they do not act on it.
What we can also recognize in both women, and in anyone else who is a Conservative, is that the ideology itself is harmful. This sound mighty intolerant of me and sounds as if I want Conservatives gone. No. I want Conservatism as an ideology gone. I want it in the dustbin of history like the Feudalism from whence it sprang.
Conservatism is a FUNDAMENTALLY different worldview and political ideology that promotes a hierarchical structure to society with fairly rigid boundaries and obstacles for women and minorities. It is often dressed up with platitudes like, "Family values", "small government", and "fiscal responsibility", which are basically bullshit. Conservatives do not care about "family values" as much as they care about imposing a social order based primarily on some Protestant Christian patriarchal ideal. They do not care about the size of government as much as its function. They say "small" when it comes to the power of the federal government to tax the wealthy, regulate businesses, and create social spending to distribute the benefits of society more equally and protect the less powerful from those at the top. They hate that and think that people should fail on their own, while they use the power of government to protect their own interests. "Fiscal responsibility" is tied up in the same area as size of government. They don't care about spending when it comes to the military or subsidies for industry. They only call it "fiscal responsibility" when we are talking about providing support for the middle class, working class, and the poor. To a Conservative, that is WASTING money on people who do not DESERVE it. If they deserved it they wouldn't be poor.
This is the system that Cheney and Hutchinson support, even if they don't believe they do. It cannot be reformed past a certain point. It is the system of social organization that was put in place after the fall of Monarchy and was established to maintain the basic structure of that prior system without the hereditary aristocracy.
We can acknowledge that these women, and others take a stand a personal risk, and we can say they acted heroically while still criticising the fact that they support a system that will lead to this eventual outcome over and over again.