Message from Charles Aulds

My brother, who lives a rural county in the eastern part of Tennessee, wrote me:

> I don't even know what "conservative" fucking means anymore

That's a good point ... essentially, what constitutes "conservatism" has so changed that a true conservative no longer knows what the word means.

I'm an old school conservative. I spent the first 48 years of my life living in six different US Bible Belt states. I voted exclusively for Republican political candidates (in two of those states) for 20 of those years. 

Yes ... I am a conservative Protestant christian conservative from the Deep South. If anyone can tell you what true "conservative values" are; I certainly qualify as that person.

Except, even though I know exactly what "conservative values" were for those 48 years of my life, I cannot, now, think of a good way to define what they have become.

Probably the best description is "nationalism". American exceptionalism. Go Team, Go! Trump is a symbol of America for these people. Which is truly amazing because Trumpism flies in the face of nearly all true American values. Hell, he's not even a good example of the American Dream, which is epitomized by the "self-made" man, who pulled himself up by his own bootstraps, who becomes a paragon, not only of financial success, but of virtue, strong character, courage, tenacity.

Americans bought an empty promise from an equally empty charlatan; a false promise that American exceptionalism would be restored. 

One of the strongest critics of American impirialism said (in a public letter addressed to the American people): "It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord's blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal."

And that's conservatism today: A religious belief that God made Americans better, stronger, wiser, and richer. "God shed his grace on thee."

It's no wonder Naziism is growing in the US, often excused as "anti-semitism". That's the very same emotion that the Nazi Party cultivated in 1930's Germany: Deutschland über alles, Über alles in der Welt!

No American should ever again have to wonder why or how Germans in the 1930's fell under the spell of a dictatorial fascist hater, and cowardly, morally empty leader, like Adolf Hitler.

Americans have their own example, much closer to home.

___

Charles