[bediger4000]

This headline indicates we should feel surprise that Republicans are losing faith in capitalism.

That's a little odd, given the abrupt reversals of policy preferences we've all seen since 2017. "Law and order", free trade, free markets, low tariffs, personal responsibility, judicial restraint, checks and balances, the importance of character, all at least tacitly abandoned.

[JohnFen]

People seem stuck in thinking that the Republican party is still conservative. It's not. It's become extremist and radical -- the opposite of conservative.

[bediger4000]

They still call themselves "conservative". The giant bulk of the people who used to call themselves "conservative" still do so, and are MAGA. An outside observer is forced to note that almost all the doctrines have changed.

[smackeyacky]

This is a fundamental misreading of self described “conservatives”. They only pay lip service to economic liberalism because it gives them something to rally around. It’s always been more about prejudice and punishment. If you want proof, look at the shift of the religious aligned conservatives starting in the 1960s who once leaned economically toward social democracy but quickly shifted right when the right started pandering to prejudice.

It’s a worldwide shift, happened across western nations as the left (once a bastion of prejudice) moved toward more progressive ideals.

Self identifying conservatives have never been terribly interested in economics and never will be.

[antonymoose]

Why should we be surprised? The “Conservatives” never actually conserved a thing.

[tstrimple]

I think MAGA represents mask off conservatism. Largely they support the same things. They have the same "enemies" and targets. I think for too long Americans have bought into the myth that conservatism is just about a slow and measured rate of change. That's what conservatives want you to believe because they know they can't say the real things out loud. So they speak in euphemisms. Trump let's them dispense with the euphemisms and just say what's really in their heart out loud. If MAGA isn't conservative, then conservatives simply do not exist in enough numbers in the US to be relevant. I find that conservatives are showing you who they have always been to be a far better explanation than MAGA isn't conservative.

[tstrimple]

In addition. It's perfectly historically accurate. When have conservatives fought the hardest? It's always at the distribution of rights which were always supposed to be "equal". Conservatives started a civil war to maintain slavery. They fought against women's suffrage. They fought against civil rights. They fought against gay rights. They are fighting now against trans rights. Conservative's most defended positions are about hierarchy and how they can maintain it. It's literally just bigotry. Always has been from Edmund Burke through Jordan Peterson. Conservatives will always fight at any minority group approaching peer status with them. They are afraid the minority will treat them the way that they always have treated the minority. Fortunately the world isn't made up of conservatives.

[xenadu02]

I didn't leave the Republican party, the party left me. Then again I'm some kind of crazy nut for believing that principles matter even if you lose the election and that cruelty isn't something to be praised so what do I know.

[cucumber3732842]

>Then again I'm some kind of crazy nut for believing that principles matter

People all across the political spectrum are saying things like this.

I think the next 30yr will be unkind to the idiots who were perpetually all in on the "new hotness" because they did all sorts of mental gymnastics to do so and record of their lack of principals is recorded all over the internet for all to see. And there's AI to dredge it up for us.

But on the other hand my magic crystal ball called history says that none of that shit matters and the worst people are always rewarded