All the people who think there was some noble, credible US conservatism that has "fallen," or been "taken over" by Trumpism, tell me: why was it so weak? Why did it offer so little resistance? Why did it devolve so *easily* into reactionary madness? Doesn't it make you wonder?

Pizza's cooking, so: my theory of conservatism. Basically, in any society, there's a group/class/demographic that has power & privileges, sometimes economic, sometimes relating to race or caste. And every such group has a story about why their place at the top is justified.

For royalty it was the divine right of kings. For oligarchs or nobles is often some kind of "natural law" that makes them more refined/smart/wise than subaltern classes.

The US was founded on equality -- at least that's what it said on the tin -- so its ruling class (white property owning males) came up w/ a story about property rights, "free markets," "small government," & federalism. They *earned* their privileges!

As in all such stories, there's a class of true believers, a priesthood, that takes it seriously & explore its philosophical implications, etc. (This is basically what libertarians tried to do -- note that it never really caught on.) But in practice, in all societies ...

... when the story conflicts with the actual, proximate interests of the ruling class, the story goes overboard.

Nonetheless, as long as the privileged class is *secure*, it can be sincere about the story, even magnanimous. In the US this strain of conservatism ...

... has been called "patrician" or "compassionate." As long as the privileged white/male/Christian class feels safe, feels on top, it can be generous in allowing outsiders to come & enjoy its fruits. You saw a lot of this in Cold War conservatism -- a kind of evangelism.

But in all societies, when that privileged class begins feeling threatened, outnumbered, & insecure, the politesse fades. The high-toned philosophical justifications drop out. Raw tribalism takes over. The class is always, first & foremost, for its own continued hegemony.

And this has basically been the course of US conservatism in the 21st century: from a self-serious, high-falutin' "party of ideas" to a raw, raging army fighting for white hegemony. Once they got scared, all pretense of "free market" & "family values" went right out the window.

The point of this (pizza's ready) is that today's conservatives are just yesterday's conservatives, scared. The philosophical superstructure was *always* a veil over group interest. It never had any constraining or motivating power. It was epiphenomenal.

To the extent there's any conservative "thought" left in the US, it's vestigial, tended by priests who haven't yet gotten the memo that the priesthood is no longer needed, only infantry. </fin>