This used to be a Republican agricultural as much as a Democratic industrial cause, just it was a Tory cause in the nineteenth century and beyond, and just as it remains a cause of Gaullists, Christian Democrats, the Australian National Party, and so on, just as much as of the, often no less socially conservative, non-Marxist Left in those countries. The American paleoconservatives remain staunch economic patriots.
The Republican Party has redefined itself as the party only for people subscribe to all three of unrestricted capitalism, a sort of post-1980s social conservatism which in order to be compatible with that economic system is not really very conservative at all, and the global imposition of both by the force of arms. None has this has anything to do with America as she has existed historically, but huge numbers of people have somehow managed to convince themselves that it represents her historical norm. And that conviction is the minimum requirement for identification as a Republican, of all things.
Socially and culturally conservative or liberal Republicans who are proud inheritors of economic and political Progressivism and the Nonpartisan League are now in the same position as socially and culturally conservative or liberal Democrats who are proud inheritors of economic and political Populism and the Farmer-Labor Parties. The same position as any proud inheritors of Republican and Democratic, Progressive and Populist, Nonpartisan and Farmer-Labor noninterventionism abroad. The same position as those who adhere to any social and cultural traditionalism which is not originally and ultimately a product of 1968. They all have to be Democrats, because they are no longer allowed to be Republicans. Hardly anyone still is.
The Republican Party has redefined itself as the party only for people subscribe to all three of unrestricted capitalism, a sort of post-1980s social conservatism which in order to be compatible with that economic system is not really very conservative at all, and the global imposition of both by the force of arms. None has this has anything to do with America as she has existed historically, but huge numbers of people have somehow managed to convince themselves that it represents her historical norm. And that conviction is the minimum requirement for identification as a Republican, of all things.
Socially and culturally conservative or liberal Republicans who are proud inheritors of economic and political Progressivism and the Nonpartisan League are now in the same position as socially and culturally conservative or liberal Democrats who are proud inheritors of economic and political Populism and the Farmer-Labor Parties. The same position as any proud inheritors of Republican and Democratic, Progressive and Populist, Nonpartisan and Farmer-Labor noninterventionism abroad. The same position as those who adhere to any social and cultural traditionalism which is not originally and ultimately a product of 1968. They all have to be Democrats, because they are no longer allowed to be Republicans. Hardly anyone still is.
The problem with both major American parties is that they are no longer confederations of state and local parties with deep ties to local communities. Nowadays, they are just national parties that raise funds from the very rich and then swoop down among the masses when election time comes around.
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