While I do appreciate when Republicans or "former Republicans realize just how destructive Trump is, I have to remind people that this is a progression of conservatism from Goldwater and Nixon, to Reagan to Bush Jr. & Cheney, to Sarah Palin, to the Tea Party, to the "freedom caucus" to Trump. Conservatives believe that there is a hierarchy of people that are "supposed to be in charge" and it typically does not include women, people of color, LGBTQ people, or poor people. They have always lacked the numbers because their policies serve mainly the wealthy. There has always been a tacit racism, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia within the conservative movement although they have typically tried to hide it from plain view. Trump just went with it and tore off the mask.
Everyone on the list would be happy just to go back to maybe the Reagan years or even the Bush Jr. years, which were horrible for women, people of color, immigrants, LGBTQ people, etc...
They can tear Trump down all they want, but they gave us Sarah Palin and the concept of "real America". They would use the same "costal elites" rhetoric and "government take over" to describe Democratic policies, if they could just have a nice, articulate, somewhat charming candidate to get behind. They disavow Trump but they do not look any deeper. They are surprised that he has taken over the Republican party but then they don't look at why he would have NEVER had a chance as a Democratic candidate, the same way the Michael Bloomberg didn't have a chance as a Democratic Candidate. Bloomberg is more articulate and less of a disgusting vulgarian, but he has a similar attitude to Trump with regards to looking down on people who are not wealthy like him. At a minimum, in our party, our candidates have to show that they understand and respect the experiences of people who do not have a lot of money and that they can push back on big money.
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