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Principles in the Crosshairs: Why Consistency Is Heresy in Modern Conservatism
Croaky's Substack ^ | Dec 31, 2024 | Croaky Caiman

Posted on 12/31/2024 10:04:12 AM PST by TBP

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n a political era where ideological elasticity is celebrated and steadfast principles are derided as heresy, modern conservatism faces an existential crisis. Why has consistency become a liability? How have populist grifters turned groupthink into virtue while abandoning the very foundations of conservatism?

Through sharp analysis and allegory—from The Time Machine to Mad Max: Fury Road—this piece exposes the opportunism threatening conservatism’s soul and calls for a return to enduring truths.

💡 Ideas endure. Opportunism doesn’t.

1 posted on 12/31/2024 10:04:12 AM PST by TBP
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To: TBP

1) TL;DR

2) What I did read was a heaping steaming pile.


2 posted on 12/31/2024 10:13:41 AM PST by sauropod ("You didn't take a country. You only won a football game!" - Dan Dakich Ne supra crepidam)
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To: TBP
This isn’t about labels. It’s about the divide between those anchored to enduring truths and those who treat policy like a buffet, heaping their plates with whatever is most popular that day. Immigration, trade, abortion, spending—you name it, they’ve pivoted on it, not from reflection or evolution, but from a desperate desire to stay relevant.

The author completely misreads the current political landscape — or, perhaps, understands it well but misrepresents it for his own reasons.

The MAGA populist movement only exists because tens of millions of voters came to realize that most of “those anchored to enduring truths” (i.e., “principled conservatives”) in government were feckless, duplicitous frauds.

The period from 2000 to 2018 will be remembered as the time when anybody with half a brain and an ounce of integrity recognized that the Republican Party was built on a foundation of bullsh!t.

3 posted on 12/31/2024 10:16:07 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("Well, maybe I'm a little rough around the edges; inside a little hollow.” -- Tom Petty, “Rebels”)
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To: TBP; hiredhand
Mass movements, he noted, aren’t driven by ideas but by the desperate need to belong—a phenomenon exemplified in today’s populist grift, where loyalty to the leader replaces any pretense of intellectual substance.

This more properly defines the character of the left.

Why has consistency become a liability?

Because a badly misconstructed (in my opinion) recount of Genesis lies at root of many of said conservative principles. When gelology, biology, and archaeology argue otherwise, many young people end up rootless and looking elsewhere, grasping at ideological straws. Yet the root understanding (literally) of Genesis is much more interesting and applicable, suffering from a tragic misunderstanding that has stood since the time of Ezra.

I'm writing that book now < /shameless tease> because it so pains me to see people turned away from the Word and Messiah upon technical bases that are equally shakey. It's really too bad we don't raise our children to be aware of how little we really know and therefore how much there is to learn and how badly we need them to get to work at it.

4 posted on 12/31/2024 10:19:37 AM PST by Carry_Okie (The tree of liberty needs a rope.)
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To: TBP
Anytime a politician uses the words ‘conservative principles’ they are using code words for a handout for their own personal principal .. Count on it ... Mike Pence’s principal value was an 11 million dollar book deal..
5 posted on 12/31/2024 10:20:46 AM PST by Just mythoughts (Psalm 2. Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?)
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To: TBP

nothing worse for the GOP and our Republic than self-proclaimed “principled” conservatives ... you know, the romney’s, mccains, kristols, kasich’s, hewitts, and the entire lot of elitist country club assholes at National Review ... useless, impotent liars and losers, everyone of them ...


6 posted on 12/31/2024 10:23:18 AM PST by catnipman ((A Vote For The Lesser Of Two Evils Still Counts As A Vote For Evil))
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Comment #7 Removed by Moderator

To: Carry_Okie

According to Romans 11:8 “(According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.”

NOT all are intended to understand the Garden Party ... It is for their own protection... Just try and tell them the action took place in a fig grove not an apple orchard ...

And the man Adam told the Creator, that woman you gave me made me do it ...


8 posted on 12/31/2024 10:25:47 AM PST by Just mythoughts (Psalm 2. Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?)
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To: TBP

The phrase “Preaching to the Choir” leaps to mind

During the early states of Christianity theologians use to have ferocious debates about such absurdities as the nature of God. People were killed in riots over such minutia

Conservative Inc is the prime example of that mindset in the modern world. Rather then do anything to achieve progress towards their political goals on anything, they immediately want to impose their emotion based opinions about politics on everyone. As soon as anyone questions a single article of that dogma, they go into they same sort of emotion based bombastic ranting mode pouncing anathema on anyone that does not conform to their options.

They cannot win an election on those dogmas but they immediately demand the leadership chair anytime someone to the right of center wins an election

They have no more relevance to modern US politics then any drunk sitting at a bar whining about the current state of US politics.


9 posted on 12/31/2024 10:27:55 AM PST by MNJohnnie (Don't blame me, my congressman is MTG!)
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To: sauropod

Another Zero-Sum “conservative “ heard from.

In politics, there are no absolutes. An in America, a constitional Republic, with a somewhat evenly divided electorate the idea that you are going to hold on to your principals no matter what instead of try to get as much as you can is political suicide.

The zro-sum “conservatives” are usually blow-hard cheat beaters that really only care about themselves and how they look.


10 posted on 12/31/2024 10:28:01 AM PST by SoConPubbie (Trump has all the right enemies, DeSantis has all the wrong friends.)
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To: TBP
Principles in the Crosshairs: Why Consistency Is Heresy in Modern Conservatism

"The perfect is the enemy of the good."

11 posted on 12/31/2024 10:28:34 AM PST by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: sauropod

Another Zero-Sum “conservative “ heard from.

In politics, there are no absolutes. And in America, a constitional Republic, with a somewhat evenly divided electorate the idea that you are going to hold on to your principals no matter what instead of try to get as much as you can is political suicide.

The zero-sum “conservatives” are usually blow-hard chest beaters that really only care about themselves and how they look.


12 posted on 12/31/2024 10:28:51 AM PST by SoConPubbie (Trump has all the right enemies, DeSantis has all the wrong friends.)
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To: SoConPubbie

Yesterday’s “conservatives” conserved leftist victories.

Today’s conservatives want to roll back the leftist victories.

Big difference.


13 posted on 12/31/2024 10:33:32 AM PST by cgbg (It is time to pull the Deep State out of the mass media--like ticks from a dog.)
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To: TBP
aren’t driven by ideas but by the desperate need to belong—a phenomenon exemplified in today’s populist grift

Well, P finally see where this clown is coming from, the elastic conservative are what we refer to as RINOs, and we have seen that their ideas are devoid of conservatism, but are based solely upon what propels them to riches, while the American citizens are left to scramble to survive.

If this clown is someone you support, it makes it clear that you are part of the problem that this nation faces, not a solution.

14 posted on 12/31/2024 10:36:10 AM PST by Robert DeLong
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To: TBP
American First - Americans First.

If we need TOP tech workers from foreign countries - fine. TOP - the AI folks we can't produce here.

But it this is more crap with 'migrants' being used to cut wages and keep Americans out of jobs then the program has to end or be adjusted. Employers can prove the neccessity by paying a tax on H1-B employees equal to the pay difference between an American and a foreigner.

. Could be a great way to add money to lower the national debt. AND Bill Gates can stop whining about how people should pay more in taxes. BIG>If companies pay $20,000 to $100,000 a year extra in taxes for EACH H1-B employee it'll prove they're necessary and not just 'cheap labor'...

15 posted on 12/31/2024 10:37:39 AM PST by GOPJ
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To: cgbg

You skipped right past my point.


16 posted on 12/31/2024 10:37:44 AM PST by SoConPubbie (Trump has all the right enemies, DeSantis has all the wrong friends.)
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To: TBP

I long ago concluded that liberals were consistent on one thing only: “We are right and you guys are either stupid or Nazis.”

I agree with conservative principles. Practice in the real world may be more difficult.

Here are some essentials. Trump’s patriotism is always evident. Since Obama at least, Democrats have not favored Americans over other nationalities.

We have had a one-party press for decades. The press and other Democrats are control freaks who sweep individual and business freedom aside on the flimsiest of excuses.

Democrats make up their own reality and insist that everyone believe it: extremely cold weather proves global warming, boys can become girls and vice versa, the sins of the Democrats are the sins of America, the German National Socialist Party under Hitler was “right-wing,” and so on.

The left lies to us and to themselves. I think neo-Malthusianism is one such falsehood. I think there is an underlying fear of over-population and starvation. This helps to explain LBGTQ+. Each discourages procreation. Add to that abortion and perhaps wars and pandemics.

What does history show us? From century to century, millennia to millennia, as population grows so does the per capital standard of living. Every child born has a stomach that must be fed and a brain that can solve problems. Solutions often travel around the globe benefitting everyone.


17 posted on 12/31/2024 10:40:49 AM PST by ChessExpert (The Democratic party must be destroyed.)
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To: catnipman
"elitist country club assholes"

Where would William F. Buckley fit in to today's world of populist movements?

18 posted on 12/31/2024 10:40:51 AM PST by buckalfa (They say nothing is impossible, yet I accomplish nothing every day.)
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To: sauropod

do sauropods leave behind big steaming piles?


19 posted on 12/31/2024 10:41:30 AM PST by one guy in new jersey
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To: TBP

In a debate, principles matter. In a war, victory matters.

The left has declared a war upon America. The only way America survives is if they lose, by as ethical a means as possible, but in any case by whatever means is necessary. We are winning as of this moment, but there is no substitute for total and complete victory, and the unconditional surrender of the enemy.


20 posted on 12/31/2024 10:43:25 AM PST by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
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