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I disagree. I am very intentional in calling the extremists conservatives. Years ago, when establishment conservatives had the chance to stand against these people, to separate conservatism from them, they did not. Instead, they rationalized the excesses and pretended not https://twitter.com/mla4hp/status/1349810374934224898
to see the extremists’ ever more obvious derangement and estrangement from objective reality. At times, they even fed into the delusions (see: birtherism). This was the height of cynicism. Conservatives knew that folks like Limbaugh, the Tea Party Fox News and Sarah Palin
were nuts. Some pundits even tacitly acknowledged this, differentiating themselves as “thoughtful” conservatives. The very need to use that word said a lot about what was happening to conservatism. Except that none of them actually came out and said it. Why? Because the
extremism energized the GOP base. So most of the establishment went along, either joining in or keeping a strategic silence as the rabble was roused with a sense of being always under attack - War on Christmas, cancel culture, BLM, antifa, the homosexual agenda - because as long
as they were fearful, they were voting. I see no reason, now that the kettle they kept on high for so many years, has boiled over, to let mainline conservatives off the hook. If they were willing to welcome crazy into the movement back then, I say let them welcome it now. These
days, it is largely the case that extremism is a synonym for conservative, and “thoughtful” conservatives have only themselves to blame.
