If the GOP had not gone totally tribalist (which populist nationalism is) instead of genuinely issue-based and principled (what Reagan/Buckley libertarian-conservatism was before Trump killed it) then I would still be in the party.
Perhaps you have to ask yourself, Fred: which really changed from 2015-2023 politically, me or the GOP? I st…
If the GOP had not gone totally tribalist (which populist nationalism is) instead of genuinely issue-based and principled (what Reagan/Buckley libertarian-conservatism was before Trump killed it) then I would still be in the party.
Perhaps you have to ask yourself, Fred: which really changed from 2015-2023 politically, me or the GOP? I still hold views very similar as I did in 2015, particularly on foreign policy, which has always been my primary focus. But I now no longer feel welcome in a GOP obsessed with very tribalist issues like fears of CRT and trans people. Those are culture war tribalist signaling concerns, not broader genuine issues like the threat of Islamist terror - my main reason for being a conservative Republican - was a decade ago.
If the GOP had not gone totally tribalist (which populist nationalism is) instead of genuinely issue-based and principled (what Reagan/Buckley libertarian-conservatism was before Trump killed it) then I would still be in the party.
Perhaps you have to ask yourself, Fred: which really changed from 2015-2023 politically, me or the GOP? I still hold views very similar as I did in 2015, particularly on foreign policy, which has always been my primary focus. But I now no longer feel welcome in a GOP obsessed with very tribalist issues like fears of CRT and trans people. Those are culture war tribalist signaling concerns, not broader genuine issues like the threat of Islamist terror - my main reason for being a conservative Republican - was a decade ago.