Is American Conservatism a "hollowed-out ideological shell"?

[pbrower2a]

Conservatives did not adequately reject the demagoguery of Donald Trump. Considering the history of demagogues-turned-leaders in other political orders, anyone who pays attention to history should have recognized that Donald Trump was a very bad gamble even if he was the one to achieve an agenda. Democratic process almost never gives anyone all that he wants at one time, and the survival of democracy implies that people generally accept that reality. One gets perhaps what one needs (like K-12 education, police protection, a workable legal process, national defense, and maybe some relief in hard times for oneself) and gets the chance to work for the rest. 

American Conservatism lost its credibility when it attached itself to a celebration of pathological greed and selfishness that better resembles the feudal lords and despotic kings of the Middle Ages. That selfish greed comes with gross oppression of the sort that marked Russian elites before the Bolshevik Revolution. It cannot be good for an America that needs some political concord, as during an apocalyptic war or its aftermath. 

To be effective, conservatives must offer the common man something worthy of preservation. Elite power and indulgence that comes with oppression and poverty fits only the scummiest people, and not the fundamental decency necessary for a vibrant economy and stable families. 

Conservatism will revive in America, but it will need to redevelop old decencies, including respect for diversity, legal precedent, diplomatic protocol, fairness, and human development. The supposed conservatism which offers inequality as bounty and superstition as official reality will either implode or bring about catastrophic results. But American conservatism around 2035 will sound more like Barack Obama than like Donald Trump. 

[pbrower2a]

Nobody should be surprised that evangelical voters are sticking with the GOP.

I’ve been watching evangelical voting behavior since I worked for Paul Weyrich’s Free Congress Foundation in the 1980s, and I’ve come to believe that, in most cases (though certainly not all), white evangelicals get their religion from their politics, not their politics from their religion.

That is, many evangelicals are first and foremost political conservatives drawn to a church (or a pastor) that confirms their worldviews and, in turn, their political views.

They gravitate to evangelical, fundamentalist and Pentecostal churches that are spread across the American landscape, particularly in rural and small-town America, because those churches hold views about the Bible and human behavior that are traditional rather than pragmatic. Not surprisingly, most of those church members are politically conservative, particularly on social/cultural issues but increasingly also on the role of government.

.......

If Moore does win – and he is more likely than not to defeat Democrat Doug Jones – it will be because white evangelicals find his politics more important than his morality.

http://sturothenberg.com/2017/11/28/why-evangelicals-stick-with-donald-trump-roy-moore/

(Stuart Rothenberg)

Note that in the original item, Rothenberg recognizes that some Christian evangelicals and fundamentalists take the Gospel of Jesus seriously and hold the Gospel of Greed in contempt.