Every-day liberals/leftists get mad at political scientists when we say we really do need a strong conservative party for society to function well.

I don’t necessarily think it has to be conservative, but if we are going to have parties, those parties need to be functional good faith participants in democracy or everything suffers. It can’t be this existential to lose.

Depends on how you define conservativism. Most American voters reference is shaded by the branch of conservativism which took root under Newt Gingrich and George W Bush.

We haven't had a conservative party in this country since the Southern Strategy was born and we're living through the its foreseeable, predictable kkkristofascist crescendo. So spare us, please, any absurdist pretense that the GQP or MAGAt KKKult are anything that remotely resembles "conservative".

We have one. They're called the Democratic Party.

IMO you, or someone else, should do a in-a-nutshell "this is what conservatism is & this is what it's not" thread.

1. What societal elements/functions require a conservative party? 2. What has our conservative party done in the last 30 years to help society function well? Not A God Damned Thing 3. Do you tell conservatives/RWNJs that we need a liberal party?

Get a load o' dis fuckin guy

I’d like a definition of “strong” here.

Strength is not the issue. They're strong enough to stack the judiciary, draw congressional districts to entrench their power, foment racialist terrorism...just a little stronger, and they can send critics to gulags to share cells with meek apologists.

Can you actually just back that up though? Because just saying it, especially here on bluesky, makes it seem like you're just mad that nobody takes conservatives seriously. Why the hell do we need a strong conservative party that's different from the democrats?