anyway, all of the chatter about it only reinforces my opinion that "conservative" is a term long in need of some redefinition and reflection, and that demanding a strong conservative party is putting the cart before the horse when it comes to american politics

in my adulthood "conservatism" (in the context of Western democracies) has shifted to what is better described as reactionary or regressive authoritarianism, with bonus additions of willful stupidity and fake populism (maybe it was always like that and I/we just needed to pay closer attention)

Conservative hasn't had a clear meaning for US politics in my lifetime - the brainworms go back to Reagan at least.

it would be nice to have a conservative party that isn’t paint blisteringly insane. how to create one though ??????

the actual conservative party de facto would absolutely refuse to be anything like that which liberals want a de jure conservative party to be

like, to my understanding of, let's say, burkean conservatism, i'm just not sure that there exists much of an appetite for it in america. insisting that we need it (for whatever reason) sidesteps the more important question of whether anyone actually wants it.

I still think that the best case scenario is that the Democrats become such a big tent that the progressives and blue dogs split into two parties and that's the new reality.

Conservatives need to do some soul searching in the post-Trump era, but so far they've shown a complete unwillingness. It's not us old, wealthy white people who are wrong, it's everyone else! Forever!

Yup. The republican party is no longer legislatively, judicially, fiscally, or ethically "conservative" in any known definition of the word.

if political scientists are still saying stuff like "we need a strong conservative party", they absolutely need to redefine their terms, because today's "conservatives" get to define what "conservative" means in the public discourse, and right now it does NOT mean "pro-democracy"

Yeah right - next thing you'll ask for is a statement of moral and ethical positions that a party would support longterm. So unreasonable! If political parties can't unwind their connections to a few toxic bigotries & power lust, ideological "conservative" positions may not matter.