If we watch and listen to the modern culture and media, the headline question is a valid one. Because every manner of evil is ascribed to conservatives, as if we’re some sort of monsters, not really human at all.
Let’s define terms here. I’m not talking about Trump populists. We can all readily agree they are very different. I’m talking about traditional conservatives, who a generation or two back could be considered moderates if not liberals, so far has the liberal pendulum swung to the hard left.
A sarcastic friend and noted scholar put it this way, “Are conservatives really human beings? I mean, in the full sense of having fully developed brains and everything? We put pets down, don’t we? They have lots of human emotions, but we put them down. Maybe conservatives are simply national pets–not bright enough to actually be full citizens with feelings and thoughts and everything. So . . . maybe full protections–such as due process and the rights, as defined in the Sixth Amendment to: tbe confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense. I mean, if conservatives actually have no more status than pets then surely the Speaker of the House can install a panel in such a way as to avoid members who might confront witnesses, who might call for witnesses with different points of view, and to have the assistance of counsel (in the form of members appointed by the leader of the conservative side) to make an opposing case.” My associate speaks of the January 6th committee hearings. But it goes farther than that.
What today is called conservatism is merely the mainstream of American political thought for most of our history. A free market and support for the Constitution were once mainstream ideas in both parties. But 50 years ago, with the victory of George McGovern in the 1972 Democrat presidential primary, something began to change. It has never been the same since. That something was the radicalization of the Democrats from a liberal party to a leftist party.
As such, their opponents were looked upon by them as not only mistaken, but morally corrupt, as lacking basic human decency. Hence our headline question.
Given that left controls the media, the culture, and academia, it has programmed generations of the gullible and intellectually vulnerable that conservatives are not quite human, but an untermensch species of degraded humanity devoid of compassion and filled with hateful concepts such as free speech and a free market.
Well, it may come as a surprise to some, but conservatives are indeed fully human and endowed by our creator with the powers of logic and reason. Hence why we don’t ask that same question of the left. Only sadly wonder how they evolved to their present state of authoritarian socialism and venomous masochism.
For the country’s sake we should hope for their eventual intellectual renaissance. However, I also hope for my eventual ascension to the British throne. But alas, that too is very unlikely to happen.