/r/conservative party no longer exists. It's maga now. And maga is aligned with and promoted by russia. With the goal of diminishing US world influence, dismantle NATO etc etc the opposite of Reagan era conservatives.

That sub is heavily moderated to remove all dissension from whatever Trump's view is at the moment. It's not a representative sample of the conservative side of America.

Canadian here.

If /r/conservative is not representative of conservative side of America, and the conservatives control the US Congress , I am puzzled that not one of the conservatives has pushed back on annexation of Canada or Greenland . Not One.

The voting public is not the extremely online, totally batshit, completely cognitively owned by the GRU, republican activist and acolytes as well as Republican elected and leadership.

I agree, but it's the conservative voting public that reliably returns these people to office even though many of them have a long track record of frothy rhetoric and legislative hyperconformity. This kind of aggressively loudmouthed conservatism has been a fixture in Congress since the Tea Party and arguably back to when Newt Gingrich was speaker. IT's not at all a new phenomenon.

Political scientists have visualized legislative partisanship in Congress, and this feels like the 10th time I've posted this in the last decade :https://www.vox.com/2015/4/23/8485443/polarization-congress-...

Now, voters may not like this and feel trapped by the way the primary system works and so on, but the reality is taht they keep giving in to the partisans.

The other side is made up of and cares about the wellbeing of people they don’t like (people of color, lgbtqia, traditionally oppressed people, disabled people, etc.)

That’s it: extinction burst because winning because of attributes you inherited wasn’t working.

Also, real easy to say “shit sucks”. Really hard to actually make things that don’t suck.

That, plus a healthy dose of anti-intellectualism, is a ratchet to hell.

It is absolutely the perspective of most conservatives I speak with in blood red Ohio

Where in OH?

Hocking Hills primarily

Do you think any trump voters are changing their mind about him though? Are their conservatives that would vote against Trump right now if they could? I don't think so personally

r/conservative members are banned after disagreeing with trump more than a few times. To stay members, they LITERALLY must excuse anything Trump does. Thus no matter what, they will find a way to support him out of fear of being banned and thus not being real conservatives.

Well, what we have now is manifestly not conservatism. I would argue it is Yarvinism:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Yarvin

"In his blog Unqualified Reservations, which he wrote from 2007 to 2014, and in his later newsletter Gray Mirror, which he started in 2020, he argues that American democracy is a failed experiment[5] that should be replaced by an accountable monarchy, similar to the governance structure of corporations.[6] In 2002, Yarvin began work on a personal software project that eventually became the Urbit networked computing platform. In 2013, he co-founded the company Tlon to oversee the Urbit project and helped lead it until 2019.[7]

Yarvin has been described as a "neo-reactionary", "neo-monarchist" and "neo-feudalist" who "sees liberalism as creating a Matrix-like totalitarian system, and who wants to replace American democracy with a sort of techno-monarchy".[8][9][10][11] He has defended the institution of slavery, and has suggested that certain races may be more naturally inclined toward servitude than others.[12][13] He has claimed that whites have higher IQs than black people, but does not consider himself a white nationalist. He is a critic of US civil rights programs, and has called the civil rights movement a "black-rage industry".[14]

Yarvin has influenced some prominent Silicon Valley investors and Republican politicians, with venture capitalist Peter Thiel described as his "most important connection".[15] Political strategist Steve Bannon has read and admired his work.[16] U.S. Vice President JD Vance "has cited Yarvin as an influence himself."[17][18][19] Michael Anton, the State Department Director of Policy Planning during Trump's second presidency, has also discussed Yarvin's ideas.[20] In January 2025, Yarvin attended a Trump inaugural gala in Washington; Politico reported he was "an informal guest of honor" due to his "outsize influence over the Trumpian right."[21]"

The best case against this are people formerly from Trump's inner circle who say he really has no ideal or political agenda except for himself.

You are right though. There is nothing "conservative" about the current "conservative" party. It is 100% pure reactionary. The only principles are opposition to what "the opposition" wants.

If liberalism is creating a Matrix-like totalitarian system, then what the hell is techno-monarchy creating?

More of a torment nexus.

I guess that only someone who would see himself on top could conceive something so perverted

Those tend to get killed pretty quickly, unless they are completely willing to subjugate themselves to the person on the top.

Either Yarvin is so ignorant of history that he’s barely worth listening to, or he is actively malevolent, and intentionally deceptive, OR he has absolutely no qualms about bending his “philosophy” to the whims of whoever happens to control the executioner.

Take your pick.

It’s a great quote and true if Sam Altman is any example. I don’t know Yarvin but he has pretty much explicitly said and taken actions which suggest he’s not interested in ruling. He’s written many thousands of words why he wouldn’t be a good ruler.

But he is explicit in his desire for a ruler.

Yarvin doesn't want all the bother of trying to become a monarch (a lifetime quest), but I'm sure you can think of historical advisers to royalty that have made themselves indispensable to several generations of rulers.