To my fellow Americans: Conservatism is not what you think it is.
Many Americans think the word "conservative" means conserving the ideals of the American Founders.
Unfortunately, this is not the case.
The partisan ideology called "conservatism" was created in European parliaments with the goal of conserving the ruling class of the day.
The partisan nature of conservatism is easy to establish because the ideology was created with the establishment of a party in the 1830s.
The anti-American nature of conservatism is easy to establish because the party was created by the Tories ... the very people who fought against the US Founders during the Revolutionary War. Members of the Conservative Party continue to call themselves Tories. The Tories favor the monarchy and peerage.
The US Founders were deeply opposed to the factions of Europe.
The beating heart of conservatism is the factionalism that the US Founders wanted to avoid.
The next sentence might sound strange to conservatives: The US Founders had a liberal arts eduction. They fought to liberate the colonies from the crown. Pursuing the ideals of liberty, they created a constitutionally limited people and a relatively free people.
In the 1800s people used the term "liberal" to describe the US Founders.
Conservatives, aka the Tories, wanted to destroy liberalism. They did this by creating the left/right split. The conservative right projects every negative image they can on the term liberal. The ill-liberal left captured the term "liberal" and use the term to promote self-destructive behavior.
There was a "Liberal Party" in England. It formed after the Potato Famine. The Liberal Party favored free-market economics and considered legalizing Catholicism. It fell apart because fears that, if Catholics could vote, they would vote to kick the English out of Ireland.
The narrative that Liberals are naive started with desires to promote freedom of religion.
The Liberal Party fell apart. Conservatives started calling the Labour Party, which favored socialism, "liberal."
Many people use the term "classical liberal" to describe the ideals of the US Founders.
The modern ideologies of the left and right are fundamentally partisan. Modern conservatism and modern progressivism both seek to gain power through division.
The left/right split creates an echo chamber. Each side of the split creates a narrative specifically designed to create division. Both sides of the split frame their narrative as the standard of reason, but both sides of the split are fundamentally divisive.
Because Modern Conservatism and Modern Progressivism are using the same technique to divide the people, they create a shrill political climate that escalates into violence. Both sides end up projecting the violence on their hated enemy.
The violence itself starts on the fringes. There has been a steady stream of violent attacks from groupls marginally associated with conservatism.
As partisan conservatism is focused on exploiting division for power, conservatives end up using the violence to create further division.
The classical liberal view is that when violence occurs, one should first check their own ideology. I've walked away from both the Left and Right because my observation is that partisans fail to engage in the self-reflection necessary to engage in quality discourse.
I want to end by noting that the US Founders and the Party of Lincoln were recognized as liberal. The left/right split was thrust upon us by our ruling elite. Americans need to reject both the division and the violence created by partisan ideologies.
My title is: "Violence from the Right is Inevitable." This is because the partisan methodology seeks power through division. Partisans create an echo chamber that leads to violence. The violence starts on the fringe, but it can grown and become mainstream.
Conservatism cannot restore American ideals because the partisan ideology of conservatism is fundamentally at odds with American ideals.
