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Notes -
He's reasonably conservative in the same way that the British system of government is a Democracy. An NRA member United Methodist (who have been undergoing their own amusing CW related schism over the past few years). Not welcome at a DSA meeting, but not a modal red triber either. That particular title I referenced is free to read, at least the first edition is, and the plot involves the somewhat progressive space British empire (ruled by a Queen) in the person of femHoratio Hornblower trying and initially failing to form an alliance with a small backward, vaguely Mormon coded conservative patriarchal Christan nation before proving her mettle protecting them from the even more backward schismed fanatics the next system over (who somehow code Muslim complete with Hijabs and Stoning's and rejecting Jesus). The final chapters and even the ending are pretty clear that the results will lead to a major social change, essentially ending the patriarchal structure of that society and that's a good thing. They have been saved by the enlighted Queendom and will be made the better for it.
The Honor of the Queen is the second book in a rather long series, and the Graysons (the patriarchal vaguely-but-actually-not-Mormons) recur pretty frequently over the course of it. While Grayson society does nudge a bit more liberal over the course of the series--and contact with Honor herself and diplomatic relations with Manticore (UK in Spaaaace) is not a small part of that--the process is complicated, not frictionless, gradual, and results in a society that would still be considered very conservative from both Utah and South Carolina standards. Grayson society is not held up as perfect--none of Weber's societies are--but even before its gradual liberalization, it's presented as reasonably healthy, on the whole.
Broadly speaking, Weber's societies can be grouped into healthy and unhealthy categories. The unhealthy tend to eventually converge into totalitarian hellholes with different color uniforms, but the healthy ones don't converge into a particular mode--the Andermani Empire (mostly-ethnically-Chinese Prussia in Spaaaace) is an absolute monarchy, but a mostly positive example. Also, Chien-lu Anderman, Herzog von Rabenstrange is great.
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