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Notes -
I had a longer post I was going to write, but I don't have the energy or the morale.
I'm just going to say you're wrong in several respects. People do update, but turning into a rightist is not the only practical reaction to failures of liberal policy. Rightism has some pretty serious failure modes as well.
If the failures are in their face enough, they may oppose that particular policy temporarily. But they will draw no other conclusions about other policies based on the same premise. And, as soon as those failures are not in their face any more, they'll go right back to supporting the failed policies until they fail blatantly and obviously again.
The catchphrase to remember: "The worst thing about this incident is it makes it seem like the right has a point". Because the idea the right might actually have a point is anathema.
This is just a mirror of how rightists think - in exactly the same way.
You're not wrong, you're just not describing anything more than unreflective tribalism. Leftists do it, rightists do it.
Of course I understand the point you are trying to make is "Yeah, but we're right. If we abandoned leftist policies and embraced rightist policies, things would be better."
Okay. Years of watching both fail does not convince me.
There hasn't been a rightist government in Anglo countries in living memory as far as I am aware, so seeing right wing policies implimented and failing is a surprise. Can you outline where and when? - roughly, no need to detail specific if low on morale and energy, just gesture in the vague direction if posisble please :-)
I suspect this will devolve into "No true rightist..." ("True conservativism has never been tried?"). But Reagan and Thatcher, off the top of my head (and arguably both Bush administrations).
Surely you know that no actual right-winger thinks that Reagan, Thatcher, and Bush were genuinely right-wing, right? Reagan, the guy who signed one of the largest illegal immigration amnesties in U.S. history? Bush, the guy who championed No Child Left Behind? These are your “failed right-wing governments*?
Yes, I do know that. Hence my comment about "No true rightist." I know rightists also believe that Clinton and Obama were left-wing, despite many, many policies they executed which were not remotely leftist.
If you tell me no government to the left of Mussolini or Pinochet is actually right-wing, then of course you won't be able to find many "right-wing governments" in the Anglo-sphere in living memory.
Yes, correct, that is precisely what we are arguing. There has been no right-wing government in the Anglosphere in living memory. Hell, a government wouldn’t even need to be as far right as Pinochet or Franco or Mussolini to qualify; sadly, we haven’t gotten anything even in the same ballpark as those guys. To me that’s just indisputably obvious. So, telling me that right-wing Anglosphere governments have failed in your lifetime is a non-sequitur.
Let's keep in mind the context here--the examples given of rightist/right wing policies are tough-on-crime things like Three Strikes. Whether that's "right wing government" or not is not really relevant: it's a less-progressive stance than the alternative at the time.
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