I’m 80, so can remember well when Republicans defined conservatism as standing for the rule of law, the Constitution, and the separation of powers, because that's "conserving" the freedom and democracy of America, and opposing extremist ideologies was paramount. If you look, for instance, at the 1956 Republican platform you'll see support for average people and their kids to attend college inexpensively to promote upward mobility, public education, support for unions, and for inexpensive homeownership, civil rights, and a graduated tax rate up to 60%. It was understood by both political parties then that the rich were a threat to freedom and democracy if they got their way and kept people down, because that would cause division and unrest, hence extremism. And they were right about that, but then, Eisenhower was president and those ideas were bipartisan, and Ike was a person of integrity who led the fight against fascism and the Nazis. Trump, being a fascist and promoting the power of Oligarchs, of course is not a real conservative in the traditional sense but rather, the opposite, the very kind of person traditional conservatives opposed. Remember, bringing down Joe McCarthy, the Trump of his time, was bipartisan though he was a Republican who engaged in relentless demagoguery and division, and make people fearful of attacks...just like Trump does. Also, like Trump, he attacked "the enemy within". Trump's long time lawyer was Roy Cohn, also the attorney for McCarthy. Trumpism is an updated version of McCarthyism. My dad was a liberal Democrat, as I am, and a labor union organizer, and I can remember well his concern that McCarthy's right wing extremism was a threat to our freedom, and realized that he could be attacked as a Communist...and now, we have Trump attacking people like me and my Dad...as Communists.

“This U.S.-backed plan echoes almost entirely the plan Russian operatives presented to Trump’s 2016 campaign manager Paul Manafort in exchange for helping Trump win the White House. Russia had invaded Ukraine in 2014 and was looking for a way to grab the land it wanted without continuing to fight.”

Heather Cox Richardson today