Regarding the Globe’s front-page headline “Conservatives say Mueller must go” (April 11), it seems time to find a word less misleading than “conservatives” to describe Donald Trump’s supporters.
Yes, these so-called conservatives still support the massive increases in federal deficits resulting from tax cuts, which were the backbone of Reagan and Bush II economic policy, and are designed to cripple the federal government and give even greater power to the rich. And they support that other pillar of conservatism, antiabortion policy.
However, today’s “conservatives” supporting Trump have added something new that I believe would have been anathema to many conservatives in the past: attacks on democratic institutions rooted in the Constitution. These include attacks on the free press, an independent judiciary, the rule of law, and the voting process.
Moreover, the silence of an overwhelming number of conservatives on Trump’s lies and demagoguery enables him to continue to use bigotry to support his policies on immigration and to betray American values in bowing to Vladimir Putin and envying other autocrats. A better word than “conservative,” to describe Trump’s supporters, would be “fascist.”
Robert G. Bill
Quincy
