DM Guest: Conservative Scholar and Author Jon Shields

Lincoln Weeps.

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You don’t have to be a Republican to be continually aghast at the descent of the GOP into a haven for cranks, white nationalists, conspiracy theorists , performance artists 
and liars. We have a two party system in this country, and the collapse of the Republican Party into a Trump led cult, spells more than just trouble for our representative democracy which is only strengthened by an opposition party that challenges a particular set of precepts, offers alternative policies, and gives voters a choice. This, in and of itself, is a safeguard against any abuse of power, not to mention being an important bulwark against the forces of tyranny and despotism. 

Jon Shields, a professor of political science at Claremont College , who has long studied the American right, joins Adam on the podcast this week to muse philosophically on the true meaning of conservatism. Shields is the rare scholar who understands and believes in the noble intellectual tradition that is conservatism and he laments the rise of the Trump led GOP which actively erodes democratic norms, and has total contempt for the rule of law. 

Democrats and many on the left might enjoy the Republican demise, but this is no cause for celebration. The moral and ideological collapse of the party of Lincoln, is bad not just for the electoral prospects of the GOP, as Shields reminds us,  but deeply unhealthy for the long term state of our democratic republic itself.

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