Anyone can wikipedia events, Absalom, but citing them in a way that is relevant and applicable is another story...as you repeatedly demonstrate. History offers an ocean of analogies and events that bear some surface similarity with what we face today...and the parties of the 19th century carried some seeds of what the parties have now become. But the fact that Republicans in the 1860's opposed states rights...which they primarily did because they were deeply opposed to secession and the idea of extending slavery into new territories as they became states...is not particularly relevant to today. The lessons learned from such positions in the 1860's are minimal...beyond the general lessons that all history can teach.
Supporting industrial and technological capitalism...or rather...capitalism in general...is at the core of modern conservatism. This does not mean state directed Capitalism as we see in China, but rather a state that frees and empowers capitalistic mechanisms to perform with minimal hindrance in our national economy. That, of course has limits, and the use of our own tariffs to discipline and discourage nations that refuse themselves to allow free trade via currency manipulation, tariffs and other illegal practices is certainly within the bounds of those striving for a free and capitalistic governance.
The President IS a populist...something of which you seem oddly disdainful. His also a committed Capitalist and has governed as a staunch conservative...much like Reagan himself did in the 1980's. He also IS a powerful advocate for free trade and has used tariffs as a weapon to encourage free trade globally...having our markets open while our enemies remain mostly closed is not free trade, and the President is highly consistent with conservative principles when he uses our own tariffs to create freer trade around the globe. Doing otherwise would be idiocy.
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Urge you to distain your sanctimonious generalities and get acquainted w/the realities of history.
* The Republicans were errand boys for the New England Mercantile Class and later Industrial
Capitalists; promoting strong centralized governance, aggressive trade protectionism and judicial activism during their 75 year political ascendancy from Fremont in 1856 till Hoover; erecting the governance which exists in our nation, at this moment. Reality!
* Principled Conservatism, birthed by the likes of Sargon, Hammurabi and wise Greeks, such as
Plato, is a body of unchanging precepts which are the basis for Man's conduct, involving attitudes, behaviors, impulses and sentiments about human nature which are totally independent of economics, ideology, politics and religion. COMPLETELY!!!
* Trump is an entertainer in the mold of Groucho Marx who wouldn't know Populism, Capitalism or
Conservatism from an Apprentice Script. As for Tariffs, they are simply economic leverage applied
to fatten the wallets of crony capitalists such as Trump!