{"id":28143,"date":"2026-06-30T17:29:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T00:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/?p=28143"},"modified":"2026-07-05T16:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T23:16:12","slug":"the-conservative-ethos-tribalistic-xenophobic-autocratic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2026\/06\/30\/the-conservative-ethos-tribalistic-xenophobic-autocratic\/","title":{"rendered":"The Conservative Ethos: Tribalistic, Xenophobic, Autocratic"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>How the Supreme Court repeatedly gives Trump the license to discriminate (never mind &#8220;all men are created equal&#8221;);<\/li>\n<li>Robert Reich on the Court&#8217;s decision to let Trump fire officials in government agencies whenever he likes;<\/li>\n<li>Robert Reich on how the 14th amendment survived the Supreme Court, though only barely;<\/li>\n<li>Items about the conservative distaste for foreigners (again&#8230;);<\/li>\n<li>How Elon Musk thinks cuts to USAID didn&#8217;t cause any deaths (he&#8217;s wrong);<\/li>\n<li>Brief items about Nuclear Family Month, Hegseth&#8217;s purges, Vance&#8217;s claims about the &#8220;deep state&#8221; and Nixon; and two idiots on the right.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"center\">&#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<\/div>\n<p>This is from three days ago.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/nRjasOZnhbsaNEMdQM3UU6W2X_M=\/0x0:2880x1620\/976x549\/media\/img\/mt\/2026\/06\/2026_06_26_Alito_and_the_Asylum_Case\/original.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Atlantic, Adam Serwer, 27 Jun 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/2026\/06\/scotus-asylum-racial-discrimination\/687710\/\">The Court That Will Believe Absolutely Anything Is \u2018Race-Neutral\u2019<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;The majority gives Trump yet more license to discriminate.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Trump-administration officials have made no secret of their desire to purge the United States of nonwhite immigrants. Donald Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/WhiteHouse\/status\/2040507389812568086?lang=en\" data-event-element=\"inline link\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen31117857_899=\"10773\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time31117857_899=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired31117857_899=\"1\">has declared<\/a>, \u201cIf you import The Third World, you become The Third World,\u201d a common refrain repeated by his advisers. Trump has also said that immigrants have \u201cbad genes,\u201d that they are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2024\/10\/07\/trump-immigrants-crime-00182702\" data-event-element=\"inline link\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen31117857_899=\"10778\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time31117857_899=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired31117857_899=\"1\">genetically predisposed to crime<\/a>, and that they are \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/2024-election\/trump-says-immigrants-are-poisoning-blood-country-biden-campaign-liken-rcna130141\" data-event-element=\"inline link\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen31117857_899=\"10783\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time31117857_899=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired31117857_899=\"1\">poisoning the blood<\/a> of our country\u201d\u2014coming, as they are, \u201cfrom Africa, from Asia, all over the world.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And yet conservatives claim to worship the Constitution and the Declaration, which come with phrases like &#8220;all men are created equal,&#8221; which even taken figuratively, they clearly do not believe.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p>This is from yesterday.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/reich29jun26_700x420.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/reich29jun26_700x420.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Robert Reich, 29 Jun 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/paulkrugman.substack.com\/p\/the-court-sides-with-dictatorship\">The Court Sides With Dictatorship \u2014 and Chaos<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Today&#8217;s ruling is even more disastrous than people realize&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Earlier today, the Supreme Court declared war on U.S. democracy. It also declared war, basically, on modern society, on everything it takes to function in the 21st century. And I\u2019m not sure that people understand that yet.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This is about Trump being allowed to fire officials in government agencies whenever he likes.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We live in a complicated world, a world of technology, where there are all kinds of spillovers, all kinds of ways in which it\u2019s important that there be well-established ground rules. If you\u2019re a business, take the example of medicines and foodstuffs, where we have an FDA, Federal Drug Administration, that is charged with ensuring that products that people consume are safe. We do that for very good reason. We know that not just that that there have been examples, historically, of products that were foods, medicines that were not at all safe, but also that people want some assurance.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that something has been FDA approved is a bit of a warranty, that it might turn out to be very harmful, but probably not. Businesses that want to invest in developing stuff need to know that there are some ground rules that determine what they can and cannot sell.<\/p>\n<p>Now imagine that all these decisions are made by political appointees who are loyalists to the president, who basically do whatever the president wants, whatever the people around the president want.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Because Trump and his ilk want to remove all government oversight on business people, whose only concern is making lots and lots of money.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Then today, the 14th Amendment survived, but only barely.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/$s_!HMX1!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3508bed3-612c-451e-b24e-4ecfc1838411_3500x2686.png\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Robert Reich, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/robertreich.substack.com\/p\/born-in-the-usa\">Born in the U.S.A.<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;The Supreme Court did the right thing, but four justices are dangerously off their rockers&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Today, the Supreme Court struck down Trump\u2019s Day One executive order canceling the right to birthright citizenship. Good. That executive order declared that children born in the U.S. would not be considered citizens if their parents were living in the country illegally or were visiting the country on temporary visas.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230; Trump and his Solicitor General, who argued this case before the Court, also said that narrowing birthright citizenship was necessary to prevent \u201cbirth tourism\u201d\u2014the practice of immigrants coming to the U.S. to give birth here and obtain citizenship for their child.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230; What I find troubling is that the decision was 5 to 4 rather than unanimous or nearly so, as it should have been.<\/p>\n<p>Only five of the nine justice ruled against Trump on constitutional grounds. Brett Kavanaugh dissented on statutory grounds; while agreeing that Trump\u2019s executive order was unlawful, he argued that the court should have resolved the case under federal immigration law rather than the Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>The Court\u2019s three most conservative justices \u2014 Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Samuel Alito \u2014 dissented. Thomas wrote for the group: \u201cThe Court adds to the sad history of the Fourteenth Amendment, which was designed and understood to secure equal rights for the freed blacks but has instead been repurposed for political projects that the Reconstruction Congress did not support.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pure and utter claptrap.<\/p>\n<p>Thomas, Gorsuch, and Alito are so far to the right of America that their views on this case and other matters should be presumed bonkers. Yet what\u2019s particularly sobering is that Trump is only one justice away from having a Supreme Court majority that would have gone his way on this absurd reading of the 14th Amendment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p>The core of the conservative argument is distaste for foreigners, especially brown ones. It couldn&#8217;t be more obvious. WWJD? Here&#8217;s a few headlines from my favorite aggregate site, JMG, all today.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/KevinRoberts2025-1.jpg\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2026\/06\/heritage-foundation-birthright-ruling-is-tremendous-betrayal-and-we-will-lead-fight-to-correct-this-error\/\">Heritage Foundation: Birthright Ruling Is \u201cTremendous Betrayal And We Will Lead Fight To Correct This Error\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2026\/06\/vance-welcoming-immigrants-backing-lgbtq-rights-and-believing-climate-change-exists-is-anti-catholic\/\">Vance: Welcoming Immigrants, Backing LGBTQ Rights, And Believing Climate Change Exists Is Anti-Catholic<\/a> (Then this is a big problem with Catholicism)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2026\/06\/gop-bills-would-ban-pregnant-aliens-from-country\/\">GOP Bills Would Ban \u201cPregnant Aliens\u201d From Country<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2026\/06\/maga-screams-over-birthright-citizenship-ruling\/\">MAGA Screams Over Birthright Citizenship Ruling<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2026\/06\/johnson-moans-when-told-of-birthright-ruling-video\/\">Johnson Moans When Told Of Birthright Ruling [VIDEO]<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<p>Similarly,<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/$s_!wxq7!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3241b793-71ef-4571-86e0-901a61e8110e_3000x2000.jpeg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Bulwark, yesterday<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebulwark.com\/p\/yes-the-cuts-to-usaid-have-killed\">Yes, the Cuts to USAID Have Killed<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Elon Musk dismisses the human toll of the Trump administration\u2019s gutting U.S. foreign aid\u2014but it\u2019s real and it\u2019s measurable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>But Musk is wrong. Many people, including many children, have died as a direct result of the cuts he and his DOGE team made to USAID. And the number of deaths no longer being prevented by the agency will only grow.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Because to Musk, those people are unreal. They don&#8217;t exist. Not when helping them might undercut, ever so slightly, the wealth of billionaires like him.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Briefly noted.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Pride-Flag-2282035992.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Salon, Amanda Marcotte, yesterday<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2026\/06\/29\/nuclear-family-month-shows-that-maga-is-still-coming-for-same-sex-marriage\/\">\u201cNuclear Family Month\u201d shows that MAGA is still coming for same-sex marriage<\/a>, subtitled: &#8220;Red state anti-Pride proclamations demonize most straight people along LGBTQ folks&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Once again: tribal mentality. To expand the tribe, demonize any activity that does not advance reproduction. It might have made sense once, thousands of years ago.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-apps\/imrs.php?src=https:\/\/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com\/wapo\/XVOVAUUHMMI6ZA4PBT67NHGOHQ.jpg&amp;w=1440&amp;impolicy=high_res\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Washington Post, Max Boot, yesterday<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2026\/06\/29\/hegseth-purge-gen-christopher-donahue-is-unjust\/\">Pete Hegseth\u2019s purges claim one of the military\u2019s superstars<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Gen. Christopher Donahue heads into early retirement as the defense secretary seeks to root out MAGA disloyalty.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Tribalism: It&#8217;s all about loyalty, not competence or experience.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Washington Post, Leonard Downie Jr., today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2026\/06\/30\/vance-is-wrong-about-watergate-nixon-wasnt-undone-by-deep-state\/\">The \u2018deep state\u2019 didn\u2019t take down Nixon. But why did Vance say it did?<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Courts, Congress and the press drove Watergate. And such a scandal could happen again.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>There was no such concept as the &#8220;deep state&#8221; in the 1970s; there was the rule of law. Nixon broke laws. Currently &#8220;Deep State&#8221; is a MAGA bogeyman to blame for anything they don&#8217;t understand.<\/li>\n<li>If there&#8217;s any truth behind Vance&#8217;s claim&#8230; it&#8217;s because current Republican scandals far outnumber and outweigh what happened with Nixon. This is not a point on their side.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>More from <strong>JMG.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2026\/06\/leavitt-vote-for-trump-to-stop-communist-dems\/\">Leavitt: Vote For Trump To Stop \u201cCommunist\u201d Dems<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Paranoid idiot.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2026\/06\/demented-senior-i-have-highest-poll-numbers-ever\/\">Demented Senior: I Have \u201cHighest Poll Numbers Ever\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Delusional idiot.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The more I see stories like this, the more I try to self-evaluate and wonder, am I in some of bubble where *very rare* instances of delusions like the above come disproportionately to my attention? That they don&#8217;t really reflect a large portion of the US population?<\/p>\n<p>But then, but then&#8230; Trump did win the last election. Apparently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How the Supreme Court repeatedly gives Trump the license to discriminate (never mind &#8220;all men are created equal&#8221;); Robert Reich on the Court&#8217;s decision to let Trump fire officials in government agencies whenever he likes; Robert Reich on how the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2026\/06\/30\/the-conservative-ethos-tribalistic-xenophobic-autocratic\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,16,54,103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservatives","category-culture","category-politics","category-racism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28143"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28180,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28143\/revisions\/28180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}