Serious question for @RadioFreeTom @benjaminwittes and @BrendanNyhan -- when was the last time the GOP was explicitly defensive of political equality? Whenever it stopped being explicitly defensive of political equality is when it started it's slide toward fascism in my view.
I'm not sure consvatives have ever explicitly defended political equality because in doing so they would not be recognized as conservative. The last Republican to do so was probably Nelson Rockefeller and his cohort (including George Romney).
An argument can be made that Mitt Romney in 2008 was a kind of conservative explicitly in favor of political equality and look where that got him. By 2012, he was dog whistling with the rest.
Same thing with John McCain for that matter. Downright liberal in social matters unless he was fighting for reelection.
