Donald Trump's main line of argument is that America is in awful shape, comparable to a Third World country in so many ways.
But a lot of people disagree with that assessment, and they aren't all ideological supporters of his opponent, either.
'I’m a conservative who finds the self-described billionaire businessman wildly unfit to be the next American president. Trump’s bigotry and boorishness are morally offensive. His apparently willful ignorance of domestic and foreign affairs is alarming. But also deeply troubling is the apocalyptic picture Trump paints of the American project in 2016, one that may frighten voters into supporting him but is totally at odds with the facts.
The angry, gloomy harangue that has been the Trump campaign has helped undermine core American values — including openness, generosity, and an unshakable optimism that led Ronald Reagan to say that "the difference between an American and any other kind of person is that an American lives in anticipation of the future because he knows it will be a great place."'
A conservative case against Trump’s apocalyptic view of America
There’s long been a pessimistic strain of conservatism. But the doom and gloom are out of hand.
I'd sure like to have some conservatives explain to me how 1966 America would be better for them.
+Scott Randel Some white cis Christian male conservatives would certainly see that as a golden age.
Really? With all the hippies and the flag-burning and the integration and so on? I would have thought anything from about 1958 on would be scorned by them.
+Scott Randel I usually mark 1968 as the landmark year there. But, even then, it was rebellion and revolution against an era still recent, still largely in place, still the norm.
Now, fifty years on, the norm is Uppity Folk Not Like Us. And more keep coming out of th woodwork.