

The will and the resources have been there trying to move in this direction for a long time. I do agree that he’s absolutely fast tracked the process. His complete disregard for civility, shameless willingness to grift, and transparently transactional nature have enabled the absolute worst in us. From hateful, racist poor folks to deranged religious nutjobs to narcissistic billionaires - they’ve all been given the green light now.
I just hope that everyone takes note of which side people are on and, when this is all over, make sure that the memory of those who stood on the wrong side of history are so shamed, ostracized, disgraced, and hated that this shit doesn’t happen again.
I think a major part of it is education and exposure. Conservativism is, generally, a desire to halt or even roll back “progress”. The embrace of traditions and nostalgia for the imaginary “good old days”. You know what your parents and your community taught you. You’ve established what normal is from your small sample size. Why change things? Everyone you know gets along just fine and you like the way it is. Different is scary.
Unfortunately, the world is really fucking complicated. Simple explanations can make perfect sense when your understanding is simple. However, the more you learn about the world, the more diversity you are exposed to, the more context you discover, the more stereotypes get broken… the more accommodating and progressive you usually become.