Politically homeless

Irving Kristol once defined a neoconservative as "a liberal who's been mugged by reality." Former mainstream liberal Democratic mayor of Madison, Dave Cieslewicz, seems to have suffered a mugging. In his recent column, "A Conservative By September?" he writes that he is going to study conservative thought, but "By this I most definitely do not mean anything having to do with Donald Trump, who is no conservative in any event. Trump is a blood and soil, white Christian nationalist populist. I want nothing to do with any of that or with the obnoxious “conservative” blatherers, like Sean Hannity or Tucker Carlson." He continues:

I realize that I’m in political no man’s land, no matter what I choose to call myself. I enthusiastically reject what Donald Trump represents. But I’m also repulsed by a liberalism that rejects Enlightenment values to pursue a rigid identity politics in which everyone is either a helpless victim or an undeserving winner based solely on their race or gender. What attracts me most about traditional conservatism is that it sees people as individuals who are primarily responsible for their own lot in life.

Identity politics is now so engrained in the Democratic Party that I don’t see how it can reform itself. Meanwhile, I don’t know how the Republicans can recover from Trump, now that they’re addicted to his populist voters. If the pre-Trump party could ever reconstitute itself, I might give it a try, but I don’t see that happening.

What I question is whether I want to go on thinking of myself as a moderate, non-partisan Democrat or rather as a traditionally conservative (and classically liberal) independent.

I know. Nobody cares. But I do. ....

Reagan said that he didn't leave the Democratic party; it left him. These days, there are a whole lot of us, from both major parties, who feel the same way, politically homeless.

Dave Cieslewicz, "A Conservative By September?," Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos: A safe place for moderates in a polarized world, May 19, 2026.