Actually, they are quite consistent; it’s just that one, they never say outright what it is, instead always talking around their ideas; because, two, we find it absolutely reprehensible (and they know it).
But it is quite simple:
Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.
-Wilhoit’s Law
Look at it through that lens, and you’ll see that they have never shifted their position. Their whole lives revolve around making this law a reality, and making sure they are in the in-group.
They don’t want to replace it. They want to isolate the US and make the people poor and desperate, so the oligarchs and the religious nuts can break it up into their own little fiefdoms easier.
Because you think you’ll ’endure the pain’ and then get to ‘build a better system’.
But better odds are you’ll just die early on, and the system you dream of will never come to pass. You have gambling brain. ‘We’ll totally win next time! Just got to start over one more time!’
Not gained, just held steady. A lot of his supporters think he’s got some kind of master plan to make all the other countries grovel at our feet, and if they have to suffer nobly for the cause so be it.
I swear, Evangelical Christians just aren’t happy unless they’re miserable. Part of their persecution complex I suppose.
Isn’t that just basically My Time in Portia?