Historically, “Lib” meant nothing as an insult.  It wasn’t a word and had no meaning except helping conservatives show their contempt by using just the first syllable.

 

Con, on the other hand, had many useful and applicable meanings.  It meant opposed, against something, anything or everything.  Mostly it was used as an abbreviation for convict, someone who needed to be incarcerated.  Most importantly, far more so than its meaning as an abbreviated form for political conservatism, was its meaning as a lie.  A con is intended to cheat something from an in innocent and naive mark.  “I was conned” means someone deliberately misled me to get something from me they were not entitled to.  Con is misdirection, deceitful implication, prevarication.  It is fraud , deceit, something purposefully misleading.  That, in a nutshell, had become the far right stock in trade, its go to tactic.  They have devolved from mere exaggeration all the way to bald faced false statements.  They are intended to deflect the truth and confuse the listener, or reinforce their belief system.

 

For about a third of the electorate this has worked.  The more outrageous the lie the more it is embraced.  Believing false conspiracy theories makes  the purveyor of lies able to see him or herself as insightful, incorruptible, smart enough not to be fooled by those who discredit the lie.  Confronting the willfully ignorant with fact and reason merely enrages them, making them embrace the lie with greater force and conviction.  And so this slice of the electorate — respectfully called Trump’s base — are beyond capturing.  

 

The Republicans coalition, such as it used to be, consisted of Main Street local elites, the well-off and wealthy, white people at every strata in the economic hierarchy and the titans of industry and finance, protecting not their ideals but their wealth and power to set the nation’s course.  To them should be added the conservatives who do not embrace the Republican label because they see establishment Republicans as compromisers, insufficiently resolute about guns, abortion and aggressively taking the fight to their enemies both foreign and domestic.  Not least there is the  increasingly potent near right, far right, far far right and a small but influential coterie of mass murderers.  The shooters did not have opponents, only enemies and traitors who in the name of a God who both white and male, had to be justifiably put down, violently if necessary. 

 

These party factions often worked well together.  Main Street, Wall Street, Christian Fundamentalists found ways to accommodate one another.  Then along comes Trump, an 800 lb gorilla intent on dominating the party and all of its constituencies.  Rather than have a long discussions about issues in 2020 the Republican platform was simply whatever Trump says.  Just as Trump stands for nothing the GOP at large is without any power after the MAGA takeover.  The new Republican mantra is our convict has no convictions, and we’re just fine with that.