The notion of a “conservative frontier” would be an oxymoron, but a “reactionary frontier” in the mists of time is not. If you asked the average American reactionary for a wish list to make America great again, I think this is what you would get:
- Religious and racial tests to limit voting and officeholding to practicing white Christians;
- An end to abortion, with birth control being limited to married couples;
- An end to all legal protections for LGBTQ people;
- A strict regime of protectionism for failing industries; and
- Rigorous censorship of the MSM, the internet, and Hollywood.
The first thing you would note about the list is how far removed it is from anything that Donald Trump, or any current GOP politician, has seriously suggested. That is because there is no possibility of the agenda, with the exception of #2, becoming reality without dramatic changes to our political and legal systems.
I submit to you that the distance between the dream and reality is the reason so many reactionaries are perpetually angry, and why the Trumpist base is consequently sympathetic to fascism. If you needed proof of that, you received it on Wednesday. Trump himself is too lazy and narcissistic to make it happen, but by trampling norms left and right, he has shown that it could happen with the right leadership.