The new Conservatism includes tax subsidies for big corporations

When I was younger the Conservatives in the USA had a rhetoric of “small government” and they were nominally anti-subsidy. In reality, the government grew under Republican governments, and no government questioned the many billions of subsidies given to the farm sector. Still, there was a rhetoric that suggested subsides are bad. I don’t see any trace of that rhetoric anymore. It is worth noting how much it has vanished, given that it was important to Republicans for several decades.

What I’m seeing a lot of now are comments such as this one:

I realize the anti-Amazon movement was a limited (but loud) group of individuals, but if their level of influence has lasting power, NYC tech is in trouble.

Consider NYTimes’ own article on the amazon exit. Half the people angry at Amazon were commenting that Amazon wasn’t going to pay living wages (thinking that corporate HQ2 jobs are fulfillment jobs.) The other half were angry that Amazon was going to pay too much and would drive up rents. Which one is it? I don’t know, but both sides banded together.

One major issue AOC had with Amazon was the fear that Amazon couldn’t guarantee they would only be hiring local NYers — since when did NYC become a country? Where could/couldnt workers come from — would it be only from Queens? Would Brooklyn be OK? What if someone commuted from NJ? What if someone commuted down from the suburb? At what point does someone who moves to NYC become a NYer? This type of in-city protectionism was shocking and completely ignores how local economies work.

Nothing like this comment existed during the first 30 years of my life. Here you have someone who is in favor of subsidies, and who also lashes out at AOC. And AOC, the far left character of USA politics, is anti-subsidy. Such comments represent a small sign of possibly big changes. It is possibly the beginning of some great reversal in USA politics. Trump’s election might have signaled such a change, but comments like this, on various Internet forums, suggests this is something that people really feel, it’s not just a fluke.