A schizophrenic relationship with authority to be sure.
Here’s the key to their thought process: Is the government authority being used to *help* or *hurt* minorities?
The question tidily explains conservatives’ negative attitudes to diverse subjects like:
—Infrastructure/public transit projects
—Immigration reform
—Gun control efforts
—Welfare
—Expanding voting rights
—Affirmative Action
Vs. their positive views of:
—Tax cuts
—Immigration clampdowns
—Supreme Court decisions rolling back gun control
—Police officers credibly accused of brutality toward blacks
—New legislation to squash voting rights, squeeze welfare benefits, and roll back affirmative action
Many, if not most, modern conservatives really, truly, and deeply believe that minorities are somehow pulling a fast one on white people. So, for them, it’s a brutal contest to wrest back control of the government institutions that they think are disempowering white people. Once they perceive the government is on “their side,” they lose all of their professed skepticism of government and indeed try to scale government power up to 11.
Tl;dr Racism is the root of conservative hypocrisy.
