The “fiscally conservative” people I know haven’t turned out to be any better than the others. One “moderate” and “fiscally conservative” acquaintance I had flat out told me to my face that he thought the world would be a better place if gender minorities didn’t exist, and that he thought we’re all pretending. Even the ones who haven’t spewed outright genocidal bigoted garbage either make it clear that they’d probably be doing it if it was more acceptable, or simply don’t have enough empathy to care about being on the side of genocidal bigots as long as they or anyone in their immediate family aren’t personally affected in any way.

Seems like even in the best case conservatives who are nominally only “fiscal conservatives” and not socially conservative have a severe lack of empathy, and are more than happy to eg. collaborate with actual fascists. Just look at how eager all “moderate” conservatives have been to cooperate with Meloni, who is a literal neofascist from a party that’s a direct descendant of the original Fascist Party.

I keep saying this, but it feels like “moderate conservatives” are mythical creatures at this point