Little Green Footballs has a new post defining the reason so many rational conservatives are abandoning the current radicalized right wing. It hasn't been all that long that LGF blogger Charles was a champion for the right, but now he is demonized by them as a traitor to the cause because he dares point out the dangerous path the GOP is following.
His current dissection of the problem is poignant, and a couple of the comments are pretty much dead on too.
Why I Parted Ways With The Right1. Support for fascists, both in America (see: Pat Buchanan, Robert Stacy McCain, etc.) and in Europe (see: Vlaams Belang, BNP, SIOE, Pat Buchanan, etc.)2. Support for bigotry, hatred, and white supremacism (see: Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter, Robert Stacy McCain, etc.)3. Support for throwing women back into the Dark Ages (see: Operation Rescue, anti-abortion groups, Dobson, Robertson, the entire religious right, etc.)4. Support for anti-science bad craziness (see: creationism, climate change denialism, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, James Inhofe, etc.)5. Support for homophobic bigotry (see: Sarah Palin, Dobson, the entire religious right, etc.)6. Support for anti-government lunacy (see: tea parties, militias, Fox News, Glenn Beck, etc.)7. Support for conspiracy theories and hate speech (see: Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Birthers, creationists, climate deniers, etc.)8. A right-wing blogosphere that is almost universally dominated by raging hate speech (see: Hot Air, Free Republic, Ace of Spades, etc.)9. Anti-Islamic bigotry that goes far beyond simply criticizing radical Islam, into support for violence and genocide (see: Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, etc.)10. Hatred for President Obama that goes far beyond simply criticizing his policies, into racism, hate speech, and bizarre conspiracy theories (see: witch doctor pictures, tea parties, Birthers, Michelle Malkin, Fox News, World Net Daily, Newsmax, and every other right wing source)And much, much more. The American right wing has gone off the rails, into the bushes, and off the cliff.I won’t be going over the cliff with them.
Barry Goldwater is long in our past, and the worthwhile fiscal conservatism of the Goldwater generation has fallen victim to the dangerous wingnuts of the religious right and the so called "social conservatives" of today. The right now suffers from a "win at any cost" attitude, and this country is suffering because of it.
The left has their wingnuts too, and the battier one side gets the further over the cliff the other side drives. Reasonable political discussion with the good of the nation as a central goal has all but vanished. GWB trounced on our Constitution, doing more damage to this country than any previous president, but BHO is failing terribly in living up to the promise of meaningful change.
A move to the center by both factions is desperately needed, but with almost two generations of Americans now of voting age having never been exposed to true bipartisanship in our political system, the likelihood of reason returning to the debate is nil.
The nut seldom falls far from the tree. Que sera, sera ...
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2 Comments:
The complete lack of civility in the political discussion of the country is a factor in this too. We can't be honest or thoughtful about anything any more. Positions have to be extreme in order to gain supporters to fight off detracters.
This is one of the byproducts of shifting political power upwards. The less you have to work out with your neighbors, the less incentive you have to cooperate. It's easy to yell and scream about issues that are decided outside your zone of influence.
Odd that the list of things that conservatives supposedly support reads much more to me, a self-described social and fiscal conservative, like the deranged stereotypes of conservatives used by liberals to disparage conservatives, rather than addressing the actual positions of conservatives.
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