Why I fear Movement Conservatives

[womzilla]

1. They have no ideology beyond, "People who are not exactly like us are evil."

Example A: From Washington Times editor emeritus Wesley Pruden's November 17 column (cited by Media Matters):

It's no fault of the president that he has no natural instinct or blood impulse for what the America of "the 57 states" is about. He was sired by a Kenyan father, born to a mother attracted to men of the Third World and reared by grandparents in Hawaii, a paradise far from the American mainstream.

Example B: Republican spokesmodel Sarah Palin, in the book with her name on it:

If any vegans came over for dinner, I could whip them up a salad, then explain my philosophy on being a carnivore: If God had not intended for us to eat animals, how come He made them out of meat? I love meat. I eat pork chops, thick bacon burgers, and the seared fatty edges of a medium-well-done steak.

Comments Jim Henley, "I am literally chewing on a sandwich of leftover roast bison as I type this, but if you were a veg[etarian/an] in my house I would not harangue you on how awesome it is that I'm eating it, and how misguided you are for not doing likewise. The gracious hostess, after whipping you up the salad, lets you eat it in peace. . . . bragging about being an ungracious hostess in a book adds a whole extra layer of gauche to the meat pie."

Example C: Pat Buchanan:

BUCHANAN: Look at '65, Medicare, Medicaid, education, Voting Rights Act.

MATTHEWS: You guys won in '66.

BUCHANAN: We won 47 seats. We didn't do a thing but say no, no, no.

...

BUCHANAN: In 2010, we are the alternative. We are against them. That's all you need.

Jamison Foser of Media Matters added, "Most people, upon recalling their opposition to the Voting Rights Act, would probably express some remorse."

2. Insane conservativism dominates huge portions of the press.

Example A: See Example A above, and note that this execrable piece was written by the editor emeritus of a major city newspaper.

Example B: Lou Dobbs was finally fired by CNN. However, he was fired not for years of unbridled anti-Hispanic xenophobia (starting, at the latest, with his repeated false claims in 2005 that undocumented Central and South American immigrants were bringing an epidemic of leprosy to the US) but for a different xenophobia--birtherism.

Example C: Pat Buchanan is on MSNBC, the not-insanely-right-wing cable news channel, pretty much every week.

Example D: Oh, I'm just looking for an excuse to link to Jon Stewart's fill-in for Glenn Beck:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Glenn Beck's Operation
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

3. Reactionism feeds on, and feeds into, eliminationism.

Just go read Dave Neiwert.

Bolder by the day: Unapologetic Nazis are coming out of the woodwork

James Verini at the Daily Beast notices something we've been tracking here at Orcinus too: Neo-Nazis and far-right extremists are not only recruiting more openly, they're being much more public in their full-on expressions of racism, nativism, and xenophobia. Unlike David Duke, these characters aren't even trying to hide it...

or...

Pat Boone wants to rid the White House of its occupying vermin

Then, in time, tell-tale signs are seen. Little droppings, discolored trails, proliferating piles of residue appear in corners, on tabletops, little hanging sacs from ceilings -- alarming evidence that the grand old dwelling has been invaded. Decidedly unwelcome creatures have made this place their home, and by their very existence will eventually destroy the house and bring it to ruin.

What can be done, when you learn that your house has already been invaded?

Well, the tried and true remedy is tenting.

Experts come in, actually envelope the whole dwelling in a giant tent -- and send a very powerful fumigant, lethal to the varmints and unwelcome creatures, into every nook and cranny of the house. Done thoroughly, every last destructive insect or rodent is sent to varmint hell -- and in a day or two, the grand house is habitable again.

I believe -- figuratively, but in a very real way -- we need to tent the White House!

Movement conservatives have no ideas except fighting progress. They have a huge pulpit. They deal freely in violent rhetoric and ally themselves with Nazis and Klansmen. That's why I fear them.

Comments

[wizwom.livejournal.com]

Conservatism is not about saying NO to laws proposed by democrats.
It wasn't even about claiming to be fiscally responsible until that became politically useful.

The Republican party has always been a mish-mash coalition who basically agree that something in the original documents was worth preserving. Asking for any clarification tends to devolve.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Example A: From Washington Times editor emeritus Wesley Pruden's November 17 column (cited by Media Matters):

It's no fault of the president that he has no natural instinct or blood impulse for what the America of "the 57 states" is about. He was sired by a Kenyan father, born to a mother attracted to men of the Third World and reared by grandparents in Hawaii, a paradise far from the American mainstream.

How many years has Mr. Pruden worked for a paper owned by weirdos from Korea, a paradise far from the American mainstream?

[(Anonymous)]

Expressed preferences are not, however, the same as revealed preferences.

Movement conservatism has no expressed ideological preferences beyond reactionary opposition to all change.

Whenever it seizes power, movement conservatism reveals through its regulatory and legislative actions a plutocratic ideology centered around redistributing the fruits of the economy to its wealthiest participants. All policy taken during Cheney's reign--perhaps with the exception of the African AIDS policy--was directed towards the goal of shifting financial resources to the upper fraction of society at the expense of the majority.

Movement conservatism is dangerous because it contributes nothing constructive to the political debate when out of power and, when in power, perverts the purpose of government into a tool for the further enrichment of the rich.

--
Curmudgeon

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

Absent an ideology, institutions will act to concentrate power. Having the government taken over by an anti-ideology of pure anti-government will inevitably have the effect of concentrating power both in the institutions that can only be restrained by government, and, paradoxically, in the government itself, both by neglect.

[nellorat.livejournal.com]

I point out--& Supergee said I was not the fist to do so--that human beings are also obviously made of meat. EX-VEEP CANDIDATE SUPPORTS CANNIBALISM!!!