Recently in Conservatism Category

Hat Tip to skippy for this very damn funny, and probably completely inappropriate youtube:

It is going to happen. Remember, Conservatism does not fail, it is failed. Some time in the future, Gov. Scott Walker will be described by the conservatives and the tea party members as not being a real conservative. Not after all the fall out from his over reach. With the country becoming galvanized against the ultra rich by his actions, he will be labeled a crack pot, an extremist, anything other than a conservative/tea party member.

Okay, now I will put away my crystal ball, pulling it out the next time I feel like making a fool of myself.

(Alternate Brain) By the end of this year, we won't even be able to put a man in space anymore.

You know, the idea of conservatism was to maintain the status quo. I believe the phrase bandied about was "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." But if we can no longer put people into space, how can one not help but think something is broke? So, I guess the new concept of conservatism is "If it ain't broke, break it!"

My hat off to Dave Mindeman of mnpACT! He commits an act of journalism that the Legacy Media has not performed in over a decade.

I tried to find a worthwhile excerpt to post here, but damn if the entire post is good. So, I am just going to tell you to click the link.

All I can tell you is that it includes the sighting of an intelligent, thoughtful conservative Republican.

Seriously, click the link.

Look, I understand the squeaking wheel gets the oil. But no amount of oil changes the fact that there is something fundamentally wrong with the wheel and it needs to be repaired or replaced.

Sigh.

And I really tire of the modern conservative movement's decent into shrieking obscurity and shrilling stupidity.

Oh, and once again Steve Benen at Washington Monthly proves why he is a Blogging God and I am a lowly blogging peasant.

What's more, it's not just Adams -- Thomas Jefferson also supported the identical 1798 proposal, which, any way you slice it, required private citizens to pay into a public health-care system, and included a "regulation against a form of inactivity."

By any sensible standard, one does not need obscure 18th-century anecdotes to know the individual mandate -- which was a Republican idea, anyway -- passes constitutional muster. But for those on the right who consider this original-intent concept paramount, we can add this to the list of things they've gotten terribly wrong.

At some point the whole damn mess that is the modern conservative movement will collapse and honest, intelligent, and courageous people can move in and do the necessary repairs.

What the hell is wrong with her? Seriously. "Blood Libel?" Can a person be any more stupid?

Sigh.

Look, I am not going to get into the blame game. There really is no way to prove whether violent, military rhetoric drove Jared Lee Loughner to commit the Arizona killings. So, I am not interested in pursuing that line of thought.

However, consider that for years during the Clinton administration Rush, Newt, and other Conservative leaders were very fond of saying words matter; words have consequences.

Now, of course, they are rejecting that very premise.

Go figure.

Anyway, if you will allow me a slight tangent; one tenant of recovery is to act as if you want recovery. That means putting aside the behaviors and language associated with using. It is, in effect, replacing one culture with another. It is believed that if you use a new language and follow new rules that do not have any association with drug and alcohol use you will be less likely to have urges to use.

Well, I see Democracy as a replacement for armed conflict in establishing leadership. So, if you are a believer in Democracy, that means using language reflecting that belief. Talking about armed revolution, watering the tree of liberty, etc, hardly projects a belief in Democracy.

Oh, and to go on an even sharper tangent: once again the United States has come to call an assassin by all three names........

I do not understand. What is it with the Republican conservative movement's inability to work and play well with others? Are they that rigidly locked into a literal, concrete form of thinking that they can not tolerate any deviation from their societal comfort zone? Is their fear of change so overwhelming that they lose all sense of respect and decorum? Are they truly suffering from a belief in their inability to deal with natural change?

In the end, all I see are cowards unable to accept human society as it has always been: an evolving, changing system of concepts, theories, and expectations that are fluid and ephemeral; defying the understanding of the very makers of the systems, leaving them utterly overwhelmed and unable to recognize there is no answer to the question 'Why?"

But not for being a sexist.

Alan Simpson's comment is not in the least bit sexist. But it is derogatory, insulting the majority of American's that have worked hard to support a family.

My father, who is probably one of the hardest working persons I have ever had the privilege know, worked a full-time job at an oil refinery (now Flint Hills Resources, but then simply known as Koch Refinery) while also working an 80 acre farm, mostly by himself. If you have ever known anyone that worked an oil refinery, they often are working 12 to 16 hour days during turn-a-rounds, which could last for weeks. He did this for 4 or 5 years back in the 1970s. All the money he earned was taxed, some of which was paid into Social Security. Meanwhile, my mother, who was taking care of me and my three siblings while dad was either in the fields or at the refinery, was also working part-time as a waitress. Some of her earnings likewise was paid into Social Security. At the end of the 70s, and through the 80s, my parents then ran a restaurant, which in and of itself is almost four full-time jobs. They once again paid into Social Security.

Today, they are enjoying the twilight of their years on the measly benefits that they more than earned. Over the last 30 years, working as a waitress nearly broke my mother's back. My father has had several heart attacks because of the physical demands his work put on his body. And what does Alan Simpson do? He implies they are ne'er-do-wells living off the government's teats.

While many on the right seem content to call Social Security recipients lazy, unproductive members of society, I have the belief that most of them are hard working fathers and mothers who struggled to put food on the table for their family and, having reached the twilight of their years, are simply reaping the benefit of having worked hard and paid Social Security taxes.

You see, not only did I witness my parents work hard, I also witnessed the parents of my friends, the neighbors in my town, and my co-workers struggle to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads, all the while paying Social Security taxes. So, it is unconscionable for Alan Simpson to claim that over 300 million American's are lazy, unproductive members of society. For that he deserves to be fired.

Did you know that Michele Bachmann makes stuff up? Type me surprised.

It is really quite sobering what has happened. From 100% of our economy was private prior to September of 2008, but as of Tuesday, the federal government has now taken ownership or control of 51% of the private economy.

Honest to FSM, she is either really fucking stupid, or she is really just that craven. I am not sure which scares me the most.

Seems that the 30 pro-rape Republicans are whining about being called pro-rape Republicans because they voted against Al Franken's amendment which would prevent companies from getting federal contracts if they force their employees to use arbitration to settle sexual harassment, abuse, and discrimination cases instead of the courts. You know, denying them their constitutional rights.

Honestly, I am not going to feel sorry for them. These are the same group of Republicans that made no effort to rebuke the statement when one Senator called Al a clown.

I like hearing how the modern conservative movement is divided at the moment. And yet, I am also saddened by this news. I am intelligent enough to understand that today's conservative movement is not really all that conservative, is not interested in what is good for the country, is strictly interested in gaining power, and not actually vested in ruling in the best interest of the country.

All in all, the death of the modern conservative movement can not happen fast enough. My only fear is what ends up taking it's place at the political table. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it is not as bad as we have experienced the last 3 decades

The Republican candidate who was running for NY-23, Scozzafav, dropped out of the race today. All the way around; this is not a good sign for either the Republican party or the conservatives. While the Democratic party has often aired it's dirty laundry in public, and rarely hid infighting, in the end a consensus was build, and the party moved forward. But the Republicans are not infighting. What we are witnessing is disintegration.

The extremists have taken the title of conservatism and pushed out those who are truly conservative. In the process, they have divided the Republican party. The demands of lock-step unity the party pursued during the first 5 and a half years of the Bush presidency prevented the honest airing of policy differences and prevented compromise, creating a buildup of toxic animosity and vitriol.

This is a party that lost any ability to look within itself and see its mistakes and to accept the failures of their ideology. Instead, they cling harder to what they believed is the only way and now walk down a political blind alley. As such, they are not likely to adjust their stance to the prevailing political will of the people.

Instead of seeing politics as simple leadership, they have developed a mindset of their party as a way of life. And at this time in history, they see their way of life as needing to eradicate liberalism. Unfortunately, in their desire to destroy liberalism they have taken to destroying themselves.