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Nov. 8th, 2012 05:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slayerofgodA friend of mine posted this on Facebook. Comes from a rather conservative person who voted for the Big O. Says it all about the current Republican party, I think.
"I agree there is legitimate rationale behind what conservatism is supposed to be about.
But I also think that a lot - maybe most - of that legitimate rationale has been co-opted by the Democratic party. Fiscal responsibility? Now it's a Dem thing (to the extent it's a thing at all). Assertive foreign policy? Dems. Strong support for the free-market? Dems do that, too - the few places where the Dems embrace less-free-market solutions are generally places where the free-market solutions are demonstrably non-viable (see: healthcare; see also: sustainable energy), and even then there are strong elements of free
-market remaining.
There's still a strong conservative party, but now it's the Democratic party. Meanwhile, the GOP has moved in directions that are a caricature of classical GOP positions. Their healthy skepticism of climate science has turned into full-on denial. Their embrace of lower taxes has gone completely fucking bonkers. Their foreign policy can most charitably be described as "bellicose".
And all of these things - all of them! - are currently being sold based on intolerance. Intolerance against lazy minorities drives their economic platform. Curb entitlements, because lazy black people are getting a free ride! Intolerance of Muslims drives their foreign policy. Turn the whole region to glass before they do the same to us! They can't think of plausible ways to oppose things like science and facts, so they're forced to be intolerant of fucking smart people. They are biased against observable fact.
What's left? Social issues. Issues driven by a proclamation that women are whores who love them some abortions, that gays are trying to bugger your children, that Mexicans are going to force you to speak Spanish.
I used to mourn that the Republican Party was morphing into a sad, vestigial limb of a thing, flagellating around from the backside of the American political beast. I looked at where my party had gone and I felt abandoned. Then the Democratic party came along and picked me up and carried me along in a wave of the sort of classical Conservatism I had always felt beat at the heart of the Republican party of yesteryear. I'm not so sad anymore. I'm not missing anything, not really. And truth be told, I think blue sort of brings out my eyes."
Back to your oddly scheduled gaming posts.
"I agree there is legitimate rationale behind what conservatism is supposed to be about.
But I also think that a lot - maybe most - of that legitimate rationale has been co-opted by the Democratic party. Fiscal responsibility? Now it's a Dem thing (to the extent it's a thing at all). Assertive foreign policy? Dems. Strong support for the free-market? Dems do that, too - the few places where the Dems embrace less-free-market solutions are generally places where the free-market solutions are demonstrably non-viable (see: healthcare; see also: sustainable energy), and even then there are strong elements of free
-market remaining.
There's still a strong conservative party, but now it's the Democratic party. Meanwhile, the GOP has moved in directions that are a caricature of classical GOP positions. Their healthy skepticism of climate science has turned into full-on denial. Their embrace of lower taxes has gone completely fucking bonkers. Their foreign policy can most charitably be described as "bellicose".
And all of these things - all of them! - are currently being sold based on intolerance. Intolerance against lazy minorities drives their economic platform. Curb entitlements, because lazy black people are getting a free ride! Intolerance of Muslims drives their foreign policy. Turn the whole region to glass before they do the same to us! They can't think of plausible ways to oppose things like science and facts, so they're forced to be intolerant of fucking smart people. They are biased against observable fact.
What's left? Social issues. Issues driven by a proclamation that women are whores who love them some abortions, that gays are trying to bugger your children, that Mexicans are going to force you to speak Spanish.
I used to mourn that the Republican Party was morphing into a sad, vestigial limb of a thing, flagellating around from the backside of the American political beast. I looked at where my party had gone and I felt abandoned. Then the Democratic party came along and picked me up and carried me along in a wave of the sort of classical Conservatism I had always felt beat at the heart of the Republican party of yesteryear. I'm not so sad anymore. I'm not missing anything, not really. And truth be told, I think blue sort of brings out my eyes."
Back to your oddly scheduled gaming posts.
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Date: 2012-11-08 12:24 pm (UTC)When I pointed that out, my mother resorted to the same tired old "Well, you're looking for jobs! Most people collecting unemployment aren't!" line that Fox News feeds her, because it's totally legal to file for unemployment if you're not looking for jobs, and I'm sure despite the high unemployment that they also blame on Obama, none of those unemployed people are looking for jobs, and they all love being unemployed.
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Date: 2012-11-08 11:20 pm (UTC)And then of course they just make shit up to pander to their base, like the stuff about gay people. Yeah, those gay people who talk about how hard it was to even come out are just bullshitting to catch you off guard so they can make your children gay.
It's enough to make me vomit.