Comments on: Conservative Conscience Redux

By: grumpypilgrim

grumpypilgrim — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 19:43:10 +0000

Further to Erich’s and Edgar’s comments above, clearly America has swung to the right. It seems to have began with the so-called “Reagan revolution,” continued through the 1994 “Contract with America,” and peaked during Bush Jr.’s first term. Accordingly, policies that were considered moderate or even mildly conservative a quarter-century ago are now considered “liberal.” Meanwhile, dismantling the U.S. Constitution now appears to be mainstream Republican, while supporting the Bill of Rights has (until very recently) been considered by many right-wingers as “traitorous.” Fortunately, this swing appears to have peaked — thanks in large part to Bush’s utter incompetence and flagrantly unconstitutional policies — but only time will tell how far back to the left the pendulum will eventually swing. The 2008 election might be a good indicator.

Curiously, my own politics have moved slightly to the right during the past quarter century, though, by current standards, I am perhaps considered farther to the left on most issues than I would have been back then.

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 02:00:31 +0000

Edgar: I went to the site you recommended. My political compass is
Economic Left/Right: -4.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.23

This puts me near Gandhi in the lower left quadrant, and far from most politicians (who inhabit the upper right –right wing authoritarians).

I’m proud to find that my attitudes are akin to Gandik, but I just don’t know how this could have happened. After all, I voted for Reagan in 1980. I don’t remember changing. I didn’t TRY to change. It seems to me that I insisted on better information and that my opinions are the natural result. I assume (but I don’t really know) that others who insist on better information would also end up in the lower left (left leaning/libertarian).

Thanks for sharing.

By: Edgar Montrose

Edgar Montrose — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 00:30:14 +0000

Apparently I am not alone in my “transformation”: http://www.politicalcompass.org/usprimaries2007

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 20:01:33 +0000

Here’s more on the fiscal irresponsibility of Republicans. The perplexing question is how do Republicans get away with claiming that they are the party of fiscal restraint? http://images.ucomics.com/comics/db/2007/db070902.gif

By: Edgar Montrose

Edgar Montrose — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 15:13:29 +0000

Thank you for pointing this out. Throughout my adult life, I have always considered myself a conservative-leaning moderate, with a bit of libertarian thrown in. Yet, for the past several years, I find myself identifying much more with what the current conservatives pejoratively label as “liberal” than with anything the conservatives embrace. I listen to Ed Schultz, read Democratic Underground and Huffington Post, belong to MoveOn and BORDC, and even occasionally post on Dangerous Intersection. And I don’t think that *I* am the one who has changed.

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 23:43:18 +0000

Modern Bush-Conservatives don’t conserve. Rather, they excel at wasting. We should call that branch of the Replican party the Waster party. Actually, I’m going to call all Replublicans Wasters, since the ones who aren’t directly doing the damage are sitting on their hands, failing to speak up and thereby contributing to the damage they could be stopping.

The Waster policy platform seems to be that we should allow the precious national resources (e.g., energy, infrastructure, intellectual capacity) to be wasted. The Waster party favors squandering the national budget. The Wasters allow our hard-earned Constitutional rights to be wasted away (thereby inviting the government to invade our lives, including our sex lives). The Waster party tears down the wall separating government from religion. The Waster party wastes the lives of our soldiers in Iraq. How many U.S. soldiers have died? More than 3,700. Assuming bodies to be one foot thick and assuming that you could stack all of those dead bodies on top of one another into three piles, those piles would be be as tall as both of the two 1,727 foot tall World Trade Center towers AND the 305 foot tall Statue of Liberty. That’s an incredible number of lives wasted.

The Wasters are a party of decay and desperate wasteful expenditures. Their shameful conduct is probably making Mr. Goldwater roll in his grave.