The American Conservative (Continuing Series)

[midcan5]

Another in a series of Midcan's explications of the American Conservative (AC)

We know the AC repeats the same cliches about government, taxes, markets, the founders, the Constitution, and freedom over and over again, but what makes them tick, what drives their souls to such simplistic worship of empty abstractions? Is it just a self centered bubble mentality that assumes their limited knowledge is all there is to life? Is it too hard for them to step outside this bubble and see the world for what it is? A world more complicated than their simple finger pointing?

Liberals and other commentators miss the point when they laugh at the AC constant repetition of glorious abstractions that never were or when the AC accuses the liberal or the progressive of the very failures that are at the heart of conservative inaction and their worship of words. In these repeated cliches are contained a code of language that allows an easy categorization of life, a simple view that removed the complexity which is in all of life but was once perfect if only for .... it is this piece that contains the crux of the conservative.

So what's on the menu for today but a return to the time of 'Leave it to Beaver' in which June perfectly coiffured with two boys, practiced rhythm, for surely June did not practice birth control, the horror of it. While it is unfair to point out the dream world of 'Beaver,' it does present an interesting historical commentary, imagine yourself at that time in history, unwed and pregnant, or gay, or black...which brings me to today's insight into the American Conservative, their recent obsession with birth control.

American conservatives gush over life, they proudly claim they are pro life, imagine them raising ten or fifteen of the little angels on a Walmart worker salary and you've gone too far and introduced reality into their dreamworld. Ask the AC to support life in more than just words, and you are faced with the paradox that is at the core of the American Conservative, they only care when the idea remains an abstraction. Ask the AC to support the children they love so much at conception with early childhood support, or lunch programs, or with education, and you've gone too far. Abstractions then turn to sticks.

So why is this? The answer is simple, the American conservative is never for doing things, they are always against doing things. What you say? Quite simple, if real equality existed, or fairness existed, or a level playing field existed, the AC would be lost, for it is privilege and power that is at the heart of this empty worship of ideas. Their empty ideas do nothing and everything, for they support the status quo, and it is the status quo the AC loves. It is why a woman's right to healthcare in the form of contraception or even equal pay is taboo. Change challenges the way things are. If you doubt this consider that no one brought up Viagra as healthcare. Men must still be in charge for the conservative.

When Mitt Romney said recently it is their turn, he really meant, go away, go back, that is stay where you belong, for privilege only rests with us, the elite, and fairness for all is not something we believe in. The American conservative believes only in power and privilege and they fight to keep it that way. Again if in doubt consider the years of the Clinton administration and now the Obama administration. Conservatives fail when in power as George W. Bush demonstrated so well, out of power they find their mojo.


http://www.usmessageboard.com/polit...es-of-midcans-insights-into-contemporary.html
http://www.usmessageboard.com/politics/50859-conservative-beliefs.html
http://www.usmessageboard.com/politics/88682-a-conservative-wakes-up.html
http://www.usmessageboard.com/healt...lthcare/181931-conservatives-and-empathy.html

 

[dblack]

And liberals have pointy heads.

 

[JoeB131]

I think you are conflating several diffrent kinds of "conservatives" here.

First, I wouldn't call George W. Bush a failure other than he had some very serious challenges, the groundwork for most of which were laid before he got into office.

The ironic thing is, on economic issues, there really hasn't been any great divide since 1968. Carter and Clinton were both economically conservative, and Obama hasn't really strayed that much into the Keynesian weeds outside of the stimulus.

Conversely, when you talk about how the GOP has a love for a mythical 50's cultural conservatism, back in 1950, there was no real divide on this issue. Democrats were just as rigid on this subject as the Republicans.

Yup, after the 1960's, the Democrats threw in completely with the hippies, and they paid a price for it, only winning one presidential election in a 20 year period.

This is where I'll tick off some leftwingers today, because I've been pissing off rightwingers all week. The whole mentality that we should encourage people to live off of others is culturally destructive.

You mock the mythical Clever family, but the very real families of an unmarried woman with children by multiple "baby-daddies", none of whom are in the picture, living on the dole is hardly better.

Now, where I take conservatives to task is in that in their quest to make a few douchebags richer, the Mitt Romney's of the world have eliminated a lot of the jobs where those "baby-daddies" could have a little pride in a family.

Where I take liberals to task is that they ever thought this was a good idea to start with.

 

[Peach]

I think you are conflating several diffrent kinds of "conservatives" here.

First, I wouldn't call George W. Bush a failure

Thousands dead in a war of choice is the ULTIMATE failure for a President; he also refused to fund SELA requests for the ongoing NOLA levee restoration. We will never know if the levees would have failed had the work been on schedule. One of the WORST in US history. And, he took the heat OFF al Qaeda to send US troops to a war in Iraq deemed ILL PLANNED by the JCS.

Obama has not done great in office but anyone compared to baby Bush looks good, except for for Buchanan and Pierce.

 

[OODA_Loop]

American conservatives gush over life, they proudly claim they are pro life, imagine them raising ten or fifteen of the little angels on a Walmart worker salary and you've gone too far and introduced reality into their dreamworld.

Defintely Conservative's fault.

 

[JoeB131]

I think you are conflating several diffrent kinds of "conservatives" here.

First, I wouldn't call George W. Bush a failure

Thousands dead in a war of choice is the ULTIMATE failure for a President; he also refused to fund SELA requests for the ongoing NOLA levee restoration. We will never know if the levees would have failed had the work been on schedule. One of the WORST in US history. And, he took the heat OFF al Qaeda to send US troops to a war in Iraq deemed ILL PLANNED by the JCS.

Obama has not done great in office but anyone compared to baby Bush looks good, except for for Buchanan and Pierce.

All wars are wars of choice, at the end of the day. We would have eventually gone to war with Saddam no matter who the president was. That was probably inevitable after his own people failed to overthrow him at the end of the Gulf War

I'd call our participation in World War I a vastly greater screwup than Iraq. One that killed a lot more people. But Woodrow Wilson has a better rep today than he was when he was alive.

Same thing with NOLA. The real problem there was someone built a city below sea level with a big dirty river on one side and a big dirty lake on the other. I'm always amazed by people who live in flood zones and then complain when they get flooded out.

 

[Peach]

I think you are conflating several diffrent kinds of "conservatives" here.

First, I wouldn't call George W. Bush a failure

Thousands dead in a war of choice is the ULTIMATE failure for a President; he also refused to fund SELA requests for the ongoing NOLA levee restoration. We will never know if the levees would have failed had the work been on schedule. One of the WORST in US history. And, he took the heat OFF al Qaeda to send US troops to a war in Iraq deemed ILL PLANNED by the JCS.

Obama has not done great in office but anyone compared to baby Bush looks good, except for for Buchanan and Pierce.

All wars are wars of choice, at the end of the day. We would have eventually gone to war with Saddam no matter who the president was. That was probably inevitable after his own people failed to overthrow him at the end of the Gulf War

I'd call our participation in World War I a vastly greater screwup than Iraq. One that killed a lot more people. But Woodrow Wilson has a better rep today than he was when he was alive.

Same thing with NOLA. The real problem there was someone built a city below sea level with a big dirty river on one side and a big dirty lake on the other. I'm always amazed by people who live in flood zones and then complain when they get flooded out.

True, but the fishing, and shipping industries brought in a population; LA lies near a fault. Building LA was not that bright either, Miami, and much of the Florida coast, is subject to hurricanes frequently, along with the Keys. Yet, they remain populated.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Mid, I'm gonna send you an Obama Blow Up Doll when his one term ends so you can keep right on Fluffing

 

[SniperFire]

We know the AC repeats the same cliches about government, taxes, markets, the founders, the Constitution, and freedom over and over again, but what makes them tick, what drives their souls to such simplistic worship of empty abstractions?

Freedom and the Constitution are only 'empty abstractions' to freeloaders and commies.

 

[Mac1958]

.

Thing is, just as many disparaging paragraphs can be written about The American Liberal, employing just as many platitudes, talking points, caricatures and generalizations. The reason is that both far ends of the spectrum have allowed themselves to be pigeon-holed by their own actions. They have both devolved into absolutism, making themselves easy targets for attacks like this.

Unfortunately, as a result of their energetic ideological zealotry, both whacked-out ends are able to make more noise than the rest of us, even though they probably only represent 10% of the populace combined. Being louder doesn't make you right, it just makes you louder.

.

 

[SniperFire]

.

Thing is, just as many disparaging paragraphs can be written about The American Liberal, employing just as many platitudes, talking points, caricatures and generalizations. The reason is that both far ends of the spectrum have allowed themselves to be pigeon-holed by their own actions. They have both devolved into absolutism, making themselves easy targets for attacks like this.

Unfortunately, as a result of their energetic ideological zealotry, both whacked-out ends are able to make more noise than the rest of us, even though they probably only represent 10% of the populace combined. Being louder doesn't make you right, it just makes you louder.

.

JoeB - whom I never agree with -actually made some good points. Yours is just more mindless, pointless whining.

 

[LoneLaugher]

Mid, I'm gonna send you an Obama Blow Up Doll when his one term ends so you can keep right on Fluffing

Blow up dool.

 

[Mac1958]

.

Thing is, just as many disparaging paragraphs can be written about The American Liberal, employing just as many platitudes, talking points, caricatures and generalizations. The reason is that both far ends of the spectrum have allowed themselves to be pigeon-holed by their own actions. They have both devolved into absolutism, making themselves easy targets for attacks like this.

Unfortunately, as a result of their energetic ideological zealotry, both whacked-out ends are able to make more noise than the rest of us, even though they probably only represent 10% of the populace combined. Being louder doesn't make you right, it just makes you louder.

.

JoeB - whom I never agree with -actually made some good points. Yours is just more mindless, pointless whining.

And as if by example...


.

 

[Peach]

.

Thing is, just as many disparaging paragraphs can be written about The American Liberal, employing just as many platitudes, talking points, caricatures and generalizations. The reason is that both far ends of the spectrum have allowed themselves to be pigeon-holed by their own actions. They have both devolved into absolutism, making themselves easy targets for attacks like this.

Unfortunately, as a result of their energetic ideological zealotry, both whacked-out ends are able to make more noise than the rest of us, even though they probably only represent 10% of the populace combined. Being louder doesn't make you right, it just makes you louder.

.

True, extremists at both ends of the spectrum get the most attention.

 

[Soggy in NOLA]

Another in a series of Midcan's explications of the American Conservative (AC)

We know the AC repeats the same cliches about government, taxes, markets, the founders, the Constitution, and freedom over and over again, but what makes them tick, what drives their souls to such simplistic worship of empty abstractions? Is it just a self centered bubble mentality that assumes their limited knowledge is all there is to life? Is it too hard for them to step outside this bubble and see the world for what it is? A world more complicated than their simple finger pointing?

Liberals and other commentators miss the point when they laugh at the AC constant repetition of glorious abstractions that never were or when the AC accuses the liberal or the progressive of the very failures that are at the heart of conservative inaction and their worship of words. In these repeated cliches are contained a code of language that allows an easy categorization of life, a simple view that removed the complexity which is in all of life but was once perfect if only for .... it is this piece that contains the crux of the conservative.

So what's on the menu for today but a return to the time of 'Leave it to Beaver' in which June perfectly coiffured with two boys, practiced rhythm, for surely June did not practice birth control, the horror of it. While it is unfair to point out the dream world of 'Beaver,' it does present an interesting historical commentary, imagine yourself at that time in history, unwed and pregnant, or gay, or black...which brings me to today's insight into the American Conservative, their recent obsession with birth control.

American conservatives gush over life, they proudly claim they are pro life, imagine them raising ten or fifteen of the little angels on a Walmart worker salary and you've gone too far and introduced reality into their dreamworld. Ask the AC to support life in more than just words, and you are faced with the paradox that is at the core of the American Conservative, they only care when the idea remains an abstraction. Ask the AC to support the children they love so much at conception with early childhood support, or lunch programs, or with education, and you've gone too far. Abstractions then turn to sticks.

So why is this? The answer is simple, the American conservative is never for doing things, they are always against doing things. What you say? Quite simple, if real equality existed, or fairness existed, or a level playing field existed, the AC would be lost, for it is privilege and power that is at the heart of this empty worship of ideas. Their empty ideas do nothing and everything, for they support the status quo, and it is the status quo the AC loves. It is why a woman's right to healthcare in the form of contraception or even equal pay is taboo. Change challenges the way things are. If you doubt this consider that no one brought up Viagra as healthcare. Men must still be in charge for the conservative.

When Mitt Romney said recently it is their turn, he really meant, go away, go back, that is stay where you belong, for privilege only rests with us, the elite, and fairness for all is not something we believe in. The American conservative believes only in power and privilege and they fight to keep it that way. Again if in doubt consider the years of the Clinton administration and now the Obama administration. Conservatives fail when in power as George W. Bush demonstrated so well, out of power they find their mojo.


http://www.usmessageboard.com/polit...es-of-midcans-insights-into-contemporary.html
http://www.usmessageboard.com/politics/50859-conservative-beliefs.html
http://www.usmessageboard.com/politics/88682-a-conservative-wakes-up.html
http://www.usmessageboard.com/healt...lthcare/181931-conservatives-and-empathy.html

How about an explication of douchenozzles that vote for guest lecturers spouting brilliant cliches like "hope and change" and "yes we can"?

Yeah, I didn't think so.

Fuck off asswipe.

 

[Soggy in NOLA]

.

Thing is, just as many disparaging paragraphs can be written about The American Liberal, employing just as many platitudes, talking points, caricatures and generalizations. The reason is that both far ends of the spectrum have allowed themselves to be pigeon-holed by their own actions. They have both devolved into absolutism, making themselves easy targets for attacks like this.

Unfortunately, as a result of their energetic ideological zealotry, both whacked-out ends are able to make more noise than the rest of us, even though they probably only represent 10% of the populace combined. Being louder doesn't make you right, it just makes you louder.

.

JoeB - whom I never agree with -actually made some good points. Yours is just more mindless, pointless whining.

Midcan's a mindless leftwing troll that would probably go down on Obama given the opportunity.

 

[Mac1958]

.

Thing is, just as many disparaging paragraphs can be written about The American Liberal, employing just as many platitudes, talking points, caricatures and generalizations. The reason is that both far ends of the spectrum have allowed themselves to be pigeon-holed by their own actions. They have both devolved into absolutism, making themselves easy targets for attacks like this.

Unfortunately, as a result of their energetic ideological zealotry, both whacked-out ends are able to make more noise than the rest of us, even though they probably only represent 10% of the populace combined. Being louder doesn't make you right, it just makes you louder.

.

JoeB - whom I never agree with -actually made some good points. Yours is just more mindless, pointless whining.

By the way, SniperFire, your post reminds me of a long and delightful conversation I had this week at the kitchen table of a client of mine, a 65-year old widower named Brian.

Brian is a humble, deeply religious man with whom I get along wonderfully, and he even forgives me my agnostic religious status - he often pokes at me about that in a good-natured way, and I'm always interested in hearing his point of view. We like each other and respect each other. He's so committed to his religious beliefs that we have him invested only in faith-based mutual fund families like Ava Maria funds and Faith Shares. A lovely, sincere man.

Anyway, our conversation centered around his work at his church. He leads a group there doing outreach to the community, in hopes of strengthening the family (long story short). He's very troubled by the direction in which our culture is heading, and we share some of those opinions. "You have your work cut out for you, in two ways", I said. "First, we can't fix our cultural problems with legislation, it will take a ground-up effort, person by person."

He agreed strongly. "Yes! You have to do it with love, you have to win their hearts in order to truly change their minds." Indeed.

"The other problem," I said, wondering how he would take this one, "is that you have some terrible messengers. Too many high-profile conservatives are using the wrong methods for winning hearts." Not sure he'll like this.

"Absolutely," he said. "I don't know what they're thinking. They say horrible things on the radio, they say horrible things on TV. They do make things tougher. Sometimes I think that..." - remember, this is a very humble guy, not given to insulting others - "...they're more interested in their own egos than in changing hearts." It was pretty clear he wasn't thrilled about saying that.

Anyway, SniperFire, if you're still reading this, I wish you (as well as those like you) could spend some time with Brian. I know you'll say I made this whole thing up, and that's fine. I know that's how the game is played. But you seem like an intelligent guy, so I have no doubt you realize you're not "winning hearts", as Brian would put it, with your behavior. I can only assume, then, that your posts are more about your ego and self-esteem, and that somehow they make you feel better about yourself. That this is more important to you than any political/ideological matter.

Okay. I suspect the lefties here appreciate your assistance.

.

 

[SniperFire]

Sorry, I could only scan thru your mindless bullshit.

Saw nothing of interest or relevance.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

What did you think the Fluffers were going to write about, all the good Obama's done for the country and our economy?

 

[Listening]

Now, where I take conservatives to task is in that in their quest to make a few douchebags richer, the Mitt Romney's of the world have eliminated a lot of the jobs where those "baby-daddies" could have a little pride in a family.

First, I applaud you entire post.

As to your comment here...I don't think conservatives have such a quest. I am afraid it has happend this way as we have had a rush of globalization via electronic media with a populace that is not prepared to deal with it.

Additionally, government is now making it easier for people to become winners by marrying up.

Russel M. Ballard at the last General Conference of the LDS church expressed specfic concern over the gap between the rich and the poor. I have to say this has been on my mind for the last decade.

The GOP has NOT put forth a narrative that explaines, in any detail, how this might be mitigated.

What is ALSO NOT the answer is to give Obama another shot at making it harder to pull down the barriers government is building in the name of "fairness".