How Should Conservatives Deal with the Left’s Disrespect and Lack of Empathy?
If you can make a case for giving empathy, civility & respect to people who support the use of torture & illegal invasions – both crimes that were punished with hanging at Nuremburg – & who see nothing wrong with calling a moderate-right Administration “socialist” as they quiver with dread at the impending menace of FEMA death-camps, then please, go right ahead.
I think the relatives of the folks that have endured the fatal results of such “interesting” opinions would be very interested in hearing what kinds of rationales are used to justify inherently barbaric & malevolent ideas like those – assuming any of their fans actually had the guts to defend said ideas to their faces. I rather doubt Cheney, Yoo or Addington have any plans to go to Iraq any time soon to prove me wrong.
As for guessing at the political leanings of sociopaths, it’s a rather parlous canard – they’re both depressingly predictable & well-known. Go ahead, look it up – but be warned: you’re not going to enjoy the results.
“Conservativism honors individual liberty. It also values tradition. In what universe did Hitler respect individuals or liberty? How did he value tradition?”
I imagine Hitler would’ve been infuriated at the idea that he wasn’t valuing Germany’s traditions when he spent enormous energy in maintaining &/or reviving them – from pagansm to defending German womanhood via “Church, Kitchen, Children” to the cult of nature – & he most certainly despised “decadent” modern art & jazz … almost as much as he hated liberalism. He saw himself as figting the good fight for Germany’s liberation from an imminent Jewish-Bolshevik plot to conquer the world – nonsense to be sure, but in his opinion he WAS fighting for liberty. Nazi Germany also worshipped the individual in the form of the Great Leader as a template of the nation as a whole.
Conservatives generously supported Hitler – his party would’ve gone bankrupt many times over without them – while liberals under Hitler either went deep underground, fled Germany entirely or were branded “Political Enemies” & given a free one-way trip to camp.
“Obama in just over a year has grabbed control of the auto industry, the health care industry, the banking industry and now student loans.”
Bailing out banks isn’t controlling them – nor is buying up part of GM, nor is rewriting laws on health-care or student-loans. Nor is there anything “totalitarian” about using existing legislative means to pass a (very watered-down) bill, especially one that’s jam-packed with policies from the opposition-party.
These are exactly the sort of basic PoliSci 101 fallacies that make it very hard for anyone who actually has a basic understanding of politics to take contemporary American right-wingers seriously – & where they were once rare occaisions for hilarity, they’re now the norm.
“Mock them. Make fun of them. Ridicule them. Get people to laugh at them at every opportunity. Be sarcastic.”
You sure you want to go there? “An American Carol” versus Colbert Report? HALF HOUR NEWS HOUR versus The Daily Show? Not to mention which side actually has a robust ability to laugh at its own shortcomings … nah, I’m just some fuzzy-headed progressive know-nothing who’s blowing smoke … go ahead, take your butter-knife to a gunfight – I’m sure it’ll be a cake-walk.
