“and simply stated is one based on the idea that things should be done a certain way simply because they have been done that way”

For many of the ultra-right-wingers it’s because “the Bible says so,” and they’re determined to legislative it into law despite the separation of church and state.

Do you think they’d desist if they realized that is an Islamic extremist goal?

Yeah, that’s the only thing I noticed that I thought was incorrect about the article. Thanks for clarifying that very well.

Other then that, great article.

But their core belief, that they are the ruling class, and the purpose of government is to control the masses to prevent them from threatening the ruling class, will not change. They will just develop a new marketing campaign.

They will probably start another war, exacerbate the Islamic terrorist situation, crash the banking/finance system, or something else equally as damaging. (OK. They already tried three of those.) The important part is to convince enough people that the sky is falling to regain political power. The hard part will be to fix the blame, for whatever it is, on the Democrats.

With any luck, they will become a minor fringe party, and the two big parties a generation from now will be the Democrats and the Progressives.

Mr. C I completely agree with you! One thing that really got me were the oft mis-cited CNN exit poll suggesting that blacks voted 60% for Prop 8. These exit polls had EXTREMELY low samples of black voters (since blacks make up a small percentage of CA).

Newer studies suggested something along the lines of 58%.

Besides, blacks are not our enemies. We’ve known since the beginning it is not the blacks who hate us but the white Evangelical neo-fascists who have called for gays to be exterminated at CPAC and have promoted these gay camps where they try to “cure” us (sounds like a modern day concentration camp).

Look up Paul Cameron. He is the leading voice of the anti-gay “research” movement. He wrote all the talking points for conservatives and the lunatics of the Right on gay rights. He has publicly argued for having gays exterminated and supported putting tattooed numbers on the foreheads of AIDS victims. I wish this were a conspiracy theory but its documented and real.

So meanwhile, Congress has its own pension plan outside of social security, votes itself pay raises, makes sure they have health insurance but can’t seem to find a way for the rest of the country to have it, makes back room deals amongst themselves, and other countries, hands Wall St. billions with no strings attached, starts wars that kill 10′s of thousands. But communism is too radical! (no I don’t mean I advocate the dictatorships of China, former Soviet Union etc.) OK.

PERIOD!

But @ JR……UMMMM This really wasn’t neccessary to state “black church goers and gays (remember prop 8?)” WHAT ABOUT PROP 8?
I am so tired of this still wanting to blame Blacks as if no other race voted for this HORRIBLE f^cking proposition.

It’s getting tired now QUEENS. Admit what you really feel about Blacks or bury this issue in the backyard…

PLEASE!

The greatest threat we face is any politician who wants to tread on our liberty to benefit the “common good.” Whether it is attacking gays, smokers, fat people, minorities, church goers, pro lifers, pro choicers…you get my point.

Also, as a gay man who is not overly liberal on many issues, I am frustrated that I am expected to support any politician who supports one pillar of my civil rights (having to do with my being gay) but who wants to make us more socialist and restrict my second amendment freedoms, and push the state further into my life. Part of loving liberty is standing up for all liberties. How come we cant have a major political party that can do this? Could it be that we ALL have to let go of ALL our bigotries before we can stop being manipulated by enterprising politicos?

Really? Ok, the party is having an identity crisis (long overdue in my opinion) but let’s not exaggerate the issue. Libertarians for school prayer? Please…

if you want to see real contradiction in politics look at the dems, who routinely corral together longshoremen and trade protectionists, school voucher proponants and teachers unions, black church goers and gays (remember prop 8?) — by comparison the republicans are by far the more coherant party.

Still this article touches on my biggest gripe about American politcs: why are the social conservatives stuck with the capitilists and the social liberals stuck with the socialists? It doesn’t have to be this way, yet we all just accept our flawed 2 party system.

The present conversation in Republican circles is a welcome acknowledgement of that.

There’s no such thing as a “libertarian” who supports mandatory school prayer (there are, no doubt, people who incorrectly identify themselves as libertarians and support such positions). Libertarians support total separation of church and state – and of education and state, for that matter. Libertarians DO support the rights of students of any belief system to free religious expression within school, but in a voluntary, non-coercive, and certainly not mandatory fashion.

Your article is correct in identifying the philosophical and logical inconsistency of the right. It’s ludicrous to describe yourself as pro-life and then declare two major wars. It’s also equally ludicrous to call yourself “liberal” and support policies hostile to individual rights. There is a tendency to call the other side out on its hypocrisies while making endless justifications for your own side’s – witness eight years of “conservative” justification for a deeply un-conservative administration. It’s a tendency which, if we’re going to have any credibility, we need to be diligent about avoiding.

The answer is not exactly. The Repubs may stay but the Dixiecrats in the GOP will go.

But I digress. The bottom line for me is while one hopes that the rational wing of the Republicans are tired of the irrational it is also true that a very large percentage of white voters will never vote for a black man, etc. etc. so ultimately I think Gays or any other progressive force destroying the Republican party is wishful thinking.

I think the rational wing of the republican party has simply gotten tired of the irrational, and is no longer willing, in the face of our seemingly dire circumstances, to turn a blind eye to rationality.

“For them, “America” is a state of grace, which the nation should be striving to achieve.”

Though those of us of a liberal or more progressive persuasion put a lot of value in the ‘promise of America’. Though I think for many of us it is not the promise of America but the promise of humanity. Enough with the heights I have a book to read down here lest sly time pass me by….. yea its late and I’m starting to use literary devices indiscriminately – oh and to our editors thanks for all the posts this weekend, I found them all enjoyable