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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Right-Wing Id Unzipped
Although Mitt Romney used the word "conservative" 19 times in a short speech at the February 10, 2012, Conservative Political Action Conference, the audience he used this word to appeal to was not conservative by any traditional definition. It was right wing. Despite the common American practice of using "conservative" and "right wing" interchangeably, right wing is not a synonym for conservative and not even a true variant of conservatism - although the right wing will opportunistically borrow conservative themes as required.
Right-wingers have occasioned much recent comment. Their behavior in the Republican debates has caused even jaded observers to react like an Oxford don stumbling upon a tribe of headhunting cannibals. In those debates where the moderators did not enforce decorum, these right-wingers, the Republican base, behaved with a single lack of dignity. For a group that displays its supposed pro-life credentials like a neon sign, the biggest applause lines resulted from their hearing about executions or the prospect of someone dying without health insurance.
Who are these people and what motivates them? To answer, one must leave the field of conventional political theory and enter the realm of psychopathology. Three books may serve as field guides to the farther shores of American politics and the netherworld of the true believer.
Most estimates calculate the percentage of Republican voters who are religious fundamentalists at around 40 percent; in some key political contests, such as the Iowa caucuses, the percentage is closer to 60. Because of their social cohesion, ease of political mobilization and high election turnout, fundamentalists have political weight even beyond their raw numbers. An understanding of their leaders, infrastructure and political goals is warranted. Max Blumenthal has done the work in his book "Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party." Blumenthal investigates politicized fundamentalism and provides capsule bios of such movement luminaries as James Dobson, Tony Perkins, John Hagee and Ted Haggard. The reader will conclude that these authority figures and the flocks they command are driven by a binary, Manichean vision of life and a hunger for conflict. Their minds appear to have no more give and take than that of a terrier staring down a rat hole.
http://www.truth-out.org/right-wing-id-unzipped/1329147417
xchrom
(108,903 posts)Dirty Socialist
(3,252 posts)I would like to see a reasonable Republican crash the GOP convention and call them what they are: Bullies and Psychopaths.
pscot
(21,024 posts)drive them back into their cage.
aptal
(304 posts)I would like to see Seal Team Six crash one of these parties... fun times.
broiles
(1,367 posts)Good luck finding one.
broiles
(1,367 posts)Good luck finding one.
WingDinger
(3,690 posts)Thru fear, they crave safety in numbers. They suffer hypervigilance, which narrows ingroup to family and friends. This fear is whipped up, to make them malleable.
Fear, is the opposite of love. In a societal context. Love trusts, fear distrusts. Us liberals are called naive, for trusting, first, till evidence is found to dispute.
We dont feel that makes us vulnerable. We feel we still maintain the capacity to observe critically. Without the jumping to conclusions of the fearful.
Fear is the most useful tool of the despot. The scariest thing to a fascist/totalitarian, is one that cannot be moved by fear. Buddhist monks, threatened by Samarai, stood egoless, against mortal threat. This so unnerved the samarai's that they shrunk in their midst.
The fear card is suffering a phenomenon called extinguishment. That is when the bell is rung randomly, after it was rung in conjunction with food. The bell ringing, has diminishing motivation for the dog to drool.
This is evidenced by Ron Paul, and his ability to talk SOME sense into rigid militaristic GOP.
alfredo
(60,071 posts)bongbong
(5,436 posts)The right wing now is best thought of as "sub-human savages".
ThoughtCriminal
(14,047 posts)- Forbidden Planet
Quantess
(27,630 posts)BridgeTheGap
(3,615 posts)it's enough just to know.