"It’s gotten acutely embarrassing to be a Republican & a conservative..."

[kpete]

Both terms have been usurped by a party which doesn’t adhere to them anymore.

Instead, that party tossed aside most of its ideals in favor of an increasingly and relentlessly dystopian, hypocritical, mean-spirited and hysterical polemic that denigrates anyone who does not conform to narrow religious, ethnic, and economic standards.

So you can imagine my difficulty with moving into an area of the country that’s saturated with Tea-Party juice.

I’ve been avoiding reading the local newspaper for some time, but I had wanted to follow the local election results, and cracked one open—and my head promptly exploded.

It’s not like I didn’t know the general attitude in this area. I mean, I am conservative. I was raised conservatively. But these people don’t seem to know what the blithering blinketyblank “conservative” actually means.

.......................................

the rest:
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/

[CrispyQ]

1. That was a good read.

Let's hope more real conservatives start speaking out against the unhinged teabaggers & the outright lies.

[Mopar151]

2. A succinct distinction

of the difference between Birchers/Baggers/Neocons and what Rachel Maddow calls "small "c" conservatives". From the article at the link:

Among other things, it means basing one’s view on actual fact, reasoning that view out using a logical process, and not making completely wild claims. (I know you haven’t seen conservatives like that for a while now, but we’re out here.) Healthy skepticism runs in our blood. We aren’t denialists—if anything, we accept that reality is what it is (though perhaps we occasionally get a bit complacent about that).

[TransitJohn]

3. What fucking planet is that guy from?

Sure, people like easy answers, but that was never a Republican ethic. We were known for embracing hard truths and understanding subtlety. We were known for careful analysis and cost-effective intervention, for a lightest possible effective tread on difficult-to-manage problems.

When? Seriously, when?

[progressoid]

4. Yeah, while he sees the current craziness in his party,

he seems to be wearing rose colored glasses when viewing the not too distant history of them.

[DearAbby]

7. It could be at this point try DIPLOMACY

These are the people we can compromise with. They better step up and take this head on. They would have the majority of the country behind them. Contain and quarantine these treasonous bastards. Then we can redistrict.

[valerief]

5. You mean it never was embarrassing to be an asshole? nt

[MoreGOPoop]

6. Kick

They're trying to make assholes look like sweet, kissable lips.

[JHB]

8. The big question is: "Why did it take you this long to notice?"

Didn't he notice all of the petty bullshit that night after night filled the airwaves with "Clinton scandals"?

This isn't something new. This is something that has been cultivated over the last forty years.

Perhaps he was insulated. That's ok. However, could he think back about every time a liberal said or wrote something about conservatives and Republicans that he thought was a distortion and gross caricature, and re-evaluate it based on what he thinks now that he's come face-to-face with it?

[mulsh]

9. ok I'll play along and pretend it was never embarrassing to be Republican or Conservative.

in my experience it isn't true but if it makes you feel better I'll give it a try. I'll even pretend that after listening to Republicans and conservatives state their beliefs I could respectfully disagree with them. If by that you mean knowing they're full of crap but keeping my damn mouth shut and trying to change the subject.

[BrotherIvan]

10. So Reagan was cool?

And these other guys make you look like an idiot?

Go fuck yourself, Tommy.
--Spider

[Jim Lane]

11. Not Reagan. Eisenhower, and maybe even Nixon.

I haven't read the linked article but I'm guessing he's harking back to the days when one Republican President warned the nation of a "military-industrial complex" (Eisenhower) and another signed into law the National Environmental Policy Act (Nixon).

These types sometimes give me the impression that they think all will be well if they can just help Nelson Rockefeller get the GOP nomination next time.

[JHB]

12. I've read it. The guy thinks of himself as "conservative" but...

...all I can say to him is "didn't you know? All this time you've actually been an "extreme leftist", "Marxist", etc.

Yes, I understand that there are people that are uncomfortable with the government stepping into what they see as private enterprise. Never mind that this has been a fact of American life since before the Constitution was ratified; never mind that this has been upheld by the courts for centuries now. I understand why people are upset about that . . . and yet, the bottom line is that, when corporations create powerful conglomerates, reduce competition using dodgy means, and misbehave, do you really expect private enterprise to solve a problem that private enterprise created?

I’ve worked in businesses, large and small. I also spent some time working with some really remarkable people at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Yet I am constant regaled with the axiom that “private enterprise is always more efficient and cost-effective than government.” I’ve worked for both, I can definitively tell you that incompetence and waste is a universal problem. I have seen private enterprise waste millions of dollars on political strife and petty quarrels. I have seen talented government scientists come up with new understanding for how ocean currents work for a few tens of thousands of dollars, which could lead to billions of dollars in additional commerce and transportation improvements.

Sure, people like easy answers, but that was never a Republican ethic. We were known for embracing hard truths and understanding subtlety. We were known for careful analysis and cost-effective intervention, for a lightest possible effective tread on difficult-to-manage problems.

But then, it’s not like we didn’t have black marks against us. McCarthyism. Nixon. But it wasn’t anything like the Teapot Dome scandal, right? Or the perpetration of segregation? We were about trying to maximize freedom while trying to watch for any undue imbalance of power, right? We reined in corporate abuses . . . for a while, and when we didn’t, we paid for it with The New Deal and no Republicans in office from Hoover to Eisenhower—and we were lucky with Eisenhower, frankly.

I wonder if he was a Buckley fan? Did he realize Buckley was a McCarthy defender? What about Reagan?

I'd love to ask this guy: "Now that the scales have fallen from your eyes and you realize that what you consider the meaning of "conservative" isn't the effective meaning of the word in American politics, and hasn't been for a long time, are you willing to re-evaluate your other opinions and impressions? Did you ever get ticked off at liberals for caricatured claims about conservatives, because you were conservative and you were nothing like that? Now that you know the sort of conservatives they were talking about, they weren't so wrong, were they?

Are you willing to reassess where you actually fall in terms of political views? Because you sound like a liberal. And be prepared to be called "Marxist" and "socialist" for just wanting an updated version of the policies that we called "capitalism" during the Cold War.