Why Hypocrisy is part and parcel of Conservatism

[ProfessorPlum]

Mrs. ProfessorPlum and I were discussing the Republican field yesterday and I brought up this comment which I found on Charlie Pierce's blog on Esquire:

You have the obese governor who chides us for our lack of self-control; the business witch who brags about her success at turning two of America's iconic companies into losers and promises to do the same for us; the bravely bought governor who is so immune to intimidation that he's afraid of singing teachers; the neurosurgeon who rails against entitlements despite receiving welfare, food stamps, free college tuition, and a Pell Grant; the pastor who warns against Sharia Law . . . until he tries to impose it; the governor and senator who both wants to make themselves into what they call 'anchor babies' and thus force their own self-deportation; the son of the son of the plutocrat who is independently coming up with the same stupid ideas that his brother and his father both used to bankrupt us; and of course the ambiguously sexed senator who is against the ambiguously sexed.

Her perceptive response was

Being conservative seems to be synonymous with not being able to be in touch with your own troubled center. Something makes you feel bad on the edge of your psyche, so it must be the evil outside of you instead of the trouble fermenting inside. Easier to fight the demons outside than face the ones inside.

Which makes so much sense to me - it also explains why they are so angry and hateful. Deep down they know they are pushing their internal problems out and onto other people. They can sense how unfair, unsympathetic, and hypocritical it makes them, and that makes them wretched and angry. Hateful conservatives are people who are angry and upset at themselves, but who cannot face whatever it is about themselves that upsets them. It explains all of the homophobes, bigots, and hypocrites in the GOP.

[Gregorian]

1. I use one word: unbalanced.

It sounds like you have fun discussions.