What do conservatives and/or the right wing want???

[SmileyBoy]

Specifically, rank-and-file right-wingers who hold no political power, but rather hang on to Bush's every whim and blindly follow him. What do they exactly want???

I'm trying to figure out what they really want to acheive in this country for the future. Since they obviously don't represent the future, I'm really curious as to what they want for this country and its people in their warped little minds.

This is just a simple question. I have never really been able to understand what they really want. They really don't stand for anything that represents a good future for humanity. Whether you're talking about consumption of natural resources, or foreign policy. It seems that they just want to get us into trouble.

Give me your ideas on what you think the right wing really wants for this country.

[NMDemDist2]

1. to make everyone JUST LIKE THEM eom

[wuushew]

2. America 1900....a return to the greatness of McKinley

n/t

[ComerPerro]

3. All of your money

And anything else of value that you might have on you. Your watch, any jewelry, maybe your shoes, your car keys...

[seabeyond]

4. they want the world

they want it all

[Syrinx]

5. I'm not really sure

The powerful among them are clearly wanting to dominate the world and make as much money as possible for "defense" contracts and such. But the rank and file, now that's a real puzzler. I'll think on it awhile, and if I have an epiphany, I'll let you know.

[FeebMaster]

6. Smaller government and less gun control.

:eyes: Hahah.

[seabeyond]

9. minding my own business

perusing the post and come upon yours, actually broke into smile and out loud laugh. was the cutest on the slowness it hit me being so late and tired like i am.

in its simplicity

[ComerPerro]

7. Seriously though, and here is an honest answer

They want to be accepted by those who hold the money and power. They want to be liked by them, so that they may associate with them, and therefore be thought rich and powerful by association.

Fascism needs people like this to thrive.

All these people want is just a taste, no matter how small, of power, wealth and respect. And, no matter how many people are superior to them (in their eyes), they want to at least feel superior to someone.

More importantly: They need to have subordinates. Even if its just a small group, they need to feel that there are people who are worse off than them.

This is why fascist organizations always have a scapegoat.

[Piperay]

35. Good reply...

I totally agree. :thumbsup:

[proud patriot]

8. power over others

that's what I think they want

[wickerwoman]

10. They are abused children who identify with their abusers.

They get shit all day at their miserable jobs and in their miserable oppressively "religious" familes and nothing makes them happier than to pass it along so they can feel better about themselves. They think that being rich and powerful means stepping on other people.

And they want to control other people's lives because they can't control their own.

They remind me of one of my favorite lines in Wuthering Heights when Bronte is describing Joseph as something like "the most cantankerous old bastard who ever combed the Bible to rake the blessings to himself and heap the curses on his neighbors."

[Tom Kitten]

11. The return of Jaysus?

you know, Armaggedon? Maybe the Rapture (which is a joke, a totally unbiblical concept to begin with)...whatever, it has to do with their fantasies of lining up liberals against a stone wall and splattering their brains all over (heard it more than once on talk radio)...Sick nonrational hatred is how I'd put it, in a nutshell...Hard to deal with I know!

[Change has come]

12. They want what Puss Limberger and his ilk tell them they want

Basically, I think they just want to hate.

[hang a left]

13. They want to win.

n/t

[eileen from OH]

14. Believe it or not,

But I don't think they're overall goals are much different than ours. They want a world that is safe, a world that is at peace and free, a world where their kids can grow up happy and healthy.

But their definition of "safe" is one in which safety equals overwhelming American power and influence. Their definition of "peace" is a peace monitored by America and "freedom" means our system of democracy, period. "Happy and healthy" to them is a 1950-ish vision-that-never-really-was of the nuclear family.

And how they want to achieve these goals is very much at odds with ours. They believe in themselves and America with unbridled pride, which might be admirable, if it weren't accompanied by an arrogance that refuses to see more than one side of an issue and is incapable of accepting responsibility for failures.

I think they like things neat and clean and logical and simple, despite the overwhelming evidence that life is messy as hell and that there are no black and whites, just an unending array of greys.

eileen from OH (probably more philosophical than you were asking!)

[Eye and Monkey]

15. Sugar Land, they all want to move to Sugar Land, Texas.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41964-2004Apr25.html

Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 26, 2004; Page A01

SUGAR LAND, Tex. -- This is the home of Britton Stein, who describes George W. Bush as "a man, a man's man, a manly man," and Al Gore as "a ranting and raving little whiny baby."

Forty-nine years old, Stein is a husband, a father, a landscaper and a Republican. He lives in a house that has six guns in the closets and 21 crosses in the main hallway. His wife cuts his hair with electric clippers. His three daughters aren't embarrassed when he kisses them on their cheeks. He loves his family, hamburgers and his dog. He believes in God, prays daily and goes to church weekly. He has a jumbo smoker in his back yard and a 40-foot tree he has climbed to hang Christmas lights. He has a pickup truck that he has filled with water for the Fourth of July parade, driving splashing kids around a community where Boy Scouts plant American flags in the yards. His truck is a Chevy. His beer is Bud Light. His savior is Jesus Christ. His neighbors include Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), the House majority leader, who says of Sugar Land, "I think it is America."

[sandnsea]

16. Simple solutions

That are easy to understand, even if they are proven to not be true and hurt them in the long run.

Like raising minimum wage raises prices. Minimum wage hasn't even doubled since the 70's and prices have at least quadrupled. The premise isn't true, but it's simple so they believe it.

The person who makes the money keeps it. Simple, even if it means they, themselves, don't get to keep their fair share.

Faith in God makes everything right. Even though that obviously hasn't proven to be true. Not on a global scale or in anybody's individual life either. I know a very old woman who almost died because she believed Jesus was going to heal her. Somebody finally took her to the hospital with ruptured intestines. But she's still harping away that Jesus is healing other people she knows.

Simple solutions. I have no idea why.

[bigbillhaywood]

17. More

The same thing all voters and political activists want. Sometimes its more material possesions. Sometimes its more purpose in life. The right has found a way to tap into that using the basest of emotions like fear and hatred-- just blame an "outsider". They are also able to utilize existing grass roots organization and reactionary community organizations-- like churches-- to tap into this.

I dunno, maybe I'm wrong on this. But great post, it's certainly bringing out the political philsopher in me and getting me thinking.

[Blasphemer]

18. They don't want anything...

That's why they are ideal followers. They wants their safe little ignorant world were no other truths seep in and they can remain unaware and free to hate. They don't have any utopian ideals of the perfect world. They don't actually do anything to contribute to the world. They don't live "virtuously". They don't really believe in anything but clinging to right wing ideals certainly makes them feel like they do. They can listen to Rush, rant about "libruls", put their Bush sticker on their car and pretend that it means something. It's completely hollow. If they had everything they supposedly want and had no one to hate, they would be nowhere (well, until they started turning on each other).

[LearnedHand]

19. To run this country as the theocratic state...

...it was founded to be (apparently). :freak:

[ott]

20. A grand projection ...

That they can vicariously live their narcissistic little lives through.

[Eye and Monkey]

22. They already get those big screen TVs at Best Buy and Circuit City.

But I thought there was something newer than "projection".

[MrSlayer]

21. The same thing they always want... To Take Over the World!!!

These guys still have the same Puritan mentality that was brought here in the 1500's. Everyone who is not White, Straight and Christian must die!

[ComerPerro]

23. Ahh, could that be a reference to one of my favorite shows?

"Gee, Brain. What do you wanna do tonight?"



"The same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world!"

[MrSlayer]

26. Yep.

I only saw them on Animaniacs really but I always liked the Brain.

[ComerPerro]

27. My favorite gag was "Pinky, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"I think so Brain, but where will we find a duck and a hose a this hour?"

"I think so Brain, but if they called them Sad Meals, kids wouldn't buy them"

"I think so, Brain, but, the Rockettes, that's mostly girls, isn't it?"

"I think so, Brain, but do I really need two tongues?"

"I think so, Brain, but if our knees bent the other way, how would we ride a bicycle?"

[MrSlayer]

28. LOL! Yeah great stuff.

Lines right out of my own Acid Poetry.

[Lasira]

32. "I think so, Brain,"

...but me and Pippi Longstocking, I mean, what would the children look like?

...but this time, you wear the tutu.

...but I can't memorize a whole opera in Yiddish.


Sorry, I'm stopping. I promise.

[DNA]

24. Mixed motives and goals.

There's a mix of people who vote Republican. They want different things, I suspect.

One group merely wants power and money for themselves. These are the Halliburtons, the Dick Cheneys, etc.

There's another group that is libertarian and has been duped into thinking that the Republicans are more libertarian than Democrats. By now they should have figured out the ruse.

There's another group of Christian taliban who want to establish a right-wing extremist Christian theocracy. This group is much more dangerous than many people in this country realize. In every country where religion and government mix, serious repression always follows.

Then there is this terrified group. They are afraid that they're not "man" enough, not brave enough, not tough enough, not successful enough, etc. They also confuse bullying, brutish behavior with strength, and they enjoy vicariously thinking they are tough because they fly a U.S. flag on their front porch while they watch the sport of war from the comfort of their couches. I am not being flippant. This lack of self-esteem and a sense of worthiness is, I believe, a serious political problem. It explains why poor whites in the South vote against their own best interest. It explains why Americans have such a hard time admitting they might have been wrong (for example, in supporting an invasion of Iraq). It explains why there's a gender gap, since women by and large don't have the same esteem problems men have (i.e. they don't have to beat someone else up in order to feel better about themselves). It explains the juvenile egocentrism that passes for patriotism in this country. It explains a lot of things. Republicans have been very good in catering to that fear of not being good enough.

[Hamlette]

25. lower taxes n/t

[Lefergus70]

29. Maybe it starts in school

Great post indeed. Repliers seemed to be slowed in their tracks, thoughtful, trying to understand one of the greatest puzzles of society. My slow-motion take is that rank-and-file rightwingers need their views for emotional stability, for personal identity. Perhaps these needs were shaped in school.

Several years ago James W. Loewen, a teacher, spent two years on a Smithsonian grant analyzing the 12 major high school history textbooks used in American schools. The result was the 1996 classic "Lies My Teacher Told Me," which details how children and youth are fed myth about this country because, in the end, school boards (parents) want to transmit inspirational messages instead of uncomfortable facts. Loewen (who had, and still may have, a web site with a basic history test that few Americans could pass), concluded that the myth-making explains why many Americans do not understand their own country, especially its racism, or its role in the world and show anger at people who tear away at the simplistic indoctrinations that have given them strength.

Add Hollywood, which makes a fortune on dramatizing those myths and befuddling Americans even more. Throw in the powerful marketing forces of a myth-making rightwing government and the ubiqutous media that supports it, and perhaps it is no wonder that so many people are actually demanding that their leaders lie to them.

[ComerPerro]

30. Hmm. You don't post very often, I see, but

Damn!

Good post, and great points.

I think you are correct when you argue that many conservatives base their personal identiy and sense of self around their views. This explains why so many right wingers rally against people like Howard Zinn.

For many people, its just easier to shut off the brain and listen to the lies that are easy to digest.

No one sells pleasant-sounding lies better than Republicans.

[Egalitarian]

31. My Soul

Thank goodness I don't believe in this concept.

[Zinfandel]

33. It's no fun for these fascist unless they can exploit, create fear, and

most of all...their insatiable lust for vindictive cheating to accumulate money & power.

Very sick fucks! And they are so blinded, they see me as the fool.

[NuttyFluffers]

34. They want what Veruca Salt wants

they want it all.

[Piperay]

36. They want NOT to have to feel guilty...

they pretend problems don't exist, they don't want someone like Kerry to tell them that they do. As long as they don't believe there is global warming, racism, sexism or any injustices than they don't have to worry or feel guilty about not doing anything about them. Bottom line...they don't want to have to do ANYTHING other than something that involves themselves or their own family.

[sadiesworld]

37. A Master.