Why did some people become Conservative after 9/11?

[ck4829]

I think it's kind of weird that this happened.

I myself had a political conversion after 9/11, I became a Liberal, and have been moving more to the Left ever since.

Why do people want to join the party whose Leader failed to prevent 9/11?

The Republican Party is the Party of:

Moral Hypocrisy

Wag the Dog. I have read about DeLay saying Clinton was 'wagging the dog' by using Al Qaeda to defend himself from his scandals. Now recently, DeLay has been admonished by an Ethics panel, and he uses Al Qaeda and the war on terror to defend himself.

Saddam Hussein. Go to the Google image search, and type "Saddam Hussein" and "Donald Rumsfeld", and you will see something very interesting.

The Contras

Trickle Down Economics

Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell

Traitors like Oliver North

Why would anybody want to have anything to do with these traitors and these criminals, I'm not going to say I hate the average Republican, because I don't, and I'm not going to say they are stupid, because I don't believe that either. But, I would like to know what goes on inside the mind of the average Conservative and why they thought Conservatism was the way to go after 9/11.

[democracyindanger]

1. FEAR nt

[Clark2008]

2. Fear and Ignorance

Too afraid to find out the truth.

[OutsourceBush]

3. Fear, Racism, Misguided religion

[Mojambo]

4. Not Conservatism, Authoritarianism

Conservatives hasn't necessarily been on the rise since 9-11 but Authoritarianism certainly has been on the rise...

[DS1]

5. I'm sure the media's parroting of "Clinton was weak on terrorism"

helped that process right along :grr:

[DireStrike]

6. Kill the bad men and make us safe, daddy!

You look more like us than them, we like you better. You must be on the right side. Do something drastic to fix it! Kill the bad men!

[sandnsea]

7. Violence is an easy solution

Lots easier to punch somebody than to sit down and reason your way through a disagreement. Human nature. I would have thought 4 years was enough for more people to come to their senses. Guess not.

[MrSlayer]

8. Because that was part of it's intended effect.

9/11 was done primarily to green light their Middle East misadventures but a secondary effect was to scare the populous into voting against themselves and allow them to run roughshod over the Bill of Rights. It has worked wonderfully, especially with all the media reenforcement.

[mcscajun]

9. Because they never had any really strong political convictions...

...in the first place. Folks who sway in the wind run for cover when the going gets rough. They look for whoever or whatever will keep them safe, and they don't give a rat's ass about the consequences.

[fujiyama]

10. Not the least bit surprising

Fear drives people to the right and considering republicans have historically enjoyed an advantage in perception as being "stronger on defense", it is no surprise that they would enjoy an advantage electorally in a post 9/11 world. We should have realized it sooner. It happens in many societies (though to Spain's credit, they DIDN'T cave in to this fear after the train bombings). Part of the reason the republicans have had so much success after 9/11 is because of this exploitation of this fear and hatred. The hatred was channeled toward minorities (brown and Muslim people).

For a few days after 9/11 even I reconsidered my liberal views (and I AM brown) and tendancies. Fortunately, through reason and awareness of the story behind what was reported through Fox and main stream outlets, I realized that the administration was criminal in itself, and rather than bringing those that purpotrated the attacks of 9/11, they were exploiting for their own agenda.

Not only that, but they were clearly willing to shred the constitution in order to "protect" the people. This was to me clearly a power grab.

To most though, it was seen as a step to protect the country from terrorists. Hell, a friend of mine that DISLIKES Bush tried defending the PATRIOT Act himself, saying we need it to "protect ourselves" from the terrorists. You can imagine how the mentality is among those that SUPPORT him.

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. Because Republicans make better war-mongerers.

[SmokingJacket]

12. I'm rabidly liberal, but for about 24 hours after the towers fell

I was so shocked and horrified I could think of nothing but getting the people who did it. I thought, we MUST GET THE PERPETRATORS.

But as sense returned I realized how horribly complicated the whole thing is, and I saw how quickly Bush jumped to exploit the tragedy for his own good, and I failed to become a conservative.

I think Conservatism is the flight into black and white thinking, Good versus Evil. It's very restful to think of what happened on 9-11 as A Great Evil That Must be Revenged. All those horrid complications that keep you up at night can go out the window. We are GOOD. They are BAD. So simple. No worries!

[DukeBlue]

15. Democrat and Republican

Conservative or Liberal. After watching the towers fall everybody wanted payback.

As pretty liberal person I see no harm in killing those directly responsible for that act. No problem with CIA operations that involve counter intelligence and assination of those who would repeat the act, none. No problem with Afganistan. Nor would have LBJ, Kennedy, or Carter. All were aware of operations that involved killing.

However, Iraq was not a necessary step and is a distraction from the real problem.

I think Liberals and Conservatives have taken a binary approach to dealing with each other. That is a real problem. Good vs. Evil is for comic books.

[BUSHOUT]

17. I didn't want "payback".

We're not all revenge oriented.

I wanted healing. I also wanted justice, but not "payback". Some people think Abu Gharab is "payback". Those are the conservatives.
I think catching OBL and his people is justice. That's how liberals think.

[NewJeffCT]

13. The media told us Clinton & liberals were weak on terror

So, by implication, 9/11 was the fault of Bill Clinton and the libruls in Congress who were soft on terror... even though all the facts say otherwise.

[Ouabache]

14. I can speak for one YOOSTA BEE a Democrat that I know

this guy 'yoosta bee' a democrat. His main line of reasoning for being a war psycho now is to get it over now so that his granddaughter, his daughter's daughter, does not have to worry about terrorism in her adult lifetime. So by his timeline this should all be over in 15-20 years. However I notice his 20 year old SON has not gone and 'joined' the battle. He is still schlubbing around at part-time Bushonomics jobs for slackers here on the homefront. Interesting huh? You 'WOODA THOT' that kid would be all all signed up for military service and chomping at the bit to get to Iraq since Daddy says this is all for his little niece? :shrug:

[Al-CIAda]

16. I felt the same way...

...until I discovered the irrefutable proof that 9/11 was a planned, facilitated, and arranged INSIDE JOB.

[journalist3072]

18. Fear Does Weird Things

Everybody was running around scared of the next terrorist attack. You had the US Congress rush through the Patriot Act, and the Republicans were 'brilliant' (yea right!) at saying to the country "If you criticize this President, you are with the terrorists."