Glenn is a guy I sometimes talk to at the pub. He is also a fiscal Conservative.

[LittleClarkie]

He used to be a Republican until Poppy Bush made sure that Pat Buchannan was squashed like a bug in 1988.

He is against the war in Iraq.

He doesn't think it's his right to tell a woman what to do with her body.

He thinks stem cell research would be a good thing.

He thinks flag burning amendments are a waste of time, designed just to score points, and would rather government addressed issues that matter to average Americans

He wants his guns left alone.

He is a fiscal conservative.

He does not like Pres. Bush, but voted for him in much the same way some of us might vote for a Dem we don't like because from our perspective he/she is the lesser of the two evils.

We don't agree on most issues, but I find it easy to have a conversation with him and other old school Conservatives.

Anyone else found that to be true?

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Glenn who?

?

[benddem]

2. ditto

doesn't mean anything to me!!!:shrug:

[LittleClarkie]

5. How about this. Glenn is a friend of mine who's an old school Conservative and

I find the fact that I can talk to him, and that I'm not that far apart from him to be interesting. I wonder how many old schoolers could be persuaded to the Dem side. If we ban lobbyists and earmarks and show other signs of fiscal responsibility, I wonder.

There, I fixed the heading. I was being too obtuse, I guess.

[bunkerbuster1]

6. Glenn or Glenda?

[LittleClarkie]

7. If he doesn't get his hair cut soon it'll be Glenda

:P

[benEzra]

3. That's conservative?

He is against the war in Iraq.

He doesn't think it's his right to tell a woman what to do with her body.

He thinks stem cell research would be a good thing.

He thinks flag burning amendments are a waste of time, designed just to score points, and would rather government addressed issues that matter to average Americans

He wants his guns left alone.

He is a fiscal conservative.

He does not like Pres. Bush, but voted for him in much the same way some of us might vote for a Dem we don't like because from our perspective he/she is the lesser of the two evils.

We don't agree on most issues, but I find it easy to have a conversation with him and other old school Conservatives.

Anyone else found that to be true?

Does he consider himself a conservative? Most conservatives wouldn't necessarily consider him to be so; he sounds more like a center-left independent to me. His views and mine don't appear to be that far apart. (And yes, like most gun-owning DU'ers, I want my guns, and my wife's, left the hell alone also.)

[LittleClarkie]

4. He's a Pat Buchanan Conservative

He doesn't like neocons much either.

Funny how occasionally around here we like what Pat has to say, though most find him pretty repulsively anti-semitic.

[LTR]

8. Which Glenn? This one?

Terry Glenn, WR, Dallas Cowboys

Didn't even know he was political.

:shrug:

[LittleClarkie]

9. Read the heading and OP again

I cleared it up hopefully.

[readmoreoften]

10. Oh sure, I have no problem talking to old school conservatives.

For the most part, they generally fall on the libertarian (not the party, the political leaning) side of the political compass and are distrustful of a large controlling government. I find that if they are not rabid fundamentalists, they are perfectly fine. Even if I disagree with them, I understand where they are coming from.

Many of them aren't even "fiscally conservative" in the sense that they are cheerleaders for global capitalism. The majority of them just aren't fond of tax-and-spend ANYTHING, liberalism or conservativism.

Of course, being a lesbian, the sticking point is often that they think I'm a virus. But I think if you can have a heart-to-heart talk with such a paleo-conservative, you can even make headway on that. Once again, in inverse proportion to their religious fundamentalism.

I would absolutely expand our tent to them before I would some of these shills for global empire that hide behind a D.

[LittleClarkie]

11. And I can agree with them re: porkbarrel spending

and inefficient use of funds.

If I'm going to get taxed, I would rather the money was used efficiently, especially locally. Too often you hear about governments looking for ways to spend extra money in the budget for fear of not getting as much money in next year's budget. Never did understand that one.

[LittleClarkie]

12. Kicked because on the first pass, apparently folks didn't get where I was going

with my heading. Too cutesy, I guess. Didn't appreciate the heckling even so.

I do find it interesting that some Conservatives are closer to our side than the others. I still think there's an alliance that could be made there.

I suppose the easiest group to reach remains the moderate Repubicans. I knew a few in 2004 who were voting for Kerry, and I think a few folks around here used to be mod Republicans iirc.

[crim son]

13. I agree. Occasionally I cannot see what, beyond their own declaration,

identifies these people as conservatives. When I asked one woman where I used to work, she told me that she didn't have to have a reason, she was just a republican and that was that. Ummm, okay. Come to think of it, her response epitomized the identifying mark: she was a bit of an idiot.

[Salviati]

14. Whenever I'm in a conversation like this...

I make it a point to refer to myself and the other participant as "Fiscally responsible". I'm not going to cede the debate on fiscal matters to the party of red ink and soaring deficits. To me, being "Fiscally conservative" means running up the national debt while cutting checks and tax breaks to the well connected.

[Autonomy]

15. I look at it like this

I wasn't repulsed, I didn't despise the Republicans -- I merely disliked SOME of them -- previous to the mid-90s, after the Newties, Contract on America crew started its crap. Yeah, the political dynamics are different now than under the old school paleocons. Eisenhower, Nixon and Goldwater were too liberal to be elected as Repugs today.

[LittleClarkie]

18. In fact, I kinda like Ike

Now that was a Republican I could almost vote for.

[Cleita]

16. He's a fiscal conservative and he voted for Bush?

That boy needs some edumacating.

[LittleClarkie]

17. I wonder if such people vote Repub because they just can't conceive

of voting Dem, much like many on our side couldn't conceive of voting Republican.

[benEzra]

19. For some people, I think they see it as a "lesser of two evils" thing...

"Bush wants to spy on me, Kerry wants to ban half my guns, who do I vote for."

It's not just Pat Buchanan conservatives; I've seen a lot of that from Libertarians as well on some of the other boards I frequent.