Republican Bartlett says conservative brain will slowly shrivel into dementia.

[Elwood P Dowd]

http://themoderatevoice.com/67404/bruce-bartlett-david-frum-and-the-closing-of-the-conservative-mind/

Bruce Bartlett, David Frum, and the Closing of the Conservative Mind

<snip>

"...the conservative brain will slowly shrivel into dementia if it hasn’t already."

<snip>

Even if Frum wasn’t fired, even if the parting of ways was mutual, or perhaps a cost-cutting measure (Frum claims that he was invited to stay at the AEI on a “non-salary basis”), Bartlett, I think, is right. Conservatism these days is about either a) blind loyalty to the Republican Party, b) anti-government teabagging extremism, or c) theocracy — or d) some contorted combination of the above.

What’s more, both the Republican Party and the conservative movement, to the extent there is one anymore, are about purging and purifying, with dissenters, even conservative ones like Bartlett, even the occasionally bipartisan likes of Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham, ignored, alienated, or excommunicated. Simply put, in Dear Leader Rush’s party, in a movement dominated by the Hannitys and the Malkins, all that is acceptable is the narrow ideological fringe of the increasingly extreme right.

<snip>

[Old and In the Way]

1. They really aren't conservatives...they're anti-socialists.

Their governing philosophy is 'not-Democrats'.

[Marr]

2. I think you can cut out "b".

The Teabaggers are motivated by loyalty to their leaders, nothing more. Their political statements are a nonsensical, self-contradictory, fact-free collection of talking points. They're angry because they've been told to be angry, not because of some principled stand.

[Elwood P Dowd]

3. Thought I had just put the title of the article in bold, but everything showed up in bold.

It's now corrected.

[louis-t]

4. Purging and purifying. Thank you, Club for Growth.

Typical, repugs name something the exact opposite of what it actually does.

[Jade Fox]

5. "....about purging and purifying.."

I give you this quote:

"The purest forms of a social system always appear as it decays. Often, when a system is ailing, its believers try to strip away its contradictions, leaving a system that is more pure, more rigid, and hence more fragile......Purists are more committed to the idea of the system than the compromised reality. They are not only willing to go down with the ship, they're willing to sink it to prove their devotion."

Philip Slater: "The Chrysalis Effect: The Metamorphosis of Global Culture"

[Danascot]

6. Wait, conservatives have brains?

nt