The Road Most Traveled

[Vinnie From Indy]

Chatting with an old friend the other day, I witnessed for the umpteenth time a person that used to be a rabid, Rush Limbaugh dittohead fool come to the realization that he was being conned. My friend never, ever expressed this fact in precisely those words, and I didn't press for it, but he did recite a laundry list of things that were going wrong in his life. I think he was not quite aware of how profoundly his attitudes had changed since the late 1990s, but I knew when he offered he was no longer against the idea that our government should do something to change HIS current situation that he had changed. He lost his job to outsourcing and has been without work for almost a year. The savings are drying up and he is selling all those wonderful toys he and his family had accumulated over the last 15 years. Gone are the boat, jet skis and third car. The pressure to provide is becoming intense and the strain shows all over his face. We also discussed the oil spill in the Gulf. I will admit to manipulating the conversation at this point. In an attempt to get him to state in his own words that we NEED government to protect us from unrestrained capitalism, I asked him if he thought it was Dick Cheney or George Bush that did away with regulations that allowed this disaster. He immediately said Cheney. We went on for an hour or so discussing the trillions being spent chasing tribesman around Afghanistan, the health care insurance mandate he will have to pay etc. At the end of our chat, I told him that I was proud of him for finally realizing that he was being conned by guys like Rush Limbaugh.

The long and short of it is that as sure as the Sun rises in the East, conservatives become liberals pretty damn quick when it is they and their loved ones staring down the barrel of personal disaster and economic ruin. I have seen it time and time again. I will note here that not ALL conservatives move to the left. Many move even further to the right. One need only look at Germany in the late 1920s and early 1930s for a vivid example of how extreme economic pain can make many receptive to the idea that it is some other groups fault they are in crisis. The clarion call of hate and fear resonates much louder in this atmosphere and men like Rush have been training for years for the big show.

Cheers!

[Duke Newcombe]

1. Unfortunately, they don't always "wake up"

There are folks in my area who are facing the same type of financial ruin because of layoffs or catastrophic illness. The stupid (or Stockholm Syndrome) runs strong in these people, even now. It's like they think they are bad people if the betray their pundit/corporate overlords. A shame, really.

[lunatica]

2. That's because they're suddenly in the place where they used to think only losers

went. And to add to your Germany analogy, extremely hard times also lead to choosing Big Daddy government, especially the Big Authority kind like the Nazis. That's the alternative to the usual small government that conservatives like. If government can be made impotent while they make their fortunes then government should be small, but if government can keep them from experiencing poverty and ruin then government should be large.

It's always about their circumstances though, not out of any empathy or caring for their fellow human beings. If they get rich again they'll happily deny any quality of life for those 'loser' poor people.