Why Do Conservatives Get a Pass?

[n2doc]

By Kevin Drum| Wed Aug. 31, 2011 10:42 AM PDT
Rick Perry would like to repeal the 16th and 17th amendments, hates the New Deal, thinks Social Security is a Ponzi scheme and global warming is a gigantic hoax, and would pretty much like to roll back America's entire social welfare edifice "from housing to public television, from the environment to art, from education to medical care, from public transportation to food, and beyond." Ruth Marcus is appalled:

Whoa! These are not mainstream Republican views — at least, not any Republican mainstream post-Goldwater and pre-Tea Party. Even Ronald Reagan, who had once criticized Social Security and Medicare, was backing away from those positions by the 1980 presidential campaign.

....Perry’s ideas range from wrongheaded to terrifying....The subtitle of Perry’s book is “Our Fight to Save America from Washington.” Reading it summons the image of another, urgent fight: saving America from Rick Perry.

Here's what gets me. Perry's views are getting denounced by all the usual lefty suspects, but not much of anywhere else. And the reason for this is something very odd: in modern America, conservatives are largely given a pass for saying crazy things. They're just not taken seriously, in a boys-will-be-boys kind of way. It's almost like everyone accepts this kind of stuff as a kind of religious liturgy, repeated regularly with no real meaning behind it. They're just the words you use to prove to the base that you're really one of them.

Why is this? I'm not quite sure what the left-wing equivalent of this would be, but it would be something along the lines of Hillary Clinton writing a book that proposed repealing the 2nd Amendment and adding one that banned hate speech; limiting defense spending to 2% of GDP; raising the top marginal tax rate back to 90% on millionaires and 100% on anything above, say, $10 million; instituting British-style national healthcare; and spending half a trillion dollars on new programs for universal preschool, two-year paid leaves for new parents, and an increase in the minimum wage to $15 per hour. But in real life, Dennis Kucinich wouldn't support a platform like this, let alone a frontrunner for the presidential nomination. And if one did, they'd be instantly tarred as an insane nutball and would never see the business end of a TV camera again.

http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/08/why-do-conservatives-get-pass

[hifiguy]

1. Reichwingers control all of the major media

and have the power to normalize or demonize anything and everything by ignoring it or attacking it. They attack the left and ignore the crazies. A repuke candidate could wholeheartedly endorse Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" and the Very Serious People would rub their chins thoughtfully and endorse the boldness of such an idea. A Dem or liberal proposes making the super-rich and rich pay their fair share and they have a shitfit and fall into it.

Who controls the media controls the message.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

2. So, if the conservatives, through their corporate buddies, control the Corporate Media

and the Corporate Media picks and chooses what it will air and what it will report...and...

when said Corporate Media refuses to hold the Republican Party and its friends accountable for anything they do, then why can't we see that this is how the president/Democrats are being treated?

Why do we buy into the Talking Point de Jure about the president/Democratic Party, then come here on DU to repeat the exact same talking points?

It makes no sense to me.

Why is there a double standard? Because we allow it.

[EstimatedProphet]

3. Because of the Republican media noise machine

They have a media in place that acts like a brainwashing machine, and if you add Reagan's 11th commandment to complete party obedience, you get a media that will never, ever, say anything about Republicans that is negative.

[KG]

4. that nutballs like perry get any kind of traction is indicative of how stupid america is becoming.

america is a country in regression. at a loss to explain why...

[Blecht]

5. It's all a show

If a story doesn't fit the narrative it's ignored. Just like professional wrestling.

[Hissyspit]

6. No, those would not be the left-wing equivalents.

Well, some of them would be - repealing the 2nd Amendment. His point is taken, but his group of analogies is faulty.

[n2doc]

7. Well, to be truly the opposite of Perry one would have to propose

1. outlawing all expression of religion in public. (repeal/replace first amendment)
2. Outlaw all gun ownership (2nd amendment)
3. Universal Health care with compulsory doctor visits and treatment.
4. Raise taxes on the Rich to Eisenhower levels.
5. Eliminate Corporate 'speech'
6. Make being in a Union mandatory for all workers.
7. Eliminate the death penalty in the US.
etc. etc.

[Solly Mack]

8. There has been an (successful) attempt (for years)

to normalize (make acceptable) right-wing stupidity...those ideas that are "wrongheaded to terrifying".... by many in the media, in business and by politicians (& others) who give credence to such thinking by suggesting those "wrongheaded to terrifying" ideas are valid opinions or options... or even mere differences in policy.


Combined with the appeals to the baser instincts of humans..the appeals to emotion....the encouraging of people to glory in their willful ignorance...and those dangerous ideas take root.

It also doesn't help that history is often sugarcoated to make events seem cleaner and nicer than they actually were. If you teach lies then don't be surprised when people believe those lies and base their politics (and belief system) on those lies. Not everyone goes on to learn they were told lies (they don't read or they don't seek to know)...and once lies have become the foundation for your belief system, they become part of who you are...and then the truth becomes the enemy...the truth is now an attack on your very being. People become hostile...they become entrenched. Some change...but not often.


Other factors exist, of course. I'm sure other people will get into those.