Sunday, September 2, 2012

Conservative Standards

I can't help but notice, lately, just how low conservatives like to set the bar for themselves -- and their peers. In Canada, the Conservative Party is just fine with having its move to strike hate speech laws, applauded by skinheads. The Republican Party -- with some exceptions -- has been perfectly fine with being taken over by incompetent wingnuts who are so livid with a black man being the President of the United States, that they have flat out stated that their first priority is not fix America's sagging economy, but to get rid of him at all costs.

For that matter, they have little apparent problem with hitching their economic hopes to a presidential team that was respectively near-to-dead-last in job creation, and whose only economic idea is to raise taxes on the middle class while cutting upper-class taxes even more. This goes against any kind of financial sense, never mind the overwhelming view of the people the Republicans are trying to convince to vote for them.

For that matter, Republicans -- by and large -- seem to have no problem with being associated with people who wear their utter hatred of blacks, gays, and women on their sleeves... and yet are so stupid and juvenile that they will still insist they aren't bigots. This is despite campaigning on voter suppression that targets blacks, revoking most gay rights, banning women from military service, and forcing impregnated rape victims to carry the offspring of their attackers (and probably give them visitation rights, as is already the case in many states).

This is the company that conservatives today keep -- either by their direct support, or by their compliance. It's true that not all conservatives are like this... but it begs the question of where they were, when the extremists were given the keys to the car. It also begs the question of why so many of them are still counting themselves among the number of these people who are not just offensive and inept, but borderline terrorists. Was there truly nothing you could do to stop it? Is there nothing you can do now?

If I were a member of any political group that engineered or condoned open bigotry, sabotage of the country for no good reason, election tampering, violence against people who simply want to help others, or even assassination of an elected leader... not only would I be putting as much distance as possible between myself and them, but I would be publicly speaking out about it. It's admirable that there are groups calling themselves "Republicans for Obama" -- but if it were me I wouldn't even want to call myself a Republican.
I would be far too ashamed.

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