If you haven't read this yet, it's a MUST read: "Why Conservatives Are Always Wrong"

[lildreamer316]

I think this should stand as one of the classics of progressive literature.
(posted in Editorials, but wanted to make sure it got maximum exposure).

http://conservativesarealwayswrong.googlepages.com/


Editorials post by wolfgangmo - MAD props!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=468885&mesg_id=468885

[wroberts189]

1. knr more...

snip



“Conservatives,” or those who call themselves this nowadays, have an equally good and much longer record of faulty analysis and wrong prediction. In order to exist as a viable movement, they depend on everyone forgetting that they’re basically always wrong."

"Unfortunately, progressives and liberals have obliged. They seem to have forgotten who they’re actually dealing with. I’m not the first to point out that conservatives are always wrong – on any longer view, it’s hard to miss – but after years of observing the dispirited moderate left and the hapless, helpless leadership of the Democratic Party, I thought it was about time for a few reminders. If we step back from the issues that preoccupy us at the moment, it’s easier both to see that conservatism has consistently been failing and to examine the deeper reasons why. There are flaws in conservative positions that eventually cause them to collapse, and those same flaws are at work today. It’s true that one side in America’s great political debates is playing a very weak hand. Fortunately, that side isn’t ours. "





Amen

[Chemisse]

6. I love this

"In order to exist as a viable movement, they depend on everyone forgetting that they’re basically always wrong."

I'm not sure I agree with the premise though, tying today's political conservatives with people who - throughout history - resisted a change in ideas. I guess he is just using the word conservative in a pretty broad way.

[Bandit]

8. Maybe you could name something they have been correct about?

:shrug:

[Chemisse]

11. As far as I am concerned they have been wrong about everything

I just don't know if you can tie all conservative thinking people throughout the ages with our political conservatives. I don't think they are synonymous.

[NecklyTyler]

2. K&R

[Sherman A1]

3. A very good observation

I skimmed the piece, but it makes sense to me.

[elocs]

4. The trouble with "always", though, is that with 1 exception it cannot any longer be "always".

In real life very few other than personal things are really "always" or "never".

[slackmaster]

5. K&U for group narcissism

:kick:

[HughBeaumont]

7. Booked for later.

Kind of a long read for work, but will do this later on . . .

[drm604]

9. I've only read part of it, but what I've read hits the nail on the head. n/t

[bonzotex]

10. I've read this before and it still rocks....

Critics, please read it before dismissing it.
From the closing paragraph:

And yet, today, the legend lives on. Conservatism is the ideological arm of those private autocratic powers, and as long as there are such powers, as long as there are those with deep investments in received doctrines and existing arrangements – and there always will be – it will keep coming back. Heedless of past errors, it may very well rise to some future defense of the same ideas it currently seeks to defeat. But it will rest that defense, as always, on the same faulty premises, the same abuses of reason and evidence that it’s been relying on all along. It must be challenged and beaten in every era, its myth of invincibility shattered again and again. But in the end that’s what always happens, and it will happen again to the conservatism of today. As FDR said, “we have set our feet upon the road of enduring progress. Shall we pause now and turn our back upon the road that lies ahead? Shall we call this the promised land? Or, shall we continue on our way?”