There is a meaness to the conservative moment...

[nadinbrzezinski]

Actually Thom I think the meaness comes from the we are about to win, but they realize they are not. Look at what is going on in the streets. People ARE finally wakihng up. even if we do not win this battle, the war has been joined. They realize that. Why they want to stop this and cut it RIGHT FUCKING NOW! The longer this lasts, the resistance, the more people lose their fear. The more peopel realize how the TWO parrites at a pretty senior level, do not really reprenset them. This is the kind of change that scares the powers that be. This is what is happening. The country is waking up to this reality.

It is US the working people, versus them, the political and economic elites. This is what this is about. And people are waking up to this. It must be kind of nerve wracking and why Anderson Cooper will fly to Libya... he needs to cover that history... but will studiously avoid Madion... for all we care Madion could be on the other side of the world, or off the planet and on Red Mars.

They know... that something fundamental is changing. They also do not know what to make off it, but that it needs to STOP right FUCKING NOW, in the bud, before that famous radicalism of labor comes back. Leaders like Trumka will also be voted out, because they were fit for another era. We are entering a new era of struggle and they know this. So the elites know they need to stop it. They have no clue how to.

Oh and that call from the governor, you got punked guv... but it is revealing as to what the elites believe. We are just tools, to be used and discarded when no longer useful. Social security, we don't need it. They feel the counter revolution is well within their grasp and the usual anesthetic is not working.

[kenny blankenship]

1. Meanness is pretty much the essence of conservatism.

They're mean when they're down. They're mean when they're up. They have mean, nasty principles and it invariably manifests in mean policies. There's a reason why they're so much better at mudslinging, innuendo and patriotism questioning: mean shit just comes natural to them.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. I will qualify it, modern conservatism

they used not to be like this. In fact, the great founder of the GOP would be seen as a crazy commie these days.

[Vincardog]

8. Are you talking about that notoriously GAY LINCOLN?

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Yep, the one that jumped out a window

of course there is that other crazee that broke them monopolies in the early 1900... and that other crazee lib that created the EPA.

though that last one set the early brick work on the modern envy driven... movement. Remember Lee Altwater actually was sorry at the movement he created on his death bed. Don't expect this conversion from his star student Rove incidentally.

[demigoddess]

3. The thing that interests me is that while the libertarians and

many republicans believe that the federal government should pay only for the defense department and nothing else, they seem to have no idea what a world like that would look like. I think the military would be the target for everyone who wanted to take over the government, i.e. potential tyrants. The only way we could even attempt to avoid that is by universal service. Everyone would have a stint in the military. Men, women, gays, handicapped etc. But that might also lead to universal brainwashing or something as dangerous to the US.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Actually having conscripts leads to a check on lifers

one reason the military can become a praetorian guard is that isolation from the civilian world.

[Uzybone]

5. Anderson Cooper was very proud of himself for calling Mubarak a liar

too bad he hasn't shown such guts when it comes to the avalanche of lies in US politics and foreign policy.

[SoCalDem]

6. They have always been mean. Greedy people love to watch people beneath them squirm

Meanness is the cornerstone of conservatism.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

7. When they refer to someone like Rush, they always say "I love him--he drives liberals crazy!"

Because in their warped minds, they'd rather irritate and pester their philosophical opponents than attempt to win them over with facts (perhaps because the latter is a much harder task to accomplish.)

Or they'll call someone like Palin, "The liberal's worst nightmare." And yes, Palin would be a nightmare but she'd be a nightmare because she's an idiot, not because she'll prove us all wrong.

There is a book on the shelves called "365 Ways to Drive a Liberal Crazy". Out of morbid curiosity, I did take a look at it the last time I was at the bookstore, and all that was in there were bad jokes (some of them incredibly offensive) aimed at the President or at liberals, or instructions to create "rumors"....i.e. to lie.

[QC]

10. K&R

:kick:

[Motown_Johnny]

11. I believe Janeane Garofalo characterized them as

kinda dumb or kinda mean back when the W. era was young.


Pretty hard for me to argue with either of ya.

[demmiblue]

12. They are like the 'Tiger Mom' of politics. n/t

[kentuck]

13. Their degree of meanness is usually correlated to their financial power...

The more they have, the meaner they get...

[JoeyT]

15. I'd say it's a bell curve.

The ones at the bottom are really cruel on a personal level. They're enraged because they hate poor people and they're stuck being poor. They're the ones that will actually go out and commit hate crimes just for the sadistic glee of hurting someone they despise, which is usually absolutely everyone.

The ones in the middle can be smug about all those people below them, so their rage is a bit muted, plus they're kind of occupied with trying to claw their way higher. The ones at the top aren't usually as vicious towards a single person or group as the ones at the bottom, but they've got enough money to do damage to more people more easily.

[JoeyT]

14. K&R

Meanness IS the conservative movement. I can't think of a single position the average right wing voter holds that isn't based on hating someone. They don't necessarily love the rich, they just hate the poor. They don't love fetuses, they hate women. They don't care about marriage, most of them have been divorced multiple times. They just hate gay people. They don't care about national security, they just hate people from other countries.

I'm not even certain the run of the mill wingnut in the street even gives that much of a damn about taxes, other than what their selfishness guarantees they'll feel about anything asked of them. When they talk about it, their rants always turn into racism and bashing the poor.

[calimary]

16. There is nothing so mean as the IGMFU attitude.

"I Got Mine, F-U."

Mean, selfish, greedy, and thoughtless. It seems to me the whole CONservative movement is little more than the search for justification for selfishness. Screw you! I don't wanna help you out! I got mine - you go get your own if you want any. I don't have to help you out - you're a lazy moocher. Screw you! I could give a rat's ass about you. I'm lookin' out for Number One! I Got Mine, and that's all that matters.

Now what kind of a "more perfect union" - NOT labor-related, the Union as in the 50-states - can we ever hope to achieve if everybody is out for themselves, and if others get run over, they were in the way anyway. Too fucking bad. Is THAT what we all want? Is THAT the America we want?

Sheesh. What have we come to?