The "beauty" of being conservative

[Rocknrule]

Abortion: Despite being pro-war, pro-gun, and pro-death penalty, Repubs claim to be "pro-life". Truth is, they don't give a crap about life, unless it's a white fetus. Couldn't be because they just want to control women, could it?

Gay Marriage: We gotta stop them thar homoseckshuals from marryin' because it'll destroy the sanctity of marriage, just like interracial marriage, because it's against the official religion of America, Christianity, and because here in America we are about restricting freedom, cencouraging the use of it

Moral Values: Bush is a good moral leader because he hates the same people God hates (gays), drops bombs on non-Christian countries, and because he looks so hot in that flight suit. Nevermind the fact that he drank and did cocaine, that was before he found Jesus, after that, nothing matters. Nevermind the whole "thou shalt not kill" thing, that only applies to people who are white, Christian, and American, everyone else is subhuman. And on top of it all, at least Bush didn't get a blowjob in the Oval Office.

War: We have to go to war with Iraq because Saddam personally piloted all 4 planes on 9/11, because he has a heavy WMD arsenal of BB guns and M-80s, and because God told Bush to do it. Nevermind the fact that we're killing innocent Iraqi children, they are subhuman and would've grown up to be terra-ists anyway.

[noahmijo]

1. People attack me for saying this but half of America DOES

indeed think this way. I'm not using the last election as a basis for this, just take a look around you go out in public especially if you live in a purple or red state.

Hell even in a blue state I bet you can't go 5 feet withou running into some religious yahoo

[NewWaveChick1981]

2. Well, apparently being conservative (actually neoconservative) means...

...sticking your head in the sand and pretending "other" people don't exist or have a right to exist. All I have to do is open up the local birdcage liner...er...newspaper and see the letters to the editor that spout off about one affront or another to God/Jeebus/Bible/White Womanhood or whatever... (I'm a white woman, but these idiots DON'T work on my behalf for anything!)

[BL611]

3. Many are conservative

because they are turned off by people who box them all into the caricature like you did. I'm sure you'll win a lot of converts by calling people stupid, sexist,and racist.

I don't know about you, but I'm a Democrat because I want to HELP the people of this country, not look down on them..

[Hello_Kitty]

4. You know what though?

I mean, I agree with you about generalizing and labelling people and all. That's why I'm a liberal :)

But....The Right won a lot of converts by convincing people that Liberal was a dirty word. Liberals were anti-God, anti-family, immoral, unpatriotic, elitist, treehugging hippies. It's worked so well that despite polling that shows the majority of Americans actually hold liberal views on most issues, they have been loathe to identify themselves as or vote for identified liberals.

So I hate to say it but that kind of thing works. The only way to get people to distance themselves from the Republicans is to make being a conservative unseemly. And people tend to have a positive attributional bias when it comes to themselves, especially on moral and social issues, whether it's true or not. If you say that X group is MOSTLY a bunch of idiots, people in group X will be pissed that you said that but most will immediately believe themselves to be in that minority of people in group X that are not idiots. If you say it over and over again people will not want to be associated with group X.

I can already see the winds are changing. I was talking to a guy last week and politics came up. I thought it was funny how he was hesitant about admitting he was a conservative Republican. Just a few years ago it would have been me being hesitant to admit to being a liberal.

I agree with you that it's crappy but until someone comes up with a better motivator of human behavior it's what we're stuck with.

[BL611]

6. I disagree

The right strives on a polarized, hyperbolic, talking points society, the Democrats strive by talking about issues and facts. Not only is sinking to their level wrong, but it is not politically efficacious

[Hello_Kitty]

7. Sorry but

You can talk about issues and facts until you're blue in the face and you may get a lot of people to agree with you on them but when it comes down to it, people still are going to vote their identities and emotions. You gotta make it bad to be identified as a conservative. And I really don't think it's stooping to their level to do so. We HAVE the truth on our side, remember. The leaders of the conservative movement in this country (and a sizeable minority of their voting base) ARE a bunch of bigots and it's not lying to point it out to people.

[Spinzonner]

5. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind