I've come to a shocking conclusion: conservatives AREN'T evil.

[Spider Jerusalem]

Now, I know what you're probably thinking: "Is this guy smoking crack? Conservatives not evil? Has he not been paying attention?"

Oh, but I have been paying attention. And I've concluded that the current group of extremist lunatics who've taken over the government of the US aren't really conservatives. Fascists, perhaps, but not conservatives. There are conservatives I respect, while disagreeing with them; admittedly, it's a short list.

Conservatives whom I can respect and even in some instances admire (not all American, and not all living): Winston Churchill; Barry Goldwater (pro-choice, in favour of allowing gays to serve in the military, etc.); Ron Paul (prominent critic of the war in Iraq and the erosion of civil liberties); Pat Buchanan (also a prominent conservative critic of the Bush administration); and (oddly enough) Charlton Heston, who, in despite being head of the NRA, was a civil rights activist who has said that passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was "the proudest moment of my life".

What these people have in common is a dedication to the basic principles of the rule of law; of justly constituted government as the only acceptable sort; of a healthy opposition party as essential to the proper functioning of any democratic society; and of the inviolability of the rights of all people (well, probably not Buchanan, but the rest applies even to him). Contrast this with the oft-stated views of the extremists who now hold the reins of government; I'm sure you'll agree the difference is striking.

To label Bush and his gang of thugs, militarists and deranged Ayn Rand disciples as "conservative" is to lend their views a respectability of which they are undeserving; we should call them what they are: totalitarians.

[BJ]

1. Or, perhaps, "Reactionaries."

[Beer Snob-50]

2. By defination

a conservative is someone who likes things the way they are, the status quo. A liberal is someone who wants to change. Thus the ideas of small government, states power are conservative ideas. Somewhere around the accession of Newt Gingrich did a lot of the crap that is associated with conservatism become the new defination.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Yup....

look around at your neighbors and cow orkers and see who's out there manning soup kitchens, volunteering at other functions, running fundraisers for charities, raising decent kids, questioning authority, and generally working hard to keep food on the table, people employed, and society more or less on an even keel. Your basic salt of the earth types.

A hell of a lot of them are political conservatives, and a lot of us socialist commie bastards have more in common with them than we often like to think. Remember, it was moderate, mildly conservative, Republicans who passed the civil rights acts over the objections of Dixiecrats.

We can work with them. It's the wingnuts and fascists who have stolen their voices. And they're not all that happy about it.

(Pat Buchanan, though... He's got a lot of baggage.)