That statement is not inconsistent with PrettyVacant’s.
What pendulum? What we have is a near-continuous slide to the Right for decades. America isn’t on a pendulum; it’s sliding into a pit. A pit named fascism.
Bullshit ad hominem is its own refutation.
The elitism and religious bigotry of the Left in America is well known and obvious. Oh yeah, and the institutional racism implemented in the name of helping the downtrodden inferior races.
Add gun control to the issues I’ve bolded above, and you’ve got the three ‘non-negotiables’ - things that today’s Republican party will say invalidate one from being a ‘conservative’. Most Republicans of the ‘tea party/Palin’ wing do not consider libertarians ideological brethren. So Barry would not be popular with them. He got a lot of flack for coming out in favor of gay rights in the 1990s: I remember lots of self-described conservatives calling him ‘senile’ at the time.
And your evidence that all the racists and other bigots on the Right are faking it?
No, they are largely imaginary. The Right defines “elitist” as “anyone who isn’t an ignorant right wing fanatic”. And the imagined “religious bigotry” is a combination of the Right insisting that everyone who disagrees with them is anti-religion, and their tendency to label opposition to bigotry as oppression. You don’t like gays being beaten? Oppressor!
How about just the rest of the English-speaking world, eh?
You just parodied yourself.
What Der Trihs said.
:rolleyes: There are some fair criticisms to be leveled at affirmative action (assuming that’s what you’re talking about). The label of “institutional racism” is not one of them.
Of course, when one is as far to the left (well, left field) as you, everything looks like it’s sliding to the right. Back in the real world, I’d say that the country pretty much hovers over our own natural center, moving slightly right for a time, then left for a time. Of course, when one is so far outside the norm for the general US population (you probably think Europeans are right wingers), then I can certainly understand the confusion…
-XT
Garbage. As pointed out in the OP and elsewhere, the extreme Right has again and again become the center. When, exactly has the country moved to the left? Not since Reagan. And no, neither Clinton nor Obama are anything but moderate Right - at best.
Would the “tea party wing” be the same ones that organized the some of the protests? Just to point out two different protests, the Libertarian party organized one in 2008 and another in 2010 and several others in between.
Would these conservatives that hate libertarians be the same ones that booed Gresham Barrett, the 4th most conservative member of the house according to National Journal in 2008, and John Cornyn, the 17th most conservative member of the senate according to National Journal in 2008?
As you say, garbage. If we are moving towards the Right so much, why aren’t our policies actually moving that way? Is abortion illegal? No…it’s no closer to illegal today than it was 20 years ago, and this despite several years where the Republicans (presumably the party controlled by the Right Wing™) controlled virtually the entire government. How about prayer in school, another right wing hot button issue. Nope. Smaller government (granted, this is one of the non-religious right wing issues)? Nope. Balanced budgets? Nope. Complete de-regulation? Nope. Even on the gay rights issue we are light years ahead of where we were in the 80’s…or the 90’s for that matter.
From my centrist view point, seems to me that the country has moved more towards the ideals espoused by the left. We have more government programs today than ever. While the regulatory front is chaotic and seeming randomly applied, we also have more regulation than during Reagan’s time. Abortion isn’t happening. Prayer in school isn’t happening. The only place where I’d say ‘right wingers’ are ‘winning’ is possibly gun control…and even there, it’s more of a holding ground thingy than marching forward to victory.
Perhaps from your, um, unique world view, you could describe to me how we’ve moved ‘right’ from Reagan’s time, ehe? If you can, stretch your mind a bit and try to show this obvious right-ward progression from the US’s perspective, not your own, ehe?
-XT
I don’t have cites handy, but I’ve read several things claiming that the “tea party” protests were originally conceived in a more libertarian spirit, but were co-opted by conservatives of a more angry, cultural bent.
IIRC, the guy (Anthony Earl Miller?) who confronted Arlen Spector at a Pennsylvania town hall meeting and screamed that Spector would one day stand “before God” lives on public assistance. If he’s a libertarian, I’m the pope.
Can I take a whack at this one? There’s only, I think, seven communist countries today, but when Reagan was in office there was about two dozen. Granted it has nothing to do with domestic policies, so I guess it doesn’t count.
Are you talking about the handful of Lyndon LaRouche supporters that reporters love to film since they have Obama-Hitler posters?
Lyndon LaRouche supporters that reporters love to film since they have Obama-Hitler posters?
And George Soros and Michael Moore seem to be not too fond of capitalism, but they sure do know how to make money like capitalists. Humans are quirky, huh?
Darn echo!
Because the religious conservatives, like gays on the left are the cannon fodder. They get false promises to motivate them, but that’s all. They aren’t going to get abortion banned by the Republicans any more than the gays will get marriage from the Democrats.
We have a smaller government - for the corporations and wealthy. The Right lies when it says they want a small government; you can’t oppress people and indulge in wars of conquest with a small government. Balanced budget? The Right wants massive deficits in order to cripple the government, not a balanced budget; they have that. They want a big, poor, Third World style government that is aimed only at tyranny and war.
They’ve gotten massive deregulation. They’ve despoiled the environment. They’ve indulged in war after war. They’ve hacked away at civil rights, increased surveillance and government power over the common people, while reducing it over the powerful. They’ve tortured and killed and destroyed. They’ve condemned the poor to suffering, homelessness and hunger. They’ve wrecked the economy, and handed over money to those responsible; and yes, the latter was Obama, but as I said he’s also a conservative.
Do word still retain meaning in the year 2010?
Zell Miller is a conservative…Obama not so…
If Obama is a conservative, then Donatien Alphonse Francois was virtuous.
Guys, you have to understand that to Der Trihs, anyone to the right of Castro might as well be a fascist.
The argument that America has shifted to the right is ludicrous. I can’t think of a single policy, other than perhaps gun control, where the ‘right’ is further ahead than they were 20 years ago. Bush presided over a huge increase in government and government regulation. Taxes are more progressive than they were at the end of Reagan’s term.
At the end of Reagan’s term, non-defense government spending was at about 12% of GDP. Bush presided over an increase of non-defense spending to about 15% of GDP. Now it’s close to 20% of GDP. Federal taxes collected are also higher today than they were under Reagan, and yet there is a massive deficit.
Der Trihs thinks that Bush presided over some massive deregulation of the American economy. In fact, the budgets of the regulatory agencies of the U.S. increased 44% under Bush. Staffing of regulatory agencies increased by 41% under Bush. Much of this was due to regulations after 9/11, but even if you take the TSA out of the mix budgets and staffing still increased substantially. The Code of Federal Regulations, the book which contains the text of all Federal Regulations, increased in size by over 4500 pages under Bush.
From The Heritage Foundation:
So really, what Der Trihs is saying is that slowing down the rate of increase of regulations amounts to a ‘massive deregulation’ of the economy. Orwellian double-speak at its finest.
Be serious. What reason has Obama given us, since taking office, to think he is an inch to the left of Bill Clinton? (Who was the most conservative Dem POTUS since Grover Cleveland.)