@HungryGuy Absolutely. It would be just as nonsensical to boast of being the most liberal, or the most libertarian, or the most Objectivist or whatever other Ism you wish to name. But we don’t have stages full of progressives or liberals or libertarians nationally debating which one of them is the biggest ideologue. Yes, it happens on the fringes, but I am concerned here about a major political party that now decides its contests around who can cite proof they are the most extreme ideologue on the stage. In the long haul, this will either destroy that party, or destroy democracy.
@jerv I don’t see that to be true. Since there is no Democratic primary this election, we’ll have to wait till the general election to see who the Democrats try to appeal to. But back in 2008 in the midst of a very heated primary season with lots of names on the early ballots, they did not appeal exclusively to the radical left. Far from it, all of them tried to stake out ground that left them electable in a general election.
@sneezedisease Ah, the ever-popular all politicians are the same trope. I think the more radical politicians work to foster and feed this fantasy. They hire PR firms to spin it for them It’s good cover to operate under.
But if it it true, then Adolph Hitler, Pol Pot, Chairman Mao and Stalin are not a whit irreverent from the four faces we have on our Mount Rushmore. Nobody in their right mind believes Mao, with the blood of 50 million of his own countrymen on his hands, was no better nor worse than George Washington; or that Hitler’s Fascist, genocidal philosophy was equal in every way to that of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson.
Let me give you one example of a generally conservative politician proving he was not an ideologue. When the debate was underway in the US Senate about lowering the drinking age to 18, then Senator Barry Goldwater was among the conservative block opposed to any change. But when a liberal colleague spoke in favor of the change, and pointed out that we draft 18 year olds, and send them off to fight and perhaps die for the country, Goldwater said on the senate floor, “You know what, You are right.”
@janbb Again, I have not seen the Democrats staking out positions to appeal to the far left.
@marinelife Thank you. Me either. And I’d find it equally offputting no matter which extreme a candidate appealed to.
@6rant6 Thanks for making that point. It hasn’t happened in recent memory. I think it ended with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who joked, “A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward. A reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards. A liberal is a man who uses his legs and his hands at the behest — at the command — of his head.”
@Nullo I have to side with @jerv here. The “conservative” agenda being advanced today is the polar opposite of the dictionary definition of conservatism. It is radical revisionist. It is revolutionary.
@Paradox25 The only way I can agree with the quote that @HungryGuy noted is that the liberals let the demonization proceed, and didn’t effectively counter it. It is sad that Newspeak has gotten such a foothold in American thought today.
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