A House With No Rules

It's been pretty obvious for quite some time now that the Right in this country behave like adolescents, specifically 7th graders. Two of the four quarters every year, I amble over to the junior high and teach a block at that level in US History. It is truly remarkable how similar they are to conservatives' words and actions (see: blurting, temper tantrums, bullying, game playing) that I see in that class. Specifically, they have real problems behaving and following the rules they don't like.

This point was driven home recently be a discussion on FB with Reverend Jim. He and I are good friends and do see eye to eye on some issues of the day but he has fully bought into the American Taliban line of thought. Recall that the people calling themselves conservatives these days can be accurately characterized by the following characteristics

• Ideological purity 
• Compromise as weakness 
• A fundamentalist belief in scriptural literalism 
• Denying science 
• Undeterred by facts 
• Unmoved by new information 
• Fear of progress 
• Demonization of education 
• Need to control women's bodies 
• Severe xenophobia 
• Intolerance of dissent 
• Pathological hatred of government

One need only spend a few minutes exchanging views with a conservative today and it is clear this is the bedrock of their ideology. Stylistically, they use a wide range of logical fallacies to "prove" their point. Here is a handy one sheet that you can use as a checklist when talking with a conservative. I have found that their favorites are Appeal To Fear, Hasty Generalization, Ad Hominem, Appeal to Probability, Slippery Slope, and Misleading Vividness. They also employ other tactics that summed up most wonderfully by Cynthia Boaz.

Reverend Jim used many of these themes and styles in his assertion that religion was under attack by the state. Interestingly, he used the exact same examples that I have heard from other conservatives (wedding planners not accepting gay people etc). It's almost as if they get their news from the same source...hmmm...

Based on a couple of examples, religion was under attack everywhere...ahhh, the secular state...look out!!! (of course, the exact opposite is true). He employed DARVO and laughingly played the victim card. He seemingly threw out previous complaints about our country being too outraged at everything and became outraged himself (we hate in others what we fear in ourselves). He ignored the words of the founding fathers on the separation of church and state and proceeded to rewrite history. He took issue with a person's right to take to social media and other avenues to call out these businesses as prejudiced. Given his belief in the free market, this made no sense. He was adamant about taking away government power yet failed to realize that doing that would accomplish the exact opposite of what he desired: protection of the rights of the people. In short, he was completely irrational...just like a 7th grader.

The most glaring illustration of this was his disappointment that life wasn't fair and our system of justice isn't perfect. How many times have we told that to our teenagers? Very odd that we have to tell it to adults, especially ones that rail against self esteem culture and too much fairness.

Anyway, the discussion ended when I asked him to present his ideal, in terms of the law. If someone can turn someone away based on their religious beliefs, does that mean businesses can turn away women that aren't submissive? How about other beliefs? If I don't want black people coming in to my business, can I turn them away? Where do we draw the line? As of today, he has not yet responded.

At that point it occurred to me that the Right may not want to draw the line anywhere. One might think they would still like to have laws about murder and stealing. But given how much they love their guns and go into anaphylactic shock over financial regulation, it seems that they don't. Most conservatives take a dim view of police and think that people should just police themselves. Cops are slow and can't be counted on to get there on time. After all, nothing says civic justice like your local Oathkeeper. They have a direct line to what God intended to the law!!

Like the 12-13 year olds in my class, they want a house with no rules. In the same way they rebel against their parents and me, they only want to follow the laws they like which honestly seem like not very many. Like an adolescent that is told to be home by 10pm, they foam at the mouth about paying taxes and view it as stealing. Just like those same conversations with teenagers, the challenge is always the same: if you don't like it, leave. No one is keeping you prisoner here.

I used to think this way when I was their age. And then I grew up. They never did and they put the government in some sort of daddy-mommy role and then proceed to rebel against it, never taking into consideration that human nature is such that we do need laws otherwise people wouldn't behave themselves. The centerpiece of this is civil rights, the very foundation of our society. People should not be refused service because of the color of their skin, their gender, their physical and mental abilities, and their sexual orientation. We don't discriminate in this country. Period.

My entire conversation with Reverend Jim boiled down to his inability to accept the changes that were happening for the betterment of our society. We are constantly improving the way we treat people and that's exactly what we should be doing, especially if we consider ourselves a Christian nation. Jim doesn't get to decide who is better and who is worse in our country. No one does. That's why we have laws.

Maybe someday conservatives in this country will grow the fuck up and accept that simple fact.

Retraction

The other day I posted this photo thinking that it was a real Michele Bachmann quote. It was actually from a Bachmann parody page so it isn't something she actually said. My mistake.

Speaking of photo mistakes, I'm still waiting for an admission of error from Kevin Baker and his merry band of American Taliban members on this photo.

I won't hold my breath.

Hometown Epiphanies

I just got back from a visit to the town where I grew up in Wisconsin. My mom still lives there and has since we moved there from Missouri in 1973. Forty years...wow...where did the time go?

I spent most of the weekend with my hometown buddies and, as is usually the case, had a political discussion with my childhood chum named Paul. I love Paul like a brother and have known him since we were both kids but he is, without a doubt, the poster child for the Tea Party. He is loud, quick tempered, weighs 300 pounds, has a pathological distrust and hatred of the federal government, and lives with his mother.

I mention the last bit because someone somewhere needs to commission a study on conservatives regarding the following hypothesis: the political emotion of your modern day conservative is fueled by unresolved issues from adolescence stemming from a fundamental breakdown in their relationship with one or both parents. This, in turn, leads to massively irrational behavior that quite frankly helps to exacerbate the problems we have in this country largely by the blunt force of inaction but also by them being...well...assholes.

I've been talking about this for awhile but as I sat and listened to Paul's mouth foaming about the federal government "worming its way into every aspect of our lives" and our country falling apart (any day now), several ideas coalesced for me. I started to think about all the people I know who are conservative and, as I have stated previously, all behave, in many ways, like they are 12-14 years old. This is especially true when they talk about politics. It's one long adolescent temper tantrum and stomp down the hallway because "they don't wanna!" Since I now have a teenager in the house, it's all very familiar.

But I knew all this before so quickly moving on from that, I realized how many of the conservatives I know (as well as many that I don't know personally) clearly have very serious mommy and daddy issues. I started to count how many still lived at home with the parents and went over the list with my wife in the car on the way back to Minnesota. She laughed as the number got higher and higher. It didn't matter what age they were...far too many did.

Science tells me, however, that this is merely anecdotal, hence the reason why a study needs to be undertaken. Unlike my colleagues on the right, I'm not going to fall prey to the logical fallacies of hasty generalizations or misleading vividness. At this point, it is merely an observation. Consider how the ensuing study and results would be fascinating. They could ask for volunteers from the comments section of The Smallest Minority (I wonder how many of them live at home with their parents) or my own comments section:)

So, the mommy and daddy stuff lead me to the idea that your modern day conservative is very insecure about themselves and their lives. They are probably pissed off about their perceived lack of control in their lives (I say perceived because no one is forcing them to live at home with their parents) and the federal government is the perfect whipping boy with which they can spew all their unresolved life issues upon. Suddenly, everything is the government's fault, not their own. Ironically, they scream about victim culture when they themselves behave in the same way. Further, they have not come to terms with the fact that they are not in control of everything that happens to them and, like your average adolescent, don't take too kindly to being told that there are rules that we have to follow in society if it's going to be a decent place to live.

People like Paul also bring new meaning to the word stubborn. Compromise is the filthiest word in their language and when they don't wanna, they really don't wanna! In fact, Paul told me that he, along with the rest of his fellow Tea Partiers in Wisconsin, don't care if they ever win the White House again. They more or less have a lock on the House and will do everything they can to keep it that way. This jibes with what I have asserted previously. They don't care about winning elections as long as they remain pure.

In many ways, the whole conversation with him made me quite sad because a very key assertion of mine was finally confirmed. Conservatives are so afraid of irrelevance that they are now hysterical. We went down the list of all of the problems we have in this country and his answer to every one was basically do nothing. Clearly, he was frightened of any sort of success by Democrats and other liberal types as massive demonization went on throughout the entire conversation. Doing anything meant the apocalypse.

What a way to view the world...

Makes Perfect Sense To Me

After this story, I'm pretty embarrassed by the state in which I was born.

Perry Beam, who was among the spectators and has called attention to the act, told the Associated Press that "everybody screamed" and "just went wild” over the rodeo show. "It was at that point I began to feel a sense of fear. It was that level of enthusiasm," said Beam, a Higginsville resident.

Ah, the dark heart of American populism. My buddy Reverend Jim remarked this was "just as bad as when the bloody Bushitler posters went up." Really? I don't recall clowns play hitting the big lips of W as they did with the Obama mask at this rodeo.

Of course, it all makes perfect sense considering that now that it's town hall season (see: old white people yellin' and all afeared of blackie!) the birth certificate had to come up again.

Farenthold’s declaration came after a woman, who cannot be seen on the video, presents a folder to Farenthold that she says contains proof that Obama’s birth certificate was faked. “I’ll take a look at it,” Farenthold said. “I’ll tell you on the whole birth certificate issue … I think unfortunately the horse is already out of the barn on this.The original Congress when his eligibility came up should have looked into this and it didn’t. I’m not sure how we fix it.” The unidentified woman continued to press, saying “do we allow a president, if he has committed a felony, do we allow him to go unpunished?” 

I wonder if any of these creeps are going to question the fact that Ted Cruz was born in Canada. Nah, he's got an R next to his name so he's alright!

Yep, They Are Scared, Ted

Texas Senator Ted Cruz recently said that the DC Republicans are scared and actually don't want to defund Obamacare in fear of being beaten up politically. Well, Ted, they are scared because you and your fellow nutbags are doing everything possible to shorten the lifespan of the Republican party and I don't think you realize it.

In looking at the situation honestly in DC right now, House Republicans (and that basically means the hostages the Tea Party are currently holding) don't want the president to succeed. Think of what would happen if all of his policies were passed. Our country would improve. Indeed, it already is, thanks to the ones that have made it through. It has to be a fucking nightmare for them to watch the economy recover and deficits reduced.

Think about it for a minute. They have staked their political lives on their fevered and quite irrational belief that the federal government can't succeed at much of anything. If it does, they are fucking done...forever. The bubble will collapse. In fact, it already is and they just want to keep it going a little longer so they can retire to Shady Acres.

Unfortunately they are doing their usual deal and thinking like adolescents: short term. By being as obstinate as they are on a whole host of issues (the budget, energy, immigration, gun safety, health care), they think they are protecting themselves and the country but they are actually holding us back. Thankfully, people are starting to get hip to this and I suspect 2014 is going to be full of surprises.

Fuck This. Let's just sabotage it!!

Now that the Right has finally given up on repealing the Affordable Care Act, I guess it's time for out and out sabotage.

While opposition to the health care program is nothing new, the tactics are changing. Rather than focusing on repealing the law in Congress and the courts, two avenues that have failed so far, the groups are aiming to prevent the cornerstone of the legislation, the insurance exchanges, from succeeding. Their goal is to limit enrollments, drive up costs, and make it easier to roll back all or part of the law later.

It's a good thing they are being mature about it.

The Epitome of Appeal To Fear

Like Mr. Parkman in the video below, when I first saw the ad for the "Obamacare Survival Guide," I could not believe how deeply the Right had fallen into the logical fallacy of Appeal to Fear. Unlike him, however, I spent several minutes laughing my ass off.

Of course, that didn't sit too well with the militant looking individual behind the counter at Firestone where I was getting new tires. He was glued to Fox News (where the ad aired) like a true believer on a Sunday. He glared at me and asked, "What's not true about the ad?" I started to tick off the list and as the facts spilled out, he acted more and more like a 5th grade boy. By the time my new tires were on, he had proceeded to warn me of how Obama was destroying the economy and civil war was imminent.

Oh, and he also told me that Kim Jong-un was going to launch a nuclear missile at the United States. He knew this because he served in the military in South Korea. This was about a month ago and, as of yet, no missile.

Anyway, Mr. Parkman's analysis here is spot on.

President Juice

At the press conference on Tuesday, ABC's Jonathan Karl asked the president whether or not he had "the juice" to get things done in Congress. Mr. Obama smiled and quoted Mark Twain about premature demises but the question made the rest of the nation wonder...does he?

It's fairly obvious that the president has a great deal of disdain for Congress. This would include his own party as well as the Republicans. He doesn't have the patience for the schmooze game and he lacks assholeishness of Lyndon Johnson to make people's lives a living hell until they pass what he wants passed. So, he opts to play the long game and that means that in the short term, he looks weak and ineffective. Hence, the comment about juice.

But reporters like Karl should take note of what the president has accomplished thus far. That's pretty impressive, if you ask me. It demonstrates that his opting for longer term victories is a much more effective strategies. Besides, the political media is locked in the 48 hour news cycle and has the emotional intelligence of Kim Kardashian so what do they really know?

What many also fail to note is that conservatives simply don't want to allow the president to win...anything. Senator Pat Toomey, co-author of the Manchin-Toomey gun safety bill, summed it perfectly.

"In the end it didn’t pass because we’re so politicized," Toomey told editors from Digital First Media in an interview published Wednesday by the Norristown Times Herald. "There were some on my side who did not want to be seen helping the president do something he wanted to get done, just because the president wanted to do it."

There's a word for that...what is it?....I can't quite seem to remember what it is...hmm...:)

David Firestone echoes this sentiment.

It doesn’t really matter how many business groups say the immigration system has to change, or how many suburban voters are disgusted by the easy access to guns for criminals. For these Republicans, the visceral hatred of the president is their only guiding star, and they are absolutely convinced the voters in their districts feel the same way.

I call it Obama Mental Meltdown Syndrome (OMMS). Not to be outdone by the Bush Haters and still stung by the fact that at least they had a reason to loathe our 43rd president, OMMS sufferers remind of children. They stomp their feet, foam at the mouth, and just can't stand the fact that "the other side" is, in reality, winning. President Obama is transforming this country to a center left one just as Ronald Reagan moved it to the center right. They know this is happening and that's why they are doing precisely what they are doing.

The problem for them, however, is that voters are not on their side. Further, the president and the Democrats have learned that they need to be more aggressive in an ongoing way in rallying support. 2014 is not going to be 2010, hence the transformation of the president's campaign machine into Organizing For America.. If conservatives continue the way they are now and don't pass immigration reform, for example, 2014 is going to be very kind to the president. 2016 will be even kinder.

Moreover, if Hillary runs and wins, which she likely will given all of this and the very weak GOP field, you can say buh-bye to the politeness and soft peddling of Congress by the White House. Heck, she'll make Lyndon Johnson look like Mother Teresa!

And That's the End of the Whole Ayn Rand Business...

Hands down, the best and most accurate summation of Ayn Rand I have ever seen.

(stomp, stomp, stomp)

(SLAM!)

Fuck you, Dad! I can have whatever soda I want to have!!! You're not the boss of me!!!

They'll Never Back Down From Fiction

The last few years have seen me shocked and amazed at the lies the Right will believe. I suppose they have to because they have nothing else left. Of course, being pompous, stubborn and filled with biblical levels of pride works against them constantly. The recent flap over Chuck Hagel and the Friends of Hamas show that they completed their descent into utter madness and are now incapable of distinguishing reality from fiction.

The whole thing started with the New York Daily News’ Dan Friedman.

On Feb. 6, I called a Republican aide on Capitol Hill with a question: Did Hagel’s Senate critics know of controversial groups that he had addressed? Hagel was in hot water for alleged hostility to Israel. So, I asked my source, had Hagel given a speech to, say, the “Junior League of Hezbollah, in France”? And: What about “Friends of Hamas”? 

The names were so over-the-top, so linked to terrorism in the Middle East, that it was clear I was talking hypothetically and hyperbolically. No one could take seriously the idea that organizations with those names existed — let alone that a former senator would speak to them. 

 Or so I thought.

The next day, the right wing blogsphere, hyper focused on trying to "win" on something, exploded. Ben Shaprio at Brietbart put out a story that Chuck Hagel spoke at a Friends of Hamas event and got 25,000 dollars. When it came out that Friends of Hamas did not exist, Shapiro said the following.

The story as reported is correct. Whether the information I was given by the source is correct I am not sure.

Uh....huh? Talk about Newspeak! But this is illustrative of a much larger problem.

The Right is filled with such a titanic level of hubris that they simply can't admit when they get something wrong. There is no such organization as "Friends of Hamas" in reality but, inside the bubble, somehow, there is such a group and, by gum, Chuck Hagel spoke at their event because we want to WIN DAMMIT!!!

Of course, it doesn't stop there. Now Shapiro and the rest of the asshats at Brietbart are attacking anyone trying to get them to admit their mistake. Hmm...sounds awfully familiar...:) And he and the rest of his merry band are doing the "just release all the records" dance like the good little liars that they are.

Oh well. I guess I can't take comfort in the fact that if this sort of insanity continues, we'll take back the House in 2014.

The obvious being completely lost on them...

Two Responses?

So, Marco Rubio is going to deliver the Republican response to the the presidents SOTU speech tonight. And then Rand Paul is going to deliver the response to that response? Or the response to the president? I'm confused.

It's a good thing the GOP is united and firing on all cylinders these days.

Apparently The Nuge will be a guest of Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) at the State of the Union tonight. Perhaps he could fulfill his assertion sometime throughout the course of the evening.

A Perpetual Adolescent Power Fantasy

Bill requires all Idaho kids to read ‘Atlas Shrugged’

Fantastic! Now, it will be a law that young people have an indefinite adolescent power fantasy.

And doesn't this subvert the whole point of the book? Like I have been saying....most libertarians are closet fascists. Re-education camps are fine as long as we are doing it!

There Was Nothing Free About Them

If only people were allowed to carry their guns wherever they felt like it, spree shootings would never happen, gun free zone detractors whine in typical adolescent fashion. It continually amazes me that the core of their argument about this and many other issues revolves around the same basic emotion: I wanna do what I wanna do when I wanna do it and if I don't get my way, bad things will happen. See?!! Told ya!! Fuck you, dad!! (stomp stomp stomp...SLAM!)

Setting aside this perpetual, childish outburst, the assertion that spree shootings are more lethal because they are in gun free zones is patently false. The idea that we can somehow get into the mind of these people and (ahem) reason that they pick these places so they can have the largest body count is one of the finest examples of projection and confirmation bias I have ever witnessed. You would think that they were presenting a conclusion to an argument without having any facts to support it. That couldn't possibly be true!

When Cookie Thornton shot up Kirkwood City Hall, he began his spree by shooting a police officer, taking his gun, and then heading inside to continue his path of destruction. The fact that there were guns in the building had no effect on Thornton's mindset. He went in anyway. Thornton, by the way, was yet another individual with a pathological hatred for government. Jared Loughner walked in to a parking lot that was not a gun free zone and had no compunction about shooting up the joint. People were allowed to carry arms around that area and that certainly didn't stop him. Chris Kyle was a Navy SEAL and heavily armed and trained, when he was shot, along with his friend Chad Littlefield, at a gun range (see: not gun free) by Eddie Ray Routh.

And armed security was present at Columbine when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on their rampage, killing 12 people.

So, this notion that getting rid of gun free zones will somehow be a panacea is ludicrous. The above are just a few examples. Whether guns are present or not present has no bearing on whether or not people go on shooting sprees. It's simply another in a nauseating series of proclamations by children who are trying to get their own way. 

Yep. That's pretty much it.

Even West Point?

I've been taken to the mat many times on here for talking too much about conservatives. So has Nikto. Both of us have said many times that the far right in this country, which more or less dominates the GOP, is dangerous and should be taken more seriously. Now the premier military academy in the school agrees with both of us.

In a report entitled, "Challengers from the Sidelines: Understanding America’s Violent Far-Right," author Arie Perliger discusses the rise in attacks (since 2007) by people aligned with far right groups. He centers his paper on three key questions.

(1) What are the main current characteristics of the violence produced by the far right? 

(2) What type of far-right groups are more prone than others to engage in violence? How are characteristics of particular far-right groups correlated with their tendency to engage in violence? 

(3) What are the social and political factors associated with the level of far-right violence? Are there political or social conditions that foster or discourage violence?

Good questions to start and he does an excellent job of identifying the three key elements of the far right: a racist/white supremacy movement, an anti-federalist movement and a fundamentalist movement.

There's quite a bit to pour over so I'm just going to highlight some points that I thought were interesting and encourage everyone else to read the whole thing.

If there is one ideological doctrine about which there is almost full consensus regarding its importance for understanding the far-right worldview, it is that of nationalism. 

Yep. This is where I get my valid comparison to Nazis. I realize this ruffles many feathers here but no one can deny that the Right are more nationalistic than the left. After all, the left hate America, right? So how can they be Nazis?

More specifically...

In the context of the far-right worldview, nationalism takes an extreme form of full convergence between one polity or territory and one ethnic or national collective. Two elements are required for the fulfillment of this version of the nationalist doctrine. The first is that of internal homogenization, i.e., the aspiration that all residents or citizens of the polity will share the same national origin and ethnic characteristics. The second is the element of external exclusiveness, the aspiration that all individuals belonging to a specific national or ethnic group will reside in the homeland. 

It's always puzzled me that the Right can't see how collectivist they act on a daily basis. Everyone has to think like they do otherwise they are not pure. We've seen this with the GOP primaries in the last two elections.

So how is this manifested?

The first includes concepts that complement the rationale of internal homogenization throughxenophobia, racism and exclusionism. Xenophobia involves behaviors and sentiments derived from fear, hate and hostility towards groups which are perceived as alien or strange, including people with alternative sexual preferences, styles of living and behavior;  racism refers to the same sentiments, but based on racial grounds, such as belief in the national and moral significance of natural and hereditary differences between races, and the conviction that certain races are superior to others. 

Finally, exclusionism is the practical manifestation of these sentiments on the communal or state level. Practically, outsiders are excluded from specific spheres of the social, economic and political arena, such as the labor market, the educational system and residential areas. 

I don't think there is a better summation of the GOP today.

Whither Sarah...

We don't hear much from Sarah "she scares the 'hell' out of Markadelphia" Palin these days. Every few weeks, she'll pop up, say something predictable and boring, and then retreat to her Alaskan bunker to wait out the "coming apocalypse."

But the recent news that her and Fox News have parted ways has left a whole lot of sour grapes in her mouth which have translated into some..ahem... interesting remarks. First of all, she's calling for a "larger audience." But wait, I though Fox News had the largest audience of the news networks. What happened? Oh yes...the election last year. Of course, this comment could just be her way of covering herself for being ousted at Fox. But I think it's more than that. The GOP does need a larger audience but in order to do that, they are going to have to change and, thus far, they are refusing to do that.

She also called for "more truth telling in the media" which made me laugh so hard I think I broke a rib. Considering that most the words out of her mouth are complete lies, maybe she should start with herself. The real money quote, though, was this.

“I encourage others to step out in faith, jump out of the comfort zone, and broaden our reach as believers in American exceptionalism,” she told the conservative news site in a short Q&A. “That means broadening our audience. I’m taking my own advice here as I free up opportunities to share more broadly the message of the beauty of freedom and the imperative of defending our republic and restoring this most exceptional nation.”  

“We can't just preach to the choir,” she said. “The message of liberty and true hope must be understood by a larger audience.”

Yes, please, by all means DO broaden your audience. I have encouraged many of conservative friends and commenters here and on Kevin's site to leave the bubble and stop preaching to the choir. As of yet, they have declined. So, maybe Sarah can be the trailblazer!

I'm looking forward to her explaining how our country needs to be "restored" considering we have the largest economy and the most wealth of any other nation on the planet. I'd like to hear how we can better defend our republic when are armed forces are already larger than the next 20 countries combined. This doesn't even include America's soft power in the world with products like the iPhone. I think her message of "restoration" is going to be a wonderful juxtaposition to our impending energy independence in the next decade.

And I'd really like to hear her try to convince the American people that Democrats don't believe in American exceptionalism. It's a lie that hasn't worked in the last four elections.

So, please, Sarah, do take your message of liberty and true hope outside of the bubble. My question for you and any others that follow suit is this

What are you going to do when reality smacks you upside the head?