Apr 25 2009
Conservative Underground In Exile Swilling The Kool Aid
A center-right conservative movement could be having a field day on policy issues right now given how far the Democrats have lurched left. From the impotent spending binge and massive debt piling up in a mistaken attempt to restart our economy (will just be a drag), to the insane idea CO2 is a pollutant and we all now are going to be taxed for breathing (another economic drag), to taking their eyes off our enemies and setting up witch hunts to ‘get Bush’ (which will never happen, he is retired and out of reach), the left is making incredible mistakes. It should be a cake walk for the political opposition.
Except for the fact that the ‘true conservatives’ are right now Madder Hatters than on those on the left! In a master stroke of Seppuku (the Japanese ritual of suicide by self disembowelment) the conservative movement has taken on some very repulsive labels lately. They love to be called ‘conservatism in exile’, which doesn’t bother or impress anyone – since their exile was primarily an act of rejection from the American voter. Now I hear the label ‘conservative underground’ as if replicating the fevered, immature tome of the Democrat Underground web-swamp. The final stroke came when the conservative movement was leaked a DHS report targeting violent extremists and the potential for massive home grown violence like we saw at Oklahoma City from Timothy McVeigh.
The drama queens came out in force, claiming the report was not about stopping any potential future McVeighs, but it was actually a government run effort to oppress these conservatives in exile (failing to note their endless screw ups are depressing their power base just fine without any need for help from the outside). The government name for folks like McVeigh is “extreme rightwing”. So what did the formerly mainstream conservative talking heads do? They claimed partnership with the extremist, claiming they too were ‘rightwing extremists’. Did they want to be like McVeigh? Did they want to shield future McVeigh’s by extending their waning credibility to their causes and actions? Were they just screaming for attention?
Who the hell knows! All I know is they claimed the title we use to target violent extremists who are a threat to Americans. They chose to adopt this title, no one thrust it upon them.
I noted that when one-time credible leaders give their share their voice with extremists, the extremists many times take this as a green light to do something horrible. I still worry the mob-talk on the right will end up getting someone seriously hurt. They are being completely irresponsible and foolish, which is why I finally declared my independence from the madness and am now simply a centrist independent.
Is this all wild conjecture on my part? Well no it is not – since the FBI has now arrested one of these rightwing extremists the formerly mainstream conservatives took such great pride in claiming allegiance to:
Daniel Knight Hayden, 52, was arrested by FBI agents who identified him as the Twitter user CitizenQuasar. In a series of tweets beginning April 11, CitizenQuasar vowed to start a “war” against the government on the steps of the Oklahoma City Capitol building, the site of that city’s version of the national “Tea Party” protests promoted by the conservative-leaning Fox News.
“START THE KILLING NOW! I am willing to be the FIRST DEATH!,” read a tweet at 8:01 PM that day. “After I am killed on the Capitol Steps, like a REAL man, the rest of you will REMEMBER ME!!!,” he added five minutes later. Then: “Send the cops around. I will cut their heads off the heads and throw the[m] on the State Capitol steps.”
Hayden’s MySpace page is a breathtaking gallery of right wing memes about the “New World Order,” gun control as Nazi fascism, and Barack Obama’s covert use of television hypnosis, among many others.
This is what the conservative movement has distilled down to – the lunatic fringe. This guy is the kind of nutcase that has mothers gathering their children up and running for the exits while most sane men are working out how to disable him if blow up one more notch. The guy is a danger. Yet, he is part of conservatism in exile, the conservative underground. He may not be alone, how many others have been swilling the Kool Aid and are prepared to unleash their anger?
The conservative movement will have to die out and be replaced by a centrist group that can offer reasoned and proven opposition and policies to the liberal left now in control of DC. People are very uncomfortable with where Obama, Pelosi and Reid are going, but there is no sane voice of reason to offer alternatives. I don’t think sanity will crash across the current dying remnants of the conservative movement during the 2010 elections. It is clear the Senator Specter of PA will probably lose his primary to a ‘true conservative’, who will then go out and lose in the election. Even moderate conservatives are struggling to get elected, forget anyone on the far right making it.
I have posted before on this nonsense. If conservatism is to be reborn, the hot heads need to be ejected and those calling for armed revolution need to be shunned daily and with clarity. For example, if someone wants to rant against our legally elected President and Congress, they better also be rejecting nut jobs like this group:
Return The Republic is not patriotic, it is trying to persuade people falling out of the mainstream to become violently radical. It is not American, it is treason. If you can’t denounce these people you are extremists.
I fear we have to discover the depths of failure the current conservative ‘leaders’ have brought to the Party of Reagan and Bush before anything will be able to rise up from the ashes.
America doesn’t need an armed revolution. America needs a knowledge revolution. People need to learn how our government is meant to work and then go out and educate and get elected. The best way to get America running on all cylinders again is to get elected and make change from the inside. Be smart in your conversations and debates. Be open to learning things you don’t know. Be open to having the First Principles of this country go against what your “politics” are. Let people know why 1+1=2. Be respectful and intelligent. It’s not about “winning” an argument. Those Restore the Republic guys are morons. That is a great example of too little knowledge being a dangerous thing.
AJ, you’re half right. Only half, though.
True conservatism is strong, because it is right. It is a philosophy and political system that accepts the world as it is and makes the best of it, instead of indulging in the fantasy politics of the left. It’s no crime to hold strongly to it, and to oppose those who have sought office as conservatives then betrayed their supporters.
Where I will agree with you is that some on the Right have let their wrath overwhelm their reason – especially in their rhetoric. It’s cold logic and relentless determination we need now. That is the path of victory.
And this is the reaction from the left.
FBI Arrests Oklahoma Teabagger For Twitter Threats
AJ:
There have always been crazy people on both extremes, but if the conservatives were just over reacting about that report I don’t think the head of the American Legion would be demanding apologies from the DHS.
I think they wanted to make people wonder if the Tea Party protesters were dangerous people and so they rushed the thing out.
I don’t believe labeling this nut as a “conservative” as being in any way representative of political conservatives is fair. He is a nut. And this should go to show people that you aren’t “anonymous” on twitter or any other service.
AJ, I love love LOVE that picture at the top. Perfect! I agree with much of what you say but not all of it. What I like most is your strong denouncement of an obvious extreme nutcase, and that is largely missing elsewhere in Right World.
What you said about conservatives loving the “underground” status, etc. is right on the money. I think they like living in their basements posting lunatic alarms and talking to each other via ham radios and morse code. Makes them feel important? Who knows.
One thing though. I do believe house Republicans are beginning to get their act together. Not yet in any dramatic way but it’s coming. There are some bold, level headed people trying to make headway. I like Michael Steele a lot. Of course the biggest problem the “normals” have is getting past the conservative obstacle course.
The picture represents how I feel.
Federal Government is too big and too powerful. They have become invasive. There is a Federal, State, and Local government agency for almost everything.
We CAN’T get smaller Federal Government by compromising with the left, issue by issue, as you suggest. That is the proverbial ‘slow boiling of the frog’ scenario.
I’m a semi-religious Libertarian. I believe same sex marriage is wrong. Marriage was meant to provide for offspring, not spouses (and to let people know what man a woman belonged to in older times). Marriage has become a minority position – let’s just do away with it since more children are born out of wedlock than within. That way we can marry our siblings, or have group marriages if we like.
I believe abortion is killing. I’m not against it, it’s Darwinism in practice — there may not be any liberals in a few generations, but it’s still killing/murder. Let’s raise the abortion age to to 3, or 6, or 12, if it’s ok?
I know illegal immigrants are criminals. Try living in Mexico as an illegal alien and see what happens. Actually, try it as a legal alien, the rules are very strict and enforced. I know, I have a daughter living there.
I believe federal income tax, federal reserve system, etc, are illegal per our constitution. I’d like to see the Department of Education, Homeland Security, Commerce and a host of other government agency shut down. (I’m a supporter of NASA, btw, but the NASA that put us on the moon, not the one we have now, full of bureaucrats and double dipping retired military.)
I’m not for armed rebellion, but I am for rebellion. Every minute of every day this country is moving faster and farther from the time-tested beliefs of our founders — which was based on personal freedoms (and their consequences.) This country has never moved so far left, as fast, as it is right now. It will take generations of Americans to undo the damage, if ever.
Hopefully, the Tea Parties will continue and grow. The ‘crazies’ from both sides get too much press and shouldn’t distract us from the primary goal of letting the political class know they need to pay attention to us ‘commoners’.
Soon, when states start going bankrupt (CA, MI, NJ, LA, NY, etc) and inflation hits, we’ll see a different kind of tea party. The normals might just be the crazies then.