Another Rant Against Flim Flam, Horse Feathers & Horseshit - the Conclusion

Yes, I’m back!

I am going to try to follow the Conservative journey from my perspective…if we go back to Russell Kirk’s six “canons”…

• I can’t agree that there is divine intent…but I do believe that personal conscience has an effect on society.
• I can’t agree that there is more variety in traditional life or that Progressive or Liberal Systems are characterized by uniformity.
• I do not believe that a civilized society requires orders and classes…this would define civilization as it existed in ancient Greece or ancient Rome and could justify both keeping certain people at the poverty level, and slavery.
• I don’t agree that property and freedom are inseparably connected. This premise sounds very much like the argument that the slave-holding plantation owners used around 1848.
• I don’t believe that man is more emotional than rational…that man’s will and appetites are always pursuing the basest courses of action.
• I don’t believe that society must alter slowly, but that change is healthy and allows society to better itself rather than adhering to stagnant ideologies.
Now even though Kirk established his “canons” or principles for Conservatives as fact…they are not any more than my opinions about them are facts. They illustrate the conflicting ideologies that exist in our current political system…but neither are FACTS.

The primary reason that Conservative ideologies have appealed to a portion of our society is that it provides justification and both bigotry and greed. If we look at what the “canons” say between the lines…you come up with something like:
• You only matter if you believe in the same deity that we believe in.
• That status quo protects the wealth that we have accumulated and allows us to do just about anything to attain more wealth (i.e., drill for oil in Denali, etc.)
• That you can not have a “ruling class” without other classes to be ruled.
• That unless you have property you don’t count.
• That man is basically evil and needs to be protected from himself.
• That status quo is a virtue within itself.

Now a few years ago I could have argued these points in a very learned and civil manner with the likes of William F. Buckley, jr. or George Will (I still could with George Will). They were (and are in George Will’s case) very intelligent, thoughtful individuals who could argue the Conservative point of view.

But somehow “the train jumped the track”, and we have a group of morons and “batshit crazy” candidates and pseudo pundits taking the American public down a path to stupid.

Now there has always been a lunatic fringe…Joseph R McCarthy, George Wallace, Curtis LeMay, and others. However, they never had the influence or “political clout” that the modern crop has.

But now, Republicans, young and old, quote Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Rielly, Ann Coulter, and the likes as though they had written the Gospels. If they said it, no matter how absurd, it had to be true!

During the fiasco of the Presidential Election of 2000…many of us decried the electoral college. But the purpose for it was valid. The Founding Fathers designed it to keep the “Batshit Crazy” Candidates like Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman from being elected to the Presidency…at least that was the theory.

...until next time...