© DonkeyHotey
Although Mitt Romney used the word "conservative" 19 times in a
short speech at the February 10, 2012, Conservative Political Action Conference, the audience he used this word to appeal to was not conservative by any traditional definition. It was right wing. Despite the common American practice of using "conservative" and "right wing" interchangeably, right wing is not a synonym for conservative and not even a true variant of conservatism - although the right wing will opportunistically borrow conservative themes as required.
Right-wingers have occasioned much recent comment.
Their behavior in the Republican debates has caused even jaded observers to react like an Oxford don stumbling upon a tribe of headhunting cannibals. In those debates where the moderators did not enforce decorum, these right-wingers, the Republican base, behaved with a single lack of dignity. For a group that displays its supposed pro-life credentials like a neon sign, the biggest applause lines resulted from their hearing about executions or the prospect of someone dying without health insurance.
Who are these people and what motivates them? To answer, one must leave the field of conventional political theory and enter the realm of psychopathology. Three books may serve as field guides to the farther shores of American politics and the netherworld of the true believer.
Comment:
"Because of their social cohesion, ease of political mobilization and high election turnout, fundamentalists have political weight even beyond their raw numbers."
But any other groups that begin to develop social cohesion of a more global kind, involving compassion for all humanity, and respect for diversity, are immediately labeled a "cult" and attacked with full force.
"Blumenthal examines the childhoods of these religious-right celebrities and reveals a significant quotient of physical and mental abuse suffered at the hands of parents."
"... the inner life of fundamentalist true believers is the farthest thing from that of a stuffily proper Goody Two Shoes. They seem tormented by demons that those in the reality-based community scarcely experience. ... Far from being a purpose-driven life, the existence of many true believers is a crisis-driven life that seeks release,"
"a patriarchal, sexually repressive family life, reinforced by strict and punitive religious dogma, is the "factory" of a reactionary political order."
Issues such as this, and what they do to the minds of individuals, are discussed in
Political Ponerology where a far better explanation than Reich offered is given.
Comment: But any other groups that begin to develop social cohesion of a more global kind, involving compassion for all humanity, and respect for diversity, are immediately labeled a "cult" and attacked with full force. Issues such as this, and what they do to the minds of individuals, are discussed in Political Ponerology where a far better explanation than Reich offered is given.