Self-Criticism Thread...

[Truncador]

...wherein all are invited to come forward, in the embarassment-free environment of an anonymous forum, and admit what's royally stupid about your party, movement, pet causes, etc.

For my own part:

-I can't help but notice how many Conservatives who are Darwin skeptics suddenly become a lot less skeptical when various pop-Darwinists tell them what they want to hear with respect to the rightful place of women in the home, the intrinisic shiftlessness and stupidity of poor people, etc. ad nauseam.

-There are still people on the Right who think it would be desirable to abolish all social welfare and minimum wage laws and such, and just let everybody fend for themselves. I figure the reason is that whatever indigent people the average Right-winger is likely to enounter are rather passive, panhandling for change in the street or whatnot, and not threatening enough to be worth worrying about. But the indigent are only like that when- thanks to the social-safety net- there aren't very many of them. Masses of desperate people are another story. Their response to your sneer to "get a job" will be to start marching around in mobs flying those flags with the funny crooked crosses or crossed farm implements on them...

-Many such people also seem to believe that it's possible to run a State for free, since they appear to believe that any government expenditure is too much and any tax too high. In America, this sort of parlour anarchism has succeeded in influencing the policy to the point where there's a real possibility that the State is headed towards ruin.

Now let's hear from the gentlemen of the Left...

 

[LancsLad]

I will admit that I sometimes keep my opinions bottled up inside and don't express myself. I am working on that shyness and when ready will let the "gentlemen" from the left know the full extent of my feelings.

 

[maxweber]

What's left of the Left

Trunc,

A brave, innarestin', and thoughtful venture.

Replying in kind is shooting fish in a barrel, I'm afraid. I identify myself as a Roosevelt liberal--and the pickin's are mighty slim for such as me.
- I've had occasion to mention the disastrous decline of the public intellectual. I'm tempted to say that's not such a serious loss for the right, since many of the right's exemplars have been doers rather than theorists--MacArthur, McCarthy, Gates. But an idea-bereft left is a sorry creature indeed. The academic left is a virtually compete catastrophe, its reality scarcely better than the caricatures of it by D'Souza and other Rightist ideologues. Identity politics has been the coup de grace. If you want to have yourself a nice chat, based on the firm (and entirely idiotic) conviction that "gender is destiny," or even "race is destiny," go to a trucker bar in Ku Klux Klan territory; or, for an even better chance of finding your kind of dialogue, go to any Women's Studies or Black Studies program, where you can hear the ideas of Gobineau & Chamberlain reminted, and spewed out by tenured PhDs. And, thank you, in handsomely incomprehensible jargon to boot.
- I like the story Molly Ivins tells of an ancient but tough-souled Texas New Dealer meeting Bubba, right after Monicagate broke, looking him straight in the face, and saying: "you dumb son of a bitch." If I met Kerry or Hillary, I'd say the same, plus "How fucking dare you call yourself a Democrat, when you voted for that phony war. You're either gutless, opportunistic, or deadbone stupid. In any case, you have no business calling yourself a Democrat. You're a Republican, without the brass to admit that you think greed is good." In short: "flaws of the Left"? what Left?
- Instead of men & women of principle, we have Kerry & Hillary; instead of men and women of ideas, we have have comics who are merely rich man's, inverted versions of their right wing opposites. I don't think Michael Moore is anything like as disgusting a human being as Rush, O'Reilly, or Coulter--you have to descend a couple of phyla for that--but the man's a buffoon, no question. Like the neo-con serpents, he's an entertainer. I for one ain't amused.

That's for starters.

 

[onthebottom]

I think the Republican machine has fallen prey to its success in delivering crisp messaging. They're a little too good about staying on message and thus it looks like a small tent sometimes as there is little room for dissent. I think this is a failing of any party in power but the control that Delay (at one point) and the White House have been able to enforce it, dare I say, too efficient.

Both the left and right have buffoons in their camp, Pat Roberson would be one of ours.

I think Republicans are dead wrong on gay marriage. We're where the rest of the country is, but it's still wrong.

OTB

 

[someone]

I can think of a lot of “Self-Criticisms” I could make. However, Tunc’s criteria where to “admit what's royally stupid about your party, movement, pet causes, etc.” Although I once belonged to the PC club when I was a student in university, I no longer see myself aligned with any party and only conditionally give them my vote until the disappoint me. Nonetheless, given that I did vote for the conservative party in the last election and would likely do so if an election where held today, I’ll say that they are my temporary “party” and give my criticisms of them.

In terms of my preferences regarding economic policy, I would say that cutting the GST while raising income taxes was “royally stupid” to use Trunic’s terminally. It is not stupid if you value the current generation more than future generations. However, traditionally conservatives (at least in Canada) claim not to do this. If you value future generations, you want to encourage saving to increase capital accumulation. Hence, you should prefer to tax consumption rather than income. I would go even further and say that they should have increased RRSP limits instead to encourage savings. Increasing income taxes to cut the GST was stupid in terms of traditional conservative values and my own values.

I’m also not convinced that their get tough on crime policy is not a bit of over kill. I agree that it is easy to cite examples of sentences that have been far to light but I’m not convinced that the conservatives have not gone to far in their response.

With regard to childcare, I really don’t see why those of use that don’t have kids should subsidize those that do. There may be a case that can be made, but I don’t think that they have made it (or any other party for that matter).

I also think that they should have at least mentioned some of their campaign promises regarding the military in their budget (e.g. the ones regarding an Artic presence, replacements for the Hercules aircraft, etc.)

 

[Mcluhan]

Comical thread. DQ you are stumbling and know better. What is it that draws you into to defending this right of passage. You guys seem to me like children debating which cartoons to watch in a burning house. The only context this discussion can be held in amongst intellectuals, is one where the intellectuals have so little life experience that they are blind to the human truths of what makes any transaction tick. Politics is based on any one of the famous seven deadly sins. Look at the person you voted for and narrow it down, eventually pick one. DQ you as board sage cannot fall prey to this dipping.

 

[onthebottom]

Seems to me you're going to have a bad case of angst in the November gubanitorial
race in Ohio, OTB. Strickland, the moderate D, vs. Blackwell, the fundamentalist
and anti-gay, R.

Personally, Blackwell turns me off. I'd have to vote against Blackwell regardless of
the D candidate. Strickland, an ordained minister, seems to be the lesser of two evils. Personally, I always admired Voinovich the former governor. He's as independent as
you can get though a R.

I don't know anything about Strickland so I can't comment, in 04 the anti-gay marriage resolution passed by 70% in OH so while I think Blackwell is on the wrong side of history (along with most of the electorate and both political parties) I think a Black Republican with Conservative values might play well with both Republicans and church going blacks.

OTB

 

[onthebottom]

I think it's fascinating that TOV and Pecker have not risen to the challenge - beyond the one note song their accustomed to I guess.

OTB