It seems that the more I pay attention to what conservatives do, the less they make sense. They are very clear in professing a certain set of values that they believe in, but the follow through is suspect at best. Now this isn't true for all conservatives, but before the trolls start saying "you're just cherry-picking a few examples that are just a few bad apples" (like the multiple fruit metaphor there?), don't forget that the
politics and
religion sections of the Guide have long, long lists of similar behavior. This means I've been keeping track. These incidents are far from rare and are representative of a significant portion of the group that claims the "conservative" name for themselves. Let's take a look at a few examples:
Conservatives claim to support religion and Christianity. But then you have death threats to ministers:
Since the article was published, McCray said, she has received numerous threatening phone calls and e-mails. "One of the calls said, `One who ministers to lesbians and punks should watch their backs,'" McCray said. "Someone else said, `Your voice needs to be shut up.'
"A couple days before the window was smashed, I got a call saying I needed to watch my back, and then the phone slammed down." McCray said that she is convinced that the smashing of her car window is related to the threatening phone calls and e-mails.
And you have a conservative driving over crosses.
They claim to support the troops, but you have them chanting "we don't care" about dead troops, calling the mothers of those troops who have died whores, driving over memorials to deceased troops and doing pretty much whatever they can to screw the troops and use them as political props (that essay is old, but you can find many, many updates here).
Conservatives claim to favor national security and the protection of our intelligence resources, but not a single one of them seems to care about the outing of Valerie Plame:
During a Court TV panel discussion in New York this morning, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen said that Plamegate isn't worth all the attention it's getting. "This is not a major story," he said, according to an account posted by Editor & Publisher. "It's a crappy little crime and it may not be a crime at all."
They claim to want to watch out for the children, yet they support priests who rape underage girls.
Conservatives claim to support fiscal responsibility, but they repeatedly vote for Republican presidents who run up the biggest deficits and debts in American history.
They claim to support Social Security and the future of our elderly, yet they call it a Socialist Ponzi scheme and talk about killing it or make a public display of shredding their social security statements.
Conservatives claim to oppose voter fraud and intimidation, yet they pay the legal bills for guys who tampered with voters in New Hampshire (among many other examples of their own fraud and intimidation).
They claim to be more honest and ethical than Democrats, yet they are systematically doing away with rules against unethical behavior.
Conservatives claim to believe in personal responsibility, but they blames liberals, Bill Clinton, gays, Muslims, Democrats, blacks, foreigners and pretty much everybody other than themselves for everything.
They say they love America, but they want to move to South Carolina, think America is so weak that it is on the verge of collapse and seceed from the nation or they reject improving things for the whole country, instead focusing on their own power:
Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association in Tupelo, Miss., said social conservatives are indeed frustrated by the actions of breakaway Republican senators. "You would think to the victors go the spoils," he said.
Conservatives claim to believe in the Constitution and the founding fathers, but they ignore it pretty much whenever it gets in their way -- equality, torture, privacy and the judicial system
They say they want to keep government out of people's personal lives, but they reject the right to privacy -- want to get involved with a women's relationship with her doctor, with the sexual relationships between consenting adults, don't want women to be able to buy vibrators, want to know the sexual histories of women getting abortions, and want to get involved in the relationship between married couples.
Conservatives claim that gun ownership is a peaceful thing and that they are law-abiding citizens that never do anything illegal, but they are shooting cops for "patriotic" reasons, trying to steal guns to "do something" about the Terri Schiavo situation and they think it's fun to shoot people.
They say they support freedom for the Iraqi people and others in the Middle East, except those who they arrest, hold indefinitely and torture. And they use torture as a reason we should've invaded Iraq, but don't seem to mind at all when our guys do it, wearing T-shirts that say "I heart Gitmo."
Conservatives say they care about women, but they oppose equal pay for equal work, belittle domestic abuse and do little or nothing to prevent it.
"I mean you women want it one way and not another. Women want to punish the men, and I do not understand why women continue to go back around men who abuse them.... tell me what self respecting person is going back around someone who beats them?"
I could go on and on and on, but I think you get the point. And keep in mind that much of what I've cited here comes from rank-and-file conservatives, not just the leaders, although those leaders certainly inspire most, if not all, of this activitiy with their rhetoric and activity. With the leaders is easy to understand (but not excuse) their lies and hypocrisy, since these things help them stay in power, but what does all of this crap do for the average conservative? Deny them any credibility or legitimate value system? Make them vote for people whose intention is to screw them economically? Sacrifice themselves to a cause and a group of people that is only using them for political gain? Send them to hell? Who knows. These people claim to have a set of values, but those values change depending on the situation and to whom the values are being applied. If they do something, it's okay, if we do something, it's not. Talk about moral relativism, something else they claim to oppose but practice more than any liberal I've ever met.