None of it is an accurate statement.
None of it is the truth, the WHOLE truth, and NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH.
Actually, all of it is truthful. The vast majority can be established by sworn testimony and written reports of the very administration under discussion. The rest comes from written statements from those of you here. Remember, I am coming from a Catholic point of view, not your political one, so I take things like CCC 2470 very seriously.
As noted, the principle problem appears to be that conservatives are very different in their thought processes and have great difficulty processing measurable reality.
Look at yourself, the Pentagon says “no connection”, you find “yes connection” to be Gospel truth. You find ‘blame Carter’ for the housing crisis to be credible, but measurable reality says differently. The ‘simple’ answer to the housing disaster is staggering incompetence on the part of the GOP led US government:
washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/12/AR2008041202374.html
Of course, that is also the simplest and most probable answer to the disasterous Federal response to Katrina, the spectacularly ineffective execution of the Iraq war, and 9/11. But, again, in the conservative mind reason and sensory integration do not seem to proceed well held belief.
Consider the mantra that has been raised here - conservatives claim to hate taxes and hate wasteful government spending. At first glance, that seems to make sense. ‘What’s mine is mine, I earned it, and society has no claim to it’ is a uniquely Protestant type of thought and the conservative movement is fundementally an Evangelical Protestant world view.
But look at the reality. Ronald Reagan tried to outspend tip O’Neil. GWB, and a GOP congress has outspent LBJ. Record numbers of earmarks, trillions (with a T) borrowed and spent, with little tangible result. Plan D has done virtually nothing to help seniors with drug costs, because it triggered protected inflation (since the law forbids free market pressure). And massive military spending, aside from a trillion or so in Iraq and Afghanistan have left the military reporting that it is at its lowest threat readiness level in more than 60 years. Measurable discretionary spending contraction has only occured under Dem Presidents since WW-II. Clearly, the GOP loves to spend lavishly.
What about taxes? One of the falsehoods that conservatives cling to is that everyone’s taxes when down under Reagan. However, you have to cheat to make the numbers come out. First, you have to included the Bush I tax increase to make benefits to the rich look smaller. Second, you have to exclude payroll taxes to hide Reagan’s tax increases.
The modern GOP has taken this policy a step further. GWB has
doubled our national debt and created a structural deficit that was just revised up to about $500B. Instead of taxing the working poor, who don’t have that much anyway, the GOP now taxes the unborn, at a staggering rate. The GAO has already acknowledged that future generations will spend over 1/3 of their earnings just servicing the debt we are leaving them. This leads liberals to ponder rather conservatives are not just hypocrits, but sociopaths who do not even love their own children.
However, as I have noted, I think that it is the inability to accept and process reality that plays the most significant role. If you can convince yourself that silly things like ‘tax cuts increase revenue’, despite all evidence to the contrary (like doubling one’s national debt), then you can tell yourself that you are not destroying your descendants’ prosperity.
I have actually been thinking about the implications of conservative thinking for awhile and concluded that it is a very sad and scary place. If you really are fearful of Mexican’s taking food from your children, Saddam dropping nuclear bombs on you, Iran presenting a legitimate world threat, our gays somehow destroying your own sexuality, you are a lot more prone to respond to the base instincts of fear.
Think of the infamous “fainting goats” who, thanks to myotonia congenita (genetic), faint when startled. If that was the world you lived in, us/them mentality and symptoms of delusional paranoia would be perfectly understandable. Look at BamaRider’s belief about that pointing out contradictions in his stated belief system automatically makes me ‘them’ (his prediction).
The reality is that I am a very conservative Roman Catholic. I have an easier time communicating with most liberals because of the way their thought processes work, but we immediately recognize the significant differences between us. In the US, I believe that modern liberalism is not particular hypocritical. But I do believe that, like conservatives, has an incorrect understanding of the inalienable rights of the human person. Like conservatives, they apply a perceived version of proportionality.
As with conservatives, I think that the principle problem is Protestantism. That is why our political labels seem screwey to the rest of the world.
But, for Bamarider, there is no view beyond the herd. I am not in his faint hearted circle, so I am ‘them’. From my point of view, which is predominantly Catholic, the problem isn’t the conservative herd, but the selection of the wrong shepards. Protestant seperation from the Mother Church, and more allegience to an earthly construct geared towards the pursuit of political power than the Body of the Faithful.
Let’s face it, “unity and peace” is incompatible with xenophobia and hyper intense nationalism. If you pray for one and shout the other you are serving two masters. As a Catholic, I have a very strong opinion about which master should be loved most. Perhaps that is why the ‘religious right base’ of the GOP considers us a threat to the nation.
