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    Who are the NERD fund donors Mr Snyder?

    Raise the curtain.

    Watch your language!


    By Jack McHughs Blog, Section News
    Posted on Wed Sep 02, 2009 at 11:54:04 PM EST
    Tags: rhetoric (all tags)

    Rick Moran wrote a piece on The Next Right, "Angry Ideologues vs. The Statists," that contains some words for the wise among the limited government movement. Below is the relevent excerpt.

    ~~~~~

    Conor Friedersdorf, writing at Andrew Sullivan's The Daily Dish, has a thoughtful critique of Mark Levin's huge bestseller Liberty and Tyranny:

    "In fact, the main antagonists that the American conservative vies with in politics are the independent, the liberal, the center left Democrat, the progressive, even some among the apolitical. The average people who support "Statist" President Obama's domestic agenda are apolitical African American women who work in cubicles, law firm associates who earn six figure salaries, and working parents who fret about being uninsured -- not utopian radicals bent on advancing a counterrevolution that destroys the freedom won by the Founding generation."

    . . . I have resisted using terms like "socialist" and especially "communist" to describe the Democrat's ideology because by strict definition, they are not trying to destroy the free market, repeal individual rights (as always, making an exception for 2nd amendment guarantees), set up a dictatorship, or impose "tyranny - soft or hard - on the American people.

    . . . This problem with mis-identification that Conor writes about as well as the wrong headed definitions of where Obama and the Democrats are trying to take the country, feed what has become a perceived paranoia among many conservatives that is driving people away from the movement rather than rallying them to our standard. At bottom is the argument I've been trying to advance in this series; that the excessive ideology fueling the rage that manifests itself in paranoid rantings on the internet against imagined socialism, the purging of perceived apostates, the obsession with ideological purity, and more recently, shouted down speakers at health care town halls - all of this damages conservatism in the eyes of people who might be inclined to support our cause. It also makes it extraordinarily easy for the opposition to paint conservatives as too emotional to trust with running the government.

    ~~~~~~~~

    Moran is off-base on the crack about "shouting down" Obama-care apologists at Town Hells- we know that one's a red herring - but he's absolutely right about the danger of using paranoid-sounding rhetoric.

    Sorry that this is not Michigan-centric, but I think it's pretty important.

    < Counter Protest MoveOn.org Health Care "Vigil TONIGHT@THE STATE CAPITOL | UNESCO Strikes Again! >


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    Well observed... (none / 0) (#2)
    by rdww on Thu Sep 03, 2009 at 08:56:14 AM EST
    How many of us have had the experience of discussing politics and society with someone, and found they have (often strong) conservative views?  Then, the name of Rush Limbaugh comes up, and the person immediately goes off on how nuts he is, how they detest him, etc.... even though Rush is SAYING ALL THE THINGS THE PERSON AGREES WITH.
    This is a real quandary for conservatism.  We have a message and values with broad acceptance -- but the media does an excellent job of demonizing all our messengers.


    Agree 100% (none / 0) (#3)
    by grannynanny on Thu Sep 03, 2009 at 08:56:58 AM EST
    And also the line drawn is becoming very apparent. This administration is dividing the nation on purpose and I believe that all the Saul Alinsky  followers of the 60's (Pelosi, Reed, Clinton, Frank etc) will drive hard and fast to make their agenda law of the land.  This is what is truly frightening and I only hope that we can keep knocking it down until the 2010 elections.  Hopefully the ciitzens who now see the light don't let their guard down and keep fighting for our constitutional rights. We cannot let these socialists take over this country!

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