Todays "Conservatives" are a contradictory mix of fearful and spiteful groups with competing agendas ...

Submitted by GW (United States), Feb 4, 2013 at 14:03

What is "CONSERVATISM"?

• Is it the Tea-party version of know-nothing, anti-intellectualism ?
• Is it the paranoid conservatism of Richard M. Nixon and Spiro T. Agnew?
• Is it the informed benevolence of Dwight D. Eisenhower's anti-big business, anti-military-industrial administration?
• Is it the conservatism embodied by the illuminated leadership of Nelson Rockefeller, GOP governor of NYS and presidential candidate?
• Is it the pro-business commitment of Calvin Coolidge and Jay Rockefeller?
• Is it the religious authoritarianism of such holy people as Anita Bryant, Jerry Falwell, and Pat Robertson?
• Is it the soulless social-Darwinist individualism of Ayn Rand?
• Or is it embodied by the trust-busting concern for a healthy and strong American society echoed by Teddy Roosevelt?
• Is it the political belief of Barry Goldwater – "the father of US Conservatism"?
• Is it the pragmatic, socially liberal, masculine dogmatism of Ronald Reagan? Or the more feminine and practical side of his wife, Nancy Reagan?

Does Mitt Romney's "Corporations are People" sentiment echo warmly in your ears, even though Adam Smith decried the corporation as an aberrant corruption of a capitalist partnership? Should we cede more power and privilege to "corporations" than we give to people? And if that is conservatism, how will "corporate democracy" protect the interests of the minority shareholders or of the non-shareholders?

Is a conservative better characterized by the bloviations of any of the following media giants: Glenn Beck? Sean Hannity? Rush Limbaugh? Sarah Palin? Ann Coulter? Laura Ingraham? Would you prefer that your family doctor be as "conservative" (or more "conservative") than them? How about your minister being more conservative than you? Your school principal? Your boss?

Conservatism is so many things. How can it effectively appeal to all? It seems to need to depend on fear and greed to keep others in line, but it asks for a number of contradictory bedfellows in order to work:

• Pro-big business conservatives seek to enjoin union workers and minimum wage workers to sign on to a political agenda that benefits business above all else.
• Pro-military supporters as conservative as pro-military contractor shareholders, even though contractor military personnel were not covered by the Geneva Convention and tended to be led by a different set of rules?
• Can a movement that touts individual freedoms and liberties be the same movement that is religiously and morally authoritarian? (It has been said that It has been said that Republican conservatives are being controlled by the evangelical/fundamentalist Christians who want to replace our democracy with a theocracy.)
• Can anyone who believes that the role of government in a balanced society is to promote the growth and stability of a productive middle class also support policies that work to the benefit of the top 1% while working to the detriment of all others?

In 1960, Barry Goldwater published "The Conscience of a Conservative", a book that covered such topics as education, labor unions and policies, civil rights, states' rights, agricultural policy and farm subsidies, social welfare programs, and income taxation. But his granddaughter C.C. Goldwater says that Barry Goldwater considered himself a liberal in his later years, and that her grandfather "didn't leave his party, his party has left him. Though he's often depicted as the father of conservatism, Barry Goldwater would be considered a moderate today. He was firmly pro-choice, a supporter of gay rights … Fundamentally, it's clear that Barry would not have been comfortable with the increasing influence of the Christian right over the GOP." (I bet it's likely that even Ronald Reagan would be pushed around by Boehner and Limbaugh and Glenn Beck as being not-conservative enough. Ronald's son believes that the recent GOP lost him and it probably would have lost his father as well.)

How many people would expect a conservative to be harsh and stern against the corporation and to be a pillar of strength for the individual and especially for the poor, the weak and the less advantaged?

The Bush-Cheney track record is that it used "conservatism" as a disguise for other ends – for promotion of a Unitary Presidency, dishonesty in public deployment of national resources, and a recklessness that fostered an environment of greed that left a financial collapse in its wake and favoritism for corporate shareholders (and even more so for the corporate elites).

Right Wing Authoritarians:

The problem with "CONSERVATISM" is that it tends to be dominated by "Right Wing Authoritarians (RWA)". "Bob" Altemeyer, a retired Professor of Psychology at the University of Manitoba, did extensive research on authoritarianism, identifying the psychological makeup of authoritarian followers and authoritarian leaders. Altemeyer's work is extensively referenced in John W. Dean's 2006 book, "Conservatives Without Conscience". According to Altemeyer, what are the characteristic traits of a RWA?

1: Unhealthy Hostility and Fear Toward Outsiders.RWA's are more likely to:

• Be prejudiced, almost to the point of hostility, against many racial, ethnic, nationalistic, and linguistic minorities.
• Punish "criminals" severely in a role-playing situation.
• Admit they get personal pleasure from punishing such people.
• But go easy on authorities who commit crimes and people who attack minorities.
• Volunteer to help the government persecute almost anyone.
• Be mean-spirited toward those who have made mistakes and suffered.
• Be fearful of situations and people who represent differences in customs and personalities from their own

There's an inability and unwillingness to walk a mile in someone else's shoes. Systematically misunderstanding others is second nature with this sort of outlook. The actual interior experience of others is something that such a mindset simply cannot dare to seriously consider. It is simply presumed to be "evil."

2: Not-So-Healthy Tribalistic In-group Cohesion. RWA's are more likely to:

• Strongly believe that "loyalty" and followership is the path all should take
• Insist on traditional gender roles.
• Use religion to erase guilt over their acts and to maintain their self-righteousness.
• Be "fundamentalists", however, to also be the most prejudiced members of whatever religion they belong to.
• Accept unfair and illegal abuses of power by government authorities.
• Trust leaders who are untrustworthy.

These manifestations of tribalism: People keep to their lanes and leaders are to be trusted and obeyed, no matter what.

3: Faulty reasoning.RWA's are more likely to:

• Make many incorrect inferences from evidence.
• Hold contradictory ideas.
• Uncritically accept that many problems are 'our most serious problem.'
• Uncritically accept insufficient evidence that supports their beliefs.
• Uncritically trust people who tell them what they want to hear.
• Use many double standards in their thinking and judgments.

4: Aberrant Character Traits. RWA's are more likely to:

• Be dogmatic.
• Be zealots.
• Be hypocrites.
• Be bullies when they have power over others.
• Work to inflame intergroup conflict.
• Be highly self-righteous.

The cumulative picture is that RWAs have a set of tendencies that work together to foster a conformist identity that is maintained in part by demonizing others and that expresses itself in a tolerance for abuse of others who do not conform with that identity.

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