conservatives politics social mobility GOP class warfare

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The conservative fear of social mobility.

—via sarahlee310:jron:moorewr

“But it’s worth noting what exactly is the most important conservative consideration— what is actually being conserved? What part of the status quo is most important for the conservative to maintain? There are many options: religion, social ways, class & race issues, relation of big business to government, money-making opportunities, even style of dress can fit in there.

Moderates and liberals must internalize that the overriding conservative issue today, the one that trumps all others, is Social Mobility. All of the conservative issues above fit in some way or other under the fear of social mobility and the breakdown of class structure. Most liberals find this hard to understand—they tend to believe that a rising tide lifts all boats and that all Americans should have equal opportunity, and often don’t realize that not everyone believes this.”

(read more at my longer move sideways)

Click through.  This is an excellent article that deserves a few minutes of your time to read and some more minutes to consider.

vruz: interesting, but it mostly addresses the obvious cases. it still doesn’t explain the existence of some groups like gay conservatives, black conservatives and actual libertarians. far more work is necessary to understand all the different aspects.

Reblogged from à chacun son goût

WWII great depresion the great depression economy warmongers GOP conservatives conservatism new deal

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The Economy and World War II

by Kevin Drum, MotherJones

I’m curious about something. Conservatives are forever reminding us liberals that the New Deal didn’t get us out of the Great Depression. It was World War II that got us out of the Great Depression. And roughly speaking, that’s true enough.

So why, then, isn’t that a good model for getting us out of our current slump? WWII featured five years with federal deficits above 10% of GDP, three of which were above 20% of GDP. And although WWII might have been a good thing for global freedom, all that spending was for war materiel that was completely useless to the U.S. economy. If we repeated this today, we could do better than that even if half the stimulus spending was meaningless makework.

So what’s the deal? Did WWII rescue the American economy or not? And if it did, what’s the argument for not trying it again, but without the war?

vruz: no, peace is not good. I think they might just start a few more wars and employ everybody in the military-industrial complex.

besides, god said keynes is bad, bad, very bad.

Obama Barack Obama The Onion politics satire alert Republican republicans COnservative conservatives 2012 lulz

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New GOP Strategy Involves Reelecting Obama, Making His Life Even More Miserable

vruz: it’s the onion. but then all parody is the amplification of a real trait, and obama hate in GOP quarters is a very real one.

—via cognitivedissonance:

Calling a GOP victory in the 2012 presidential election antithetical to the party platform, top Republicans revealed a new long-term political strategy Tuesday: reelecting Barack Obama and making his life even more of a living hell than it already is.

“For three years, the Republican Party has coalesced around the single goal of making President Obama’s every waking moment sheer and utter torture,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters. “But we can’t continue to do that if he’s not in office.”

“If we are going to make the president a haggard shell of a human being by the time he leaves the White House, we need four more years of never compromising, four more years of miring every piece of legislation in unnecessary procedural muck, four more years of pretending we want to work with the president and then walking away from the table at the last second,” McConnell added. “Four more years! Four more years! Obama 2012!”


According to GOP sources, the decision to cede the 2012 election to Obama came after rank-and-file Republicans agreed that grinding the president down to nothing and pushing him to the brink of insanity was far more in line with the Republican Party’s core principles than actually controlling the White House, making laws, or governing the country.

I’m 90% sure this is the actual plan. The GOP’s hatred of Obama is completely irrational - he gives them nearly everything they want.

Reblogged from Cognitive Dissonance

fox news faux news news politics conservatives media bias lies republicans democrats obama usa nato malaysia abortion economy

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Fox News Headlines Vs. The Actual News Headlines - II

—via verbalresistance:

Fox News cited each of these “actual news headlines” as their “source.” 
Fair and balanced. Yup.

Buzzfeed

Reblogged from and another thing ...

impeach impeachment conservative supreme court scotus rightwingers neocons conservatives nader ralph nader

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Nader Blasts 5 on Supreme Court, Urges Impeachment

by Peter Hardin, GavelGrab

Former presidential candidate Ralph Nader is targeting five Supreme Court justices with sharp criticism, and he is urging impeachment action.

Justice at Stake has consistently cautioned against impeachment calls based on disagreement with specific rulings. JAS Executive Director Bert Brandenburg warned in a statement last October:

“Almost every American, liberal and conservative, has been angered by particular legal rulings, but that’s because we ask courts to settle tough legal disputes. It is reckless to threaten judges with ouster simply because we don’t like a particular decision.”

Nader declares in a commentary distributed by OpEd News, “Five Supreme Court Justices–Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Alito and Kennedy are entrenching, in a whirlwind of judicial dictates, judicial legislating and sheer ideological judgments, a mega-corporate supremacy over the rights and remedies of individuals.”

“Taken together,” he writes, “the decisions are brazenly over-riding sensible precedents, tearing apart the state common law of torts and blocking class actions, shoving aside jury verdicts, limiting people’s ‘standing to sue,’ pre-empting state jurisdictions–anything that serves to centralize power and hand it over to the corporate conquistadores.”

Nader concludes: “Never have I urged impeachment of Supreme Court justices. I do so now, for the sake of ending the Supreme Court’s corporate-judicial dictatorship that is not accountable under our system of checks and balance in any other way.”

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