Looney-left debates: "Why are Americans so damn conservative?" [Trust me, you'll love this!]

3/4/05 | various delusional lefties

[dukeman]

This one from DU speaks for itself. Enjoy:

amjucsc (104 posts) Thu Mar-03-05 10:43 PM
Original message

Why are Americans so damn conservative?

While this obviously dosen't apply to the people on this site, I always wonder why collectively Americans have strayed so much farther to the right than people in other first world countries.

Why exactly is it that people who embrace evangelical Christianity while opposing things like universal healthcare tend to wind up on this side of the pond? History? Demographic trends? National character? Something in the drinking water? (Turns out floridation was a left wing plot after all...)

I'm just curious if anyone has a good explanation for the red states...

Placebo (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-03-05 10:48 PM
Response to Original message

3. It can't be religious-based...

I mean, hell, Europe was ruled by religion for hundreds of years yet somehow it's turned out alright. [BWAHAHAHAHAHA!]

physioex (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-03-05 10:50 PM
Response to Reply #3

4. But that only took a few thousand years....

The people who came to this country came here to have religious freedom. Turn around what do we get, fudamentalists pushing their values on a secular country.

lagged_variable (5 posts) Thu Mar-03-05 10:53 PM
Response to Reply #3

11. Puritanism

Europe may have dealt with similar religious issues, but it wasn't founded by a mass of Puritans. A country founded by the Protestant ethic run amok, plus a strong sense of Rugged Individualism grown by a frontier (cowboy) fantasy, in my opinion, gets us where we are today.

pdurod1 (129 posts) Thu Mar-03-05 10:51 PM
Response to Original message

6. They're not conservative, just scared and ignorant or does that define a

conservative?

hedgehog (164 posts) Fri Mar-04-05 04:38 AM
Response to Reply #6

27. Absolutely, ignorant but not necessarily stupid

I remember one poll indicating a large number of Bush supporters who held views the opposite of his. They would have been Kerry supporters if they had understood which candidate they actually agreed with. This wasn't a case of letting one issue trounce the others; they thought Bush's positions were the opposite of what they were.

One reason for ignorance- when you're working 2 jobs, it's hard to keep track of politics.

solinvictus (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-03-05 10:52 PM
Response to Original message

7. It's a reaction due to Sep. 11 & years of propaganda.

Americans still cling to the Horatio Alger story as a cherished sacrament of our culture despite the fact that the very people proclaiming the glories of the free market are the last ones to believe in it. Unfortunately, the average, Freeper-type conservative has been lulled into believing that hard work, dedication, and competence will result in success. Due to this, the working class Freeper has a sort of political and economic version of Stockholm Syndrome in which they identify more with their captors than the very people who are seeking a bette life for them. Many here look at Freepers with disgust, but to a degree, I pity the ignorant, mean spirited bastards. Think of how many Freepers are working at dead-end **** jobs while professing their love for Big Brother.

physioex (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-03-05 10:58 PM
Response to Reply #7

13. Very well put....

And the less educated less read you are, the more likely you are to believe the lies....

El Supremo (829 posts) Thu Mar-03-05 10:52 PM
Response to Original message

8. Because it is safer for the uninformed.

When you don't know squat, it is easier to fall into line with the most vocal idiots.

BTW, not all evangels are bad. Fundamentalists in any religion are the root of all problems.

Kerrytravelers (408 posts) Thu Mar-03-05 10:52 PM
Response to Original message

9. I think 9/11

* was able to wrap himself in it. People are too lazy and too disinterested to learn what's really going on. Others just can't believe that someone would lie about going to war. It's misplaced national pride. It's no excuse, but this is what is happening. If 9/11 had not happened, I doubt * would still be in the Oval Office (unless, of course, he cheted again. He wouoldn't do that, would he? )

zulchzulu (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-03-05 10:58 PM
Response to Original message

14. It's generally just stupidity, ignorance & about being overwhelmed

Two jobs, two kids, two car garage with a two hour daily commute and being two months away from living on the street make the average American more than willing to watch two hours of mindless TV each night that doesn't have to deal with the hell that their lives are.

Microwave the food and flick on the tube after a long day overworked and underpaid and a traffic jam on the way home to pick the kids at daycare for two grand a month.

It's no wonder people believe Chimpy. They're too exhausted and too clueless about what's going on outside their miserable lives.

bob_weaver (358 posts) Thu Mar-03-05 10:59 PM
Response to Original message

15. Because Americans are selfish, and conservatism is selfishness put into a

political ideology

AndyTiedye (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-03-05 10:59 PM
Response to Original message

16. The Right Wing Owns The News & the Fundies Own the Voting Machinez

And once they push through the DRAFT they'll own our bodies too.

That's what Boosh** really means about this "ownership" thing.

The "pendulum" only swings ever further to the right now.

ljm2002 (453 posts) Thu Mar-03-05 11:47 PM
Response to Original message

18. Middle class values...

...I do not say that as a knee-jerk remark, I mean there is within the American personality, a tendency to think in terms of the obvious Goodness of material wealth and also to fantasize about the world around us: we see ourselves with a "homey" kind of vision, where there is this lovely middle class amber glow cast across the USofA, and that is Reality As We See It and we are happy to believe all that is told to us by our beneficient government from whom so many blessings flow, as well as to rally 'round any warmongering that may occur; and finally, we have an oddly strained relationship with the truth where our own immediate self interest and the status quo are concerned: we simplly insist on seeing things from the side that supports our own immediate self interest.

PurityOfEssence (1000+ posts) Fri Mar-04-05 02:23 AM
Response to Original message

20. Independence and selfishness are inculcated as the greatest virtues

Need I say more?

Extreme Christianity is total selfishness: save me and f*** them; they're inferiors anyway. Hell, you can't be picked from the crowd for happyland if the rest of them aren't such rotters.

Think about it.

okieinpain (1000+ posts) Fri Mar-04-05 03:13 AM
Response to Original message

23. easy, black males and crime. 9/11 just the icing on the cake.

Broca (30 posts) Fri Mar-04-05 03:39 AM
Response to Original message

24. Try corroborating this to the areas with the highest levels of Mercury

contamination or other factors that affect the brain's function.

ComerPerro (1000+ posts) Fri Mar-04-05 04:28 AM
Response to Original message

26. They aren't. They just think they are

Most Americans are just so uninterested that they go for whoever tells most, nicest, and most convincing lies. That is why the Republicans have been so successful (and 9/11, of course).

area51 (973 posts) Fri Mar-04-05 07:33 AM
Response to Original message

28. "Why are Americans so damn conservative?"

B/c of our conservative-biased media feeding them propaganda.

sniffa (1000+ posts) Fri Mar-04-05 08:54 AM
Response to Original message

29. americans aren't that conservative

it's smoke and mirrors.

[dukeman]

Just place your hands on your monitor and feel the love! I think I'll go drink my mercury now......

[dukeman]

Bump

[syriacus]

A country founded by the Protestant ethic run amok, plus a strong sense of Rugged Individualism grown by a frontier (cowboy) fantasy, in my opinion, gets us where we are today.

And that would be where?

Too bad there isn't some objective way to compare Freeper intelligence to DU intelligence.

[vbmoneyspender]

If they really believe that Americans are too stupid to vote for the people who have everyone's best interests at heart - wouldn't that belief compel the DUers to advocate a system where an enlightened minority takes charges and ensures that people are compelled to vote for the people who have everyone's best interests at hear. What a second, isn't there already a name for that sort of system?

[dukeman]

What a second, isn't there already a name for that sort of system?

Yep, and it already failed.

[cowboyway]

Fear of religion, labeling all that don't agree with you as 'ignorant', bla bla bla. Liberal lap dogs of the Kennedy/Kerry/Clinton democrats with one trick in their repertoire.

It is quite pathetic.

[jigsaw]

When your reality is based on what you want to believe and not on the world around you, being coherent is unlikely.

[Conspiracy Guy]

My dog is smarter than these folk.

[dead]

I remember one poll indicating a large number of Bush supporters who held views the opposite of his. They would have been Kerry supporters if they had understood which candidate they actually agreed with.

I love these dopey statements. Some liberal think tank sends out some hippies with clipboards and asks people things like:

• “Do you think war should be avoided if possible?”
• “Do you think people who are sick should get medical attention, even if they can’t pay for it?”
• “Do you think we should work harder to stop polluting the air and water if its killing children?”

Then when they get a bunch of “Yes” answers, they proclaim, “That’s what John Kerry stood for! You meant to vote for John Kerry but Karl Rove tricked you into voting for Bush! You agree with John Kerry!”

Effing idiots of the left fall for the silliest old shell games.

[dukeman]

When your reality is based on what you want to believe and not on the world around you, being coherent is unlikely

It explains a lot of anger, too. It's hard, frustrating work trying to shoehorn daily facts into your warped, worldview template. How exhausting!

[RushCrush]

Unfortunately, the average, Freeper-type conservative has been lulled into believing that hard work, dedication, and competence will result in success.

THIS SAYS IT ALL!

[dead]

Trustafarian logic.

[Buggman]

And strangely enough, we're right!

[the OlLine Rebel]

"floridation was a left wing plot"


LOL, indeed it was - Dems so desparate to win, they did what they could to try to get Gore to win Florida.


It's FLOURidation, you DUmmy.

[the OlLine Rebel]

"Europe may have dealt with similar religious issues, but it wasn't founded by a mass of Puritans. A country founded by the Protestant ethic run amok, plus a strong sense of Rugged Individualism grown by a frontier (cowboy) fantasy, in my opinion, gets us where we are today."


Oh, my, isn't that terrible now.....

[the OlLine Rebel]

"20. Independence and selfishness are inculcated as the greatest virtues


Need I say more?


Extreme Christianity is total selfishness: save me and f*** them; they're inferiors anyway. Hell, you can't be picked from the crowd for happyland if the rest of them aren't such rotters.


Think about it."



This is the most stupid and asinine remark I've seen. What a GD asshole SOB. YOU think about it, DUmmy.

[Condor51]

***My dog is smarter than these folk.***

Your dog can probably spell better too.

What a bunch of Maroons^{® Bugs Bunny}

[KC_Conspirator]

Wow! What hate and bile!

I say that America is the way it is because we formed unique American values based on good values from the old countries. The old countries have since rejected those values, foolishly. So now America is the most powerful, free, and advanced society in human history, yet these morons want us to be like old Europe and 3rd world countries? Stupid.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Yup - they're a bunch of Communists who **HATE** America - at least, the America of the Constitution. They fall for the class-warfare line that we somehow have some caste system here that no1 can break out of - either richer or poorer.

[Conspiracy Guy]

My Lab Mix LulaBelle is very conservative. Here is her picture with me. She's the cute one and she likes to post on Zot threads.