Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!!!!!
As conservatives we need to shout from the housetops that racists are **NOT** welcome in our circles!
Road Glide had only been here since 2011. I haven't reviewed too much of his posting history, but a cursory review shows problems, including at least some indications of support for the “Second Civil War” stuff. Maybe I'm not being fair to RoadGlide, but advocacy of a “Second Civil War” is deadly dangerous, and as conservatives, we need to steer clear of it.
If we don't distance ourselves from that kind of rhetoric, we will be blamed for views we do not hold. People are known not only by their own views but also by the company they keep. That's why we quite correctly blame President Barack Obama not only for what he says and does but also for his relationship with radical extremists like Bill Ayers, who are a good indicator of what he actually thinks but won't say publicly. Let's avoid keeping company with people who want to destroy the American Republic and substitute an alien ideology — whether communist or fascist — for historic American values.
77 posted on 3/21/2013 7:28:15 AM by BroJoeK: “Yes, those words do define ‘conservatism’ in some other countries, i.e., in Europe, but not here. In America, conservatism simply means allegiance to the US Constitution and traditional family religious values. It usually (but not always) also includes commitment to a strong-enough national defense. So, if you think that ‘conservatism’ has something to do with your genetics, race or nationality, then you are utterly confused about what it means to be a real American.”
This is a really important point, and it's one which bears repeating. The American experiment truly **IS** radical, it is very different from virtually every other nation existing at the time the United States was founded, and it stems from core values that we sometimes risk forgetting in conservative circles.
Being American has nothing to do with race. It has a great deal to do with adherence to a written Constitution and shared values.
One can make a credible case that being a “good conservative German” or a “good conservative Frenchman” or a “good conservative Greek” or a “good conservative Dane” has at least something to do with shared ethnic heritage. That argument leads to ethnocentric versions of nationalism which are arguably thinly-disguised fascist bigotry. It is impossible to read the history of Europe without recognizing that such views, as detestable as they may be, have a long pedigree over there.
I'm not going to argue with people from Germany, France, Greece, or Denmark who want to argue that I'm misrepresenting the current realities of their countries. That's not my point — though I think it could be said that in a post-World War II environment, a race-based view of nationalism was so thoroughly discredited in Europe that core Western values of Judeo-Christian or even older Greco-Roman heritage became the baby thrown out with the dirty bathwater of bigotry.
The United States has a different history which, like Europe, is based on a certain view of Western ideals, but unlike Europe, not connected to shared ethnicity. We need to steer clear of non-American views of what it means to be a conservative American. We're different from Europe and those differences are important.
120 posted on 3/21/2013 1:54:16 PM by Hildred Castaigne: “I don't think it sounds leftist to warn of being wary of white nationalist infiltrators into our ranks. They talk about openly infiltrating the Tea Party over on Stormfront, if you can stand looking at that vile pit of vipers. And I've seen them try it here in GA.”
116 posted on 3/21/2013 1:30:35 PM by BroJoeK: “And like Hildy, I strongly suspect that some of those folks are just paid Democrat “false flag” operators. ;-) “
I have the same suspicions.
Unfortunately, some self-identified conservatives really **DO** believe that bigoted bulls-—.
I almost never use four-letter words. Occasionally they're appropriate. Racist bigots deserve them. They need to be driven out of the conservative movement. As I said before, I don't care whether somebody has white, black, yellow, brown, or red skin. I care a great deal whether they are red, white, and blue. Those colors on the flag count; color of skin doesn't.
Thank you Jim, and thank you to the Admin Moderator, for keeping racists off Free Republic.
Whether they are Stormfront-style true believers or paid Democratic false-flag disruptors, people advocating racist bigotry cannot be allowed to define what it means to be a conservative American.