Conservative Projection

Conservatives often project their failings onto other groups. Here is a classic example of conservative projection. The Republican Party has driven out not only its moderates, but it’s less extreme conservatives. Even Ronald Reagan would be too “liberal” these days, supporting tax increases and supporting increases in the debt limit without question. Barry Goldwater would be seen as a flaming liberal with his attacks on the religious right. In contrast, the Democratic Party ranges from conservatives to liberals (most generally barely left of center by international standards). Michael Goodwin claims at the far-right New York Post that it is the Democratic Party which has driven out its moderates.

8 Comments

  1. 1
    Rich H says:

    Nope. Liberals are the ones projecting. Have been for years.
    The Republicans major problem is they are not monolithic enough. Libertarian types here, “mainstream” statists there, social conservatives scattered here AND there, and the few remaining paleo types lingering about in the few academic bastions where they haven’t been rooted out like vermin.

  2. 2
    Ron Chusid says:

    None of that alters the fact that there are many centrists in the Democratic Party while, to use your words, the centrists in the Republican Party have been rooted out like vermin. There are differences among Republicans, but few who aren’t extremists.

  3. 3
    Philo Vaihinger says:

    Not sure what a centrist among Democrats is.
    The silent majority (of Democrats), maybe?
    Lately I have been attacked by fellow Dem bloggers for pointing out Mandela was a communist when it mattered and gave it up for racial harmony and moderation when it didn’t.
    Also for favoring civil unions but not gay marriage.
    Also for pointing out the Castros still are communists and that Ho Chi Minh’s thing about Jefferson was pure bullshit.
    Not a lot of diversity is really allowed by the partisans on either side, in my unpleasant experience.

  4. 4
    Philo Vaihinger says:

    A quick browse and it’s clear I wasn’t firm enough. A lot of Democrat sites are very OK with Fidel and Cuban communism. A LOT of them. And I’m not, and that gets me a lot of, er, intolerance at Dem blogs.

  5. 5
    Ron Chusid says:

    I haven’t seen any support for Cuban Communism, but there is a wide variety of blogs, most of which are to the left of the Democratic Party. Some blogs are very far left and I’m sure a number might have views for Castro which differ from the Democratic mainstream.

  6. 6
    Ron Chusid says:

    As for Mandela, in some ways I would say it is the opposite. He sympathized with Communists when he was in the position of a revolutionary as in many cases it was Communists who sympathized with anti-establishment causes. When it really mattered, ie when he was governing, he supported a market economy.

  7. 7
    Philo Vaihinger says:

    Good point.
    I think we’re both right, since we were referring to different things by “when it mattered” and “when it didn’t.”
    You have a nice blog. Surprised you don’t have more readers leaving comments.

  8. 8
    Ron Chusid says:

    Facebook effect along with decreased use of RSS readers. A while back most of those who commented regularly started commenting on Facebook instead (where I also post copies of the posts).

    For a while there were typically long strings of Facebook comments for each post. Comments continue there but the number has dropped as there is so many posts from lots of people to comment on, diluting the impact of each blogger. In many ways Facebook has replaced the small blogs. There’s also some responses on Twitter and Google+

    The decreased use of RSS readers also hurt. At one point there were over 8000 subscribers via RSS feeds. After some of the major RSS sites shut down it has fallen tremendously. Feedburner is giving me different numbers different days, ranging from under 500 to around 1000 maximum.

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