I would describe myself as somewhat conservative (depends on the issue) and I don’t have a problem with it. Governments, for the most part, should keep their nose out of the business of private organisations. Funny how Republicans constantly complain about the state interfering but they attempt to do it themselves.

The word you are groping for is "hypocrites."

Ah conservatism, the compelling notion that yesterday was the day we had it all right.

Let's be clear: most of the real conservatives were hunted to near extinction; the survivors wield no real power. The socially progressive, fiscally conservative Republicans that once made up the moderate wing of the party have all but disappeared. The two specimens that remain in unhappy captivity seem unable or unwilling to breed.

The GOP is no longer conservative in any meaningful sense. It's a lunatic asylum populated by Jesus freaks; wealthy sociopaths who think Ayn Rand was a great thinker and that social Darwinism is the "natural" order of things; working class idiots who think (i.e., were told) that Ayn Rand was a great thinker; and modern-day Know Nothings and assorted other bigots.

William F. Buckley would stick a gun in his mouth and pull the trigger if he were alive to see what's become of it.

(October 11, 2017 at 11:51 pm)Crossless2.0 Wrote: Let's be clear: most of the real conservatives were hunted to near extinction; the survivors wield no real power. The socially progressive, fiscally conservative Republicans that once made up the moderate wing of the party have all but disappeared. The two specimens that remain in unhappy captivity seem unable or unwilling to breed.

The GOP is no longer conservative in any meaningful sense. It's a lunatic asylum populated by Jesus freaks; wealthy sociopaths who think Ayn Rand was a great thinker and that social Darwinism is the "natural" order of things; working class idiots who think (i.e., were told) that Ayn Rand was a great thinker; and modern-day Know Nothings and assorted other bigots.

William F. Buckley would stick a gun in his mouth and pull the trigger if he were alive to see what's become of it.

Pretty much this.

I considered myself one of those socially progressive conservatives up until a few years after GWB was elected. It became quite clear that the GOP had been taken over by lunatics. Thing, is we thought the same about Democrats. In retrospect the Dems were not the crazies, at least from the context of things I now value.


The current GOP leadership is unmitigated evil.

(October 12, 2017 at 12:18 am)Cthulhu Dreaming Wrote:

(October 11, 2017 at 11:51 pm)Crossless2.0 Wrote: Let's be clear: most of the real conservatives were hunted to near extinction; the survivors wield no real power. The socially progressive, fiscally conservative Republicans that once made up the moderate wing of the party have all but disappeared. The two specimens that remain in unhappy captivity seem unable or unwilling to breed.

The GOP is no longer conservative in any meaningful sense. It's a lunatic asylum populated by Jesus freaks; wealthy sociopaths who think Ayn Rand was a great thinker and that social Darwinism is the "natural" order of things; working class idiots who think (i.e., were told) that Ayn Rand was a great thinker; and modern-day Know Nothings and assorted other bigots.

William F. Buckley would stick a gun in his mouth and pull the trigger if he were alive to see what's become of it.

Pretty much this.

I considered myself one of those socially progressive conservatives up until a few years after GWB was elected.  It became quite clear that the GOP had been taken over by lunatics.  Thing, is we thought the same about Democrats.  In retrospect the Dems were not the crazies, at least from the context of things I now value.


The current GOP leadership is unmitigated evil.

Yeah, the first Presidential election I was old enough to vote in was '88. By that time, the writing was already on the wall and visible to anyone with eyes. I held my nose and voted for Dukakis (thus beginning my exciting political life as windmill jouster extraordinaire) because it was clear to me that Bush -- perhaps in spite of himself -- had little choice but to continue down the path Reagan laid out. His awkward embrace of the Christian Right was never convincing, but he went there anyway. And his campaign against Dukakis was quite ugly at the time (though nothing compared to what we have now).

I've never really forgiven him for that because, in many ways, he was arguably the most qualified person to get nominated in my lifetime, and he was once something of a moderate within the party. I've often wondered how things might have turned out differently had he got the nomination and won in '80. But no -- by '88 he had sold his soul and drunk the Kool-Aid.

I've never felt that either party precisely lined up with my views. In my heart of hearts, I'm one of those old-timey moderate Republicans who backed the Civil Rights movement and kept a careful watch on the budget. But those days and those types of politicians are long gone. I tend to vote Democrat at the national level to try to hold the line against the worst depredations the GOP would visit on us if left unfettered, but I'm not a member of the party and often vote Republican at the local level, where ideology usually doesn't play much of a role.

Today's national GOP and their corporate bootlicks in Congress are a disgrace. Normally, I'd celebrate their current troubles, but Trump is so fucking bad that I find myself actually rooting for the establishment figures in the party to win the day against the goons Bannon will throw at them in the primaries. Better the Devil we know than the abyss we're heading toward.

I can find no argument with that.

Only when the changes are lower taxes for rich people.

Literally the ONLY reason Girl Scouts exist is that boy scouts wouldn't let the girls in 100 years ago. The founder was then forced to create a scout group for the girls. But originally she wanted girls and boys together.
There are plenty of more recent scouting groups that are mixed.

It's a good change.

Even I was a republican until Reagan came along.  

That senile old fuck took care of that.