(December 8, 2014 at 5:35 pm)Parkers Tan Wrote: KKKers may well all be Republicans. That doesn't mean that all Republicans are KKKers. Drawing conclusions about all Republicans doesn't seem justified.
I hope that no one is seriously suggesting otherwise. A discussion on the GOP and race needs to be carefully worded so as not to give that impression.
A political party can pursue a policy of stoking bigotry in various forms without individual members of that party sharing that bigotry. In that case, it's still a valid point to say the party is bigoted even as members are not.
Examples:
1. In 2004, The Bush/Cheney ticket pursued a strategy of "wedge issues" which, among other things, fomented bigotry against gays. Cheney's own daughter was gay, so it's highly unlikely that Cheney is homophobic, but the GOP certainly was.
2. Karl Rove, the mastermind behind the wedge issue strategy, was himself an agnostic. Yet that didn't stop him from mobilizing fundamentalist Christians in promoting the evangelical agenda. He himself wasn't one of them but his party certainly was in their camp.
3. Since Nixon, the GOP has to some extent or other, pursued a "Southern Strategy" which is about stoking racial divisions and paranoia of black people. This means that while the individual Republicans might not be racist, the GOP is.
The question that we need to ask is whether or not the GOP itself is pursuing an agenda (or using a strategy) of stoking racial bigotry.
To answer that question, I keep coming back to the psychosis that the GOP has with the current president, so extreme that they are willing to shut down the government, entertain defaulting on our bills and doing other things that are destructive to the nation they are part of and represent. Being willing to tear down the country just to harm the presidency of the one at the helm is pretty extreme to say the least. What the hell is behind it?
Conservatives like ATheist are completely incapable of articulating what horrible crimes Obama has done to warrant such foaming vitriol and self-destructive behavior, especially when the next presidential election is only two years away. Instead of burning down the country, they could work within the system the way we liberals did when we hated the man in office (for reasons we COULD clearly articulate, by the way).
Some have disagreed my conclusions that the hatred is partly about race but you tell me, what am I supposed to think? Conservative can answer, if they are able, what is it about if not race?
Atheist Forums Hall of Shame:
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
