Bjorn Tipling

Since the primary elections began in earnest earlier this year I have been reading political blogs. My own posts on this blog turned political around the same time. I began the year I have every year since my first year in college, with one foot in the liberal camp. The other foot I haven’t had the heart to move.

You see, I have a member of my family who is very conservative. When my own opinions began to take shape, and I realized that they were going in a direction different from this other person, I was upset by it. There were already so many wedges between me and this other, and why did there need to be another. I was silent about my beliefs, but when I began blogging about how I felt my betrayal was uncovered. Since then I have been in communication with this other and we have gone to the mattresses. I am proud that I have stood my ground, and I am proud of myself for having asked hard hitting questions and demanding solid answers. I only asked for what I was willing to do myself. I was willing to answer questions, but as it turned out, none were asked.

This conservative family member had no questions for me, and he had no answers either. All my life I have listened silently, keeping my own mouth shut. Each word of that other, forged with intensity and pronounced with authority, were sold as a gold standard I was meant to accept without question. I know why now, because the words could not withstand questioning.

A house made of cards is built sturdier than the self deceiving ramblings of the fundamentalist right. I recommend that everyone feeling independent or leaning left should take the time to meet an evangelical conservative to learn about their core beliefs. Blaming gays for the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks is just scratching the surface. There are all kinds of explicit, well defined, not at all subconscious, beliefs that are out of touch with mainstream America. Racism and hatred of homosexuals, black people, liberals, hispanics - not just the illegal immigrants, muslims, atheists, and feminist women. I am not speaking of Republicans in general, just that evangelical base that has given them so much power in elections. I am not speaking of Christians in general, because I myself am a Christian (although one that separates science from faith).

No, I am talking about a nationalist movement that believes that God has endowed America with the power to rule the world, a movement that wants to change the way we teach in our schools, live our lives, and how we interact with other nations (not in a good way). These people are every bit as wrong as the fundamentalist Islamists that are responsible for so much grief in the Middle East.

This is the real deal, and as of right now, in our generation they are at the seat of power in the Republican party. They’ve managed to bring the neo-conservatives into their fold, as their international agenda have at least a little in common. They also share power with the powerful sort who don’t really believe in anything other than making money and are there to profit from all the problems their fellow allies will stir up.

And that in a very over-simplistic nutshell is the right: a bunch of angry white men. Some are crazed with religion, some are intense with imperialism, and some are mad with greed.

If you don’t believe me please listen to conservative talk radio for just a few hours. They really believe that drivel.

And so I have been out there with one foot of mine not next to my other. But after all the talks with that conservative family member of mine, after all the many months of reading conservative blogs and listening to them on the Radio and their many op-ed columns I have come to the conclusion that the conservative movement, while once offering a promising future of fiscal discipline and a tough national security platform have devolved into a feckless angry mob with crazed agendas who are a danger to not only themselves but everyone around them and should not have any power of any kind in our government.

For rationale and arguments the right has nothing to offer other than mean spirited personal attacks, bad science, and malicious ill will for those that commit the crime of disagreeing with them.

Having said that, I have shown the Wizard for who he really is, a lost and angry man behind a curtain. I no longer have any problems with my beliefs. I know that my liberal values are right because they have a solid foundation in facts and reasoning. Progressives are fighting the good fight and this election is the time that we take back our government.