I've heard it said a lot, that you tend toward being liberal as you're growing up all sunny-eyed and optimistic...and when you have money and a family of your own, you wise up and turn much more conservative. I always knew this wasn't me, but I guess I always somewhat accepted the logic for maybe the population as a whole. But I don't anymore.
It's been made very clear over the last 4.5 years (since 9/11 changed everything, of course) that Republicans have one weapon for gaining support--fear of boogeymen. This being the case, why is it that you're supposed to tend toward conservative when you 'grow up'? In theory, when you grow up, you mature...and learn that it's pretty futile to fear and hate just for fear and hate's sake.
Then again, as Greenwald posted today, maybe it's not fear they're built on, but rage:
Here is Powerline on the reporters who broke the NSA story: "Throw 'em in the slammer." Townhall columnist Ben Shapiro: Howard Dean, John Kerry and Al Gore all belong in prison for "sedition." Powerline: Jimmy Carter is "on the other side." Karl Rove says Dick Durbin is on the side of terrorists. Michael Reagan thinks Howard Dean should be hanged. Charles Johnson of LGF said this weekend: the media is helping Iran get the bomb by weakening our country (by reporting on what is going on in Iraq), and are therefore "becoming a major liability in the clash of civilizations," a post which led his readers, needless to say, to spew sentiments about McCarthy and the media such as this:
Law-and order, red-state, non-nuanced, thinking Americans would expect the law to be enforced, the sentence to reflect the treasonous actions of the convicted, and the execution to be public.
Come to think of it, seeing the world with the eyes of a scorned 8-year old does even less to back up the "you grow conservative when you grow old" argument. Surely...surely...people will catch onto the fact that these people are either a) mentally handicapped, or b) crap-peddlers who don't believe a word they're saying. How I still manage naivety from time to time, I'll never know...
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