What Do Conservatives Want When They Say "I Want My Country Back?"

[FuzzyRabbit]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/29/1374127/-What-Do-Conservatives-Want-When-They-Say-When-I-Want-My-Country-Back?detail=email

How often have I heard or seen this phrase, "I want my country back," used over the years since I was born in 1956, in Raleigh, North Carolina? I can't give you a precise number, but I can tell you that, though I've seen liberals employ these words on occasion over the nearly six decades of my life, most of the time it has been the mantra of white male conservatives. Indeed, many self-identified "Tea Party" members have repeatedly used this term as their personal call to arms.

What do they mean when they say that? To which supposed golden age of America do they want to return? Who can say what is in the hearts of such people? But I have some ideas based on my experiences over the years.

As a child born in the middle of the Fifties in the South, I knew at an early age that some people were considered inferior to me. The signs were all around - literally. I remember once, when I was three or four, a white woman stopped me as I approached a drinking fountain, thirsty after being dragged around on a hot summer day by my mother on one of her shopping trips to Raleigh's downtown. The woman, politely, but sternly, took hold of my arm, and told me I couldn't use that fountain because it was for "colored people."

Excellent essay. Gets to the heart of it.

[Warpy]

1. They want a regimented society in which everyone knew his or her place

with white males at the top and black males shucking and jiving in low paid service jobs, black women as maids and cooks, and white women as breeding stock for the rich and breeding stock and housemaids for the poor. Hispanics and Asian people will simply cease to exist.

They want schools where their kids go with white kids who all speak English and have milk and cookies after school and get into mischief instead of heroin.

They want the sit com world that never really was, although the regimentation was real. They want a world that is simplified for them, with no choices to make because everybody knows his or her place in it.

That such regimentation was deadly and led directly to the drug explosion in the 60s is completely lost on them. It's a world they see as a paradise for them. They don't honestly care about how anyone else reacts to it, including their own children.

[mike_c]

2. Really? I think they probably mean they want pretty much what I mean...

...when I say the same thing. They want their political interests represented by their leadership. Their best interests, not the best interests of others whom they perceive as being looked after disproportionately, to their own disadvantage. That perception might be erroneous, but let's not be disingenuous about it.

Do I really think that when conservatives say "I want my country back" they mean "I want to return to the Jim Crow south, or to slavery, or to illiteracy and indentured servitude?" Do you? Does anyone really think conservatives are lamenting the lost halcyon days of share cropping, high infant mortality, low life expectancy, and astronomical industrial accident rates? Even when those might be likely outcomes of conservative policy, their support for policy is usually ideological rather than practical, and if they have to suffer for ideology then that's not the same as wanting to suffer "for the good old days."

I don't know how claiming that conservatives think such things does much to advance the discussion about America's future. It's just another straw man. It distracts from meaningful discussion more than anything. That's really not very useful, is it?

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

7. Yes. I do think the people saying that want a return to the Jim Crow south.

When politicians were chosen by 'people like them' because minorities couldn't vote in large numbers.

I don't know how 'useful' it is, but I do think that's what they mean.

And I personally could never say the same (as you say you have), because I've never lived in an era when my political interests were represented by my politicians. My entire adult life, the vast majority of politicians have been looking out for themselves and the wealthy, and I assume they did the same when I was a kid, before I paid attention to politics.

[yeoman6987]

14. I heard it said by liberals a ton from 1980 to 1992

And even more from 2001 to 2008. You can't say you never heard liberals say it too. It seemed daily to me during those times. Both times we got it back for a period of time.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

18. Must be a regional thing. I don't remember liberals ever saying it.

The first time I ever heard anyone saying 'we want our country back' was tea party types. And I thought it was a pretty weird thing to say.

[Sarcastica]

11. I live in the deep red south, and here taking the country back means back to the days when

minorities, women, gays, and varied minority creeds would just shut up. This was supposed to be a country built for wealthy white men to allow a path for other white men to profit enough that they don't cause too much of a fuss.

Conservatives don't get that this democratically elected, representative republic, dedicated to individual freedoms, shared rights and RESPONSIBILITIES, and "all men are created equal", is an experiment that we are still in the process of executing. There should be no "back", only forward.

[Lil Missy]

3. It means they want a white guy in office of presidency. n/t

[Nye Bevan]

12. So if Martin O'Malley or Joe Biden win the presidency, they will stop saying that? (nt)

[Lil Missy]

20. No, they won't stop saying that if there is a Democrat in office. n/t

[Thinkingabout]

4. I doubt they could explain what it means to get their country back.

Would I like the days when folks did not lock their doors because crime was less, yes it would be good to have less crime. Would I like to return to the segregation, no, those times were hard, we are equal. Maybe some would like their country back because it was a younger self, could still be active but one would still age.

[BainsBane]

5. Self-identified conservatives aren't the only ones who long for the past

I see quite a lot of that.

[Action_Patrol]

6. They mean:

"I want my country (Not) b(L)ack"

[Stardust]

16. You nailed it!

[hifiguy]

8. Among other things

Jim Crow, women "barefoot and pregnant", the gays in the closet and more or less any other retro social practice from 100-150 years ago.

[JaneyVee]

9. Back to pre-Civil War.

[old guy]

10. Pre-Civil War perhaps?

Hell, I don't know.

[jberryhill]

13. The real truth?

They want to be young again.

When you hear it, ask what year?

[JHB]

15. Conservatives never mean "Progressive taxation" when they say that...

Adjusted to 2013 dollars

[Initech]

17. They want a country run by a white religious conservative president.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

19. Back to the 1850s

When only wealthy white protestant males had power.

[RichGirl]

21. They want the country that they loved and were perfectly happy with...until....

FOX NEWS hit the scene and convinced them that Dems were robbing them of their freedom. People who I'm sure never dreamed of owning a hand gun now live in fear of having it taken away. Life in the U.S. these days is full of non-existent threats.

[Enthusiast]

22. You win.

Once propaganda reached the saturation point with Fox and RW hate radio it started effecting their day to day perception to an absurd degree.

The taking the guns away thing is a great example. It is a tremendous profit windfall for the gun manufacturers not to mention the ammunition manufacturers. I see it first hand, it has become ridiculous. Obviously the manufacturers are generating fear in the interest of increasing profits.

[Skittles]

23. I don't want my country back. I want a better country. One that truly provides liberty and justice

AMEN TO THAT