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The Angry Right's Secret Playbook: Confessions of a former conservative blowhard. By Edwin Lyngar
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/angry-rights-secret-playbook?akid=12678.227380.J2TeDG&rd=1&src=newsletter1030173&t=14This recent midterm election was my first real setback since I became a committed liberal (after years on the other side), and what I dont understand is why so many well-meaning liberals refuse to fight dirty. Sure, some Democratic politicians sling mud, but the professional left (as they are often derisively called) spend too much time debating the exactitude of certain issues and not enough time shutting down the bad ideas of the opposition. It might speak well to ones character, but its an ineffective way to do battle. There is a place for self-examination, but its not on the battlefield. Sometimes the proper reaction to cruelty or stupid ideas is disgust or even a well-timed insult. For many on the left this art is sadly as dead as the late hero of mine quoted above.
I got married, dropped out of college, joined the military and became a father all before I was 21 years old, and I spent the next 20 years dealing with my early missteps. It was a painful climb, but one benefit of the circuitous route I took is that I understand the angry, white and rural right wing of America better than most. Its a group that grows ever more desperate and irrational no matter which way the electoral winds blow.
As a member of the frothing right wing, I always spouted nonsense, even when I wasnt sure I believed it. Sometimes I would throw out really crazy stuff just to see how it fit the big picture and sometimes to get a rise from the opposition. Rhetorical bomb throwing is well respected on the right, and its not always a bad thing. There is nothing wrong with trying out ideas, letting them roll off the tongue to see how they sound. Im always playing with ideas, most of which get discarded before I let myself believe them or write them down. There is one caveat to this and thats the racist, hateful and homophobic rants that have become too common among the worst of the Tea Party. This ugly side of conservative rage is one of the major factors that drove me (and many others) away from right-wing politics.
When I lived conservative values, I attended many events with like-minded people. Conservative movements foster a herd mentality. Even when someone stood up to lead, he or she often regurgitated well-accepted talking points while crowds nodded in unison. Listen to talk radio or watch Fox News, and you can barely tally the number of times you hear, yes, I think thats true. A perfect example of thoughtless regurgitation is when callers on talk radio mention Saul Alinsky Democrats. Still others like to sling the insult of Obamas Chicago political machine, with no context whatsoever. Im going to make the obvious point that few if any of these callers have read one word of Alinsky, and fewer still have any direct, pointed or even third-hand knowledge of Chicago politics. These goofy phrases have become totems of the insider, and like children, these listeners mindlessly repeat what someone else has said as if they had insight.
Now that Ive been in the liberal camp for a few years, Ive noticed the complete opposite with the politically engaged left....
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The Angry Right's Secret Playbook: Confessions of a former conservative blowhard. By Edwin Lyngar (Original Post)
Demeter
Jan 2015
OP
underpants
(182,788 posts)1. +
Gman
(24,780 posts)2. Very true words
"There is a place for self-examination, but its not on the battlefield. Sometimes the proper reaction to cruelty or stupid ideas is disgust or even a well-timed insult. For many on the left this art is sadly as dead as the late hero of mine quoted above."
Perhaps its my years fighting for people as part of organized labor that make me look derisively on those that say they "won't stoop to that level". That's a very nice thing to say, but you lose the war if you don't fight. War is not pretty and too many liberals don't have the stomach for it.
Nay
(12,051 posts)3. This guy says what I've been saying for years....
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)4. K&R!
thanks for posting.
The Stranger
(11,297 posts)5. So, so true.
Why can't the Left fight back? Why why why why why?
Demeter
(85,373 posts)6. Our putative "leadership" is complicit
They aren't my leaders, I'll tell you that.