Saturday, May 17, 2008

Calling into Question Conservative Morality

Although I have done my best to document, with examples, the idea that conservative thought is somehow defective, I'm still not comfortable making that sweeping generalization. I have had extensive interactions with Republican ideologues, including a one year stint on talk radio teamed up with a female flamethrower. A friend of mine for the last 40 years is now a born again, gun toting(illegal in Wisconsin, but...)bigoted racist, and is totally unaware of the latter. I have witnessed an unwavering belief in boat loads of misinformation despite documentation to the contrary. People in poverty, to him, are quite content raising their families in squalor. He ranted for ten minutes about a woman in a grocery check out line buying shrimp with food stamps because it was something he couldn't afford to do himself on his meager income. He envied the food choice of person who doesn't know the kinds of freedom you and I take for granted because of her economic class.

Thom Hartmann made a similar point in a recent interview on Air America Radio. About 4:40 remaining in to his conversation, the point is made that even though conservatives are more comfortable with inequality, that alone shouldn't bring their morality into question at all. Sure it should, and Thom makes that point well.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, "True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence."

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