James said:
ISTM that the conservative-types who are Republicans
want, generally, simply to be left alone,
....only when it comes to matters of business & money.
--not when it comes to social policy,
where the current crop of Right Wingers DO like to meddle.
whereas their Democratic counterparts
advance schemes requiring / mandating universal participation
in matters they disapprove of.
aka "Noblesse Oblige"; "Shared Responsibility"; "Egalitarinanism".
Left Wingers DO like regulation of commerce and monetary speculation.
(Wonder why gas prices shot up? Speculators.)
For example, the anti-evolution people
just don't want evolution taught to their kids
(in the schools they're compelled to attend),
"Just" is an understatement:
What they *want* is the current best SCIENCE
(and the Scientific Method which supports that)
to be replaced with a particular fundamentalist religious dogma
AND HAVING *THAT* CALLED "SCIENCE"
....and they are quite persistant about this.
(If this stupidity is allowed to fester, American society is doomed.)
versus, say, the desire to hand out free condoms,
clean needles and birth control to high schoolers.
First, I'd like to see a cite for *clean needles for high schoolers*.
"Sleeping Beauty" needs to be taught at EACH grade level:
Trying to protect your child
*by destroying every spinning wheel in the kingdom* is STUPID.
Make sure your kid is TAUGHT about the dangers of spindles
rather than trying to *shield* him/her from the existance of spindles.
In 8 millenia, have we learned NOTHING as a species
about what what works and what doesn't?
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. Ignorance breeds MORE ignorance.
The latter, though well-intended, are patronizing, intrusive and
insensitive to those whose sensibilities make them repugnant.
This goes direclty to The Scientific Method already mentioned.
Ignorance and unwillingness to accept facts aside,
there are working models of the paradigms you mentioned
--but *NIH* and *Dogma* and *Won't do their homework*
seem to be the paradigms adopted by the Right.
(Goldwater is spinning in his grave.)
On the other side of the equation (the Scientific Method again)
is the fact that students in "Abstinence-Only" programs
have HIGHER rates of teen pregnancy and STDs.
Sort of like asking a Yana indian his name
(a private matter, and an indecent query of ultimate indiscretion).
Different cultures.
Living in a gated community doesn't put you in "a different culture".
With a few notable exceptions, it's mostly the Democrats
whose vision these days seems to require
dictating priorities to others, imposing restraints, codes of behavior,
controlling wages, prices, retirement, etc., etc.
Things that are actually <gasp> *debated* on the floors of the
camerals
--with NeoCons (as well as actual Conservatives) participating.
But conservative religious types are comparatively few,
As are true Conservatives. See "NeoCon" (above).
not a fair proxy for Republicans in general,
I question your data set--or maybe the current image of the Right
shows an indifferent placation by non-fundies.
whereas "Liberal" Democrats are many, easily out-voting the former.
It's called "The Competitive Market of Ideas".
NeoCons lost the last round--and, having shown
their philosophy is "The emperor has no clothes" all over again,
will lose the majority of the forseeable contests.
If they want to win,
they have to show up with bettter evidence to support their case.
Not holding my breath WRT that hollow promise.
That party needs a new Goldwater--not another Gingrich.
They need to think about *How to Govern*
and stop concentrating on the constant *campaigning*
--even when they hold power.
On the last point, I hope the opposition heeds that as well.
....then again, The Gingrich Revolution
may have put us past the point of no return.
And a bunch of the "republican" hits were copies,
