Sidebar: Uh, Hold That Thought (Updated)

In the latest of Bryan White’s Bashing Blumner series, he argued that it was not possible for extremism to be mainstream, because electoral politics “cannot succeed at the national level through the appeal to any brand of extremism which a majority strongly opposes.”  Please see my response in the previous post.

Now, after seeing this post, I’m distinctly getting the impression that he thinks his conservatism is not extreme, and he sees himself in the “mainstream” majority.



Arnold DID follow in steps of Reagan--he exploded government debt.  See link from his name below.



 His two "biggest political disappointments" in this decade are in Crist and Schwarzenegger, basically for not being conservative enough. He’s greatly disappointed because they are moderates.  He just argued that extremism cannot succeed—he must feel that his brand of politics will succeed, however, because it’s not extreme. So.....let’s take another look back on some of his political positions:

• Medicare and Social Security are Ponzi schemes; they should be privatized for the most part, and charity and “innovation” used to make up the difference (see end of his post).

• Death panels are logical extensions of Obamacare.

• Obama should provide proof of his long-form birth certificate to the American public.

• The Republicans that came out of the sixties' Dixiecrats were not racists, and Reagan was not a racist; (and if you question why the majority of African Americans consider the Democrats to be their friend, and not Republicans, it’s only because you’re playing the race card).

• The 2008 subprime mortgage meltdown was only due to government interference and regulation (starting with the Community Reinvestment Act in 1977).

• Clinton was able to *create jobs* during his tenure in office because he inherited a rebounding economy from Bush 1 and because of the Republicans taking over Congress in 1994.

• Bush 2, on the other hand, inherited a faltering economy from Clinton, and in between that FIVE YEAR EXPANSE from 9-11 and the Democrats taking over Congress in early 2007, even with income tax rates lower than during the Clinton years, even with Greenspan still guiding the Fed Fund rates, was not able to even get close to  Clinton's job creation numbers.

• And of course, 9-11 was mostly Clinton’s fault!

• PolitiFact has a left-wing bias, and the writers/editors for many of the rulings it gives mostly deserve an F for failing to be objective and making other journalistic errors.

• Any global statistics that put the U.S. “down the list” are highly suspect, and those collecting the statistics are making many errors unfavorable to the U.S.  unless, of course, they're uttered by a Republican or Conservative. 

• Oh, and one more, love of all things military, like MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicles and JLTVs (Joint Light Tactical Vehicle); for this, the government can keep (borrowing and) spending.

Some of the above points are quite in the mainstream of Republican thought. But in the continuum of Conservative Republican politicism, just where should Bryan’s views be situated? In his view, is wanting to privatize social security and medicare, belief in death panels, and questioning Obama’s birth certificate now mainstream?

Recently I heard an expression for which, one of these days, I hope to post on in more detail. It was called self-belief—not to be confused with “self-confidence.” It can be explained best with the belief in global warming. I think I can say for certain that Bryan does not believe in it, as do most of the conservative posters I see on the Facebook PolitiFact page. The reason I feel global warming could be true is based on personal experience and what Bryan would call argumentum verecundiam. In other words, I don’t think I am in a position to argue with the many scientists who have devoted their entire lives to analyzing and studying this, and as a conclusion believe in it themselves. To believe otherwise would entail being a huge, huge conspiratorialist, and I just can’t do that; the experts deserve some respect for their research, and they can’t ALL be wrong. When you don’t believe in what many, many experts are confirming, you are relying on self-belief, because you only believe in yourself (and maybe a few global warming contrarian professionals), and don’t believe the experts and scientists who are educated to study this field specifically, and have done it all their lives.

In summary, it appears Conservative posters (such as Bryan) have the erroneous self belief that they are not in the extreme and their views are held by the majority.

This reminds me of the 1964 Barry Goldwater presidential slogan: In your heart you know he’s right. In my heart, I know Bryan’s *right*--that is, right wing. But the fact of the matter is, in my guts, I know he’s nuts. And I know I have to keep doing this blog, no matter how extreme it gets.

Postscript:  Apparently, certain Conservatives think so too.

Postscript to Postscript:  Update October 28, 2010:  Tonight on Countdown, that crazy Liberal Keith Olbermann interviewed Charlie Crist.  Now we know for sure that Crist can't possibly be a conservative, going on his show!  Crist spoke of the "rigid partisanship" that jettisoned him from the Republican party into an Independent status.  He also described himself politically as "fiscally conservative and socially moderate."  That makes sense.  First it was fiscally conservative and socially liberal people like myself, and then it was fiscally conservative and socially moderate people like Charlie Crist.  Now there's incrementalism for ya!