01 Dec The Conscience of a Conservative
Charles Johnson, founder of the conservative blog Little Green Footballs, has announced that he has parted ways with the right-wing in the US. His list of ten reasons is remarkable for its honesty and its perspicacity:
1. Support for fascists, both in America (see: Pat Buchanan, Robert Stacy McCain, etc.) and in Europe (see: Vlaams Belang, BNP, SIOE, Pat Buchanan, etc.)
2. Support for bigotry, hatred, and white supremacism (see: Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter, Robert Stacy McCain, Lew Rockwell, etc.)
3. Support for throwing women back into the Dark Ages, and general religious fanaticism (see: Operation Rescue, anti-abortion groups, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Tony Perkins, the entire religious right, etc.)
4. Support for anti-science bad craziness (see: creationism, climate change denialism, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, James Inhofe, etc.)
5. Support for homophobic bigotry (see: Sarah Palin, Dobson, the entire religious right, etc.)
6. Support for anti-government lunacy (see: tea parties, militias, Fox News, Glenn Beck, etc.)
7. Support for conspiracy theories and hate speech (see: Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Birthers, creationists, climate deniers, etc.)
8. A right-wing blogosphere that is almost universally dominated by raging hate speech (see: Hot Air, Free Republic, Ace of Spades, etc.)
9. Anti-Islamic bigotry that goes far beyond simply criticizing radical Islam, into support for fascism, violence, and genocide (see: Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, etc.)
10. Hatred for President Obama that goes far beyond simply criticizing his policies, into racism, hate speech, and bizarre conspiracy theories (see: witch doctor pictures, tea parties, Birthers, Michelle Malkin, Fox News, World Net Daily, Newsmax, and every other right wing source)
And much, much more. The American right wing has gone off the rails, into the bushes, and off the cliff.
I won’t be going over the cliff with them.
My politics are pretty obviously left, but I have always had genuine respect for traditional conservatives and libertarians — particularly the latter. It’s sad that people like Johnson are such a dying breed.
ADDENDUM: Proving his point, various right-wing bloggers “respond” to Johnson here, here, here, here, here…
The problem has always been identifying people with either “left” or “right”. Vast differences within these two groups on many, many issues are not represented.
Guy,
I generally agree with you, but I disagree with you in the American context, which is the object of Johnson’s frustration. Other than on certain international-law issues, the divisions in the US are pretty stark.
I wonder if those right-wingers whom Johnson is referring to in his statement (and who are exemplified in those blogs you linked to) exhibit such opinions and behaviour just to get attention or whether they really do believe their propaganda, i.e. that Fox News really is an unbiased news source and that Obama isn’t a US citizen.
If it’s the latter, that’s a good reason to be worried (especially for the state of political discourse in America).
I applaud Mr. Johnson for his courage to leave the side which he for many years now has supported. The problem with American politics generally is it is divisive to the point of hatred for the other side. More specifically as it pertains to the right, unfortunate for many people in America when you say conservative or even republican what comes to mind immediately is an older white man. This is unacceptable in a browning America. The conservative position has been to hold on to tradition that has outlasted its utility. I am not proposing that conservatives should completely abort traditional values, but what I am suggesting is they should evaluate whether the tradition serves any useful purpose other than simply being tradition. And of those traditions that remain they should question are they inline with the realities of today. In the end, Mr. Johnson’s list of reasons to leave the right are brutally honest and I respect him being open about why he chose to leave.
“I generally agree with you, but I disagree with you in the American context, which is the object of Johnson’s frustration. Other than on certain international-law issues, the divisions in the US are pretty stark.”
Why do you think that is? Why isnt there more overlap in the positions taken by American conservatives and liberals?
Why is it that we think of certain positions as “right” and certain other positions as “left”? For instance, I have often wondered why being pro-life is associated with the the Right rather than the Left?
I find it difficult to take seriously someone who objects to “bigotry” and “hate speech” on the one hand and then refers to some group with words like “fascists”, “lunacy”, and phrases like “throwing women back into the Dark Ages” and “general religious fanaticism”. The solution when other people go over the top is not to go over the top yourself. I also would not want to be a member of a club that had Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh as members. That is a social and not a philosophical distinction. However, it is probably a bad idea to attribute to a political philosophy some disability because of the least admirable people who claim to subscribe to it. Should liberalism be tarnished as a whole because of bad tax advice that Acorn gives to pimps? What is interesting here is how, at least according to the narrative, one person’s personal option drifted from the extreme, rabid far right to the extreme, rabid left (at least in terms of rhetorical name calling) without stopping anywhere in the middle. Is there no room to dispassionately discuss long standing individual personal religious objections to abortion and homosexual behavior as moral questions? Are the… Read more »
The Ace of Spades blog is “raging hate speech?”
I must have missed a post somewhere… anyway, given his blind support for the AGW whitewash, I think Mr. Johnson has picked an opportune moment to slink away.
Another “conservatives are evil” post. Do you labor under the illusion that these are useful? Go to Huffington or something.
I think a “conservatives are evil” post by a conservative is indeed useful, yes.
M. Gross,
Yes, you must have missed it — just google “Ace of Spades” +muslim. Takes about five seconds.
I did the “Ace of Spades” google search. The main result I get is him decrying the fact that not insignificant percentages of Muslims in the US support terrorism and/or Al-Qaeda.
That makes him evil and guilty of “raging hate speech”? Sheesh, and here I thought the terrorist supporters were the evil ones.
HLS didn’t find anything objectionable? Wow, I’m shocked…
I think it does take a lot of courage for anyone to offer this kind of frank assessment of a political movement to which they (used to apparently) belong. I think if you look at the trajectory of American politics it soured significantly with the rise of Lee Atwater on the right, with its apex and perfection being reached by Newt Gingrich and Frank Luntz during the ’94 election. It’s just snowballed from there. The true problem I have is with comments like Howard’s that display the need of “reasonable” people to equivocate and claim that “both sides do it” or are just as bad as each other. I assure you, I spend time on many blogs and that is not the case. The internet progressive and conservative movements are not equally bigoted, strident, or frankly crazy. To be sure the left has a small fraction that fits that mold, but the entire right wing movement has been overtaken by that type of rhetoric. The right has an entire mainstream media apparatus devoted to non-stop hatred. In any day, any right winger can and often does listen to non-stop hatred. Try turning on a right wing radio station sometime. It… Read more »