> You LOVE to paint with the broad brush. In your bitter little mind,
> ALL "leftists" (meaning anyone to the left of Attila the Hun) are
> "weenies."
>
> So we can apply the same broad brush to conservatives. You ARE a
> Republican and you DO VOTE for Republicans, right? Then by casting
> your vote for those people, YOU SUPPORT THEIR AGENDA, which includes
> such "family-values" tripe as "defense of marriage" and terrorizing
> all illegal immigrants (who does your lawn, BTW?) and torturing in
> secret overseas prisons and illegally wiretapping American citizens
> and so on.
>
> And it really IS irrelevant if you think the Republican party has been
> hijacked by the Christianist right. By your own logic, if you VOTE for
> the party, it means that you AGREE with the entire plank.
>
> I'd respect conservatives if they did some very simple things:
>
> a) Shout down the radio shitheads like O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Coulter,
> etc. As far as most non-conservatives are concerned, THOSE people ARE
> the conservative movement. So if true conservatives wish to be taken
> seriously, they have to get rid of the loudmouths. Nothing less than
> public repudiation by Republicans, followed by criminal investigations
> and finally jail time, will suffice.
>
> b) The Christianist right has to be excised from the Republican party.
> Nationally-known conservative figures need to publicly repudiate the
> Pat Robertsons and the Fred Phelps types, and at every possible
> opportunity. These Christianists are a cancer on YOUR party, and it is
> entirely irrelevant if you disagree with them.
>
I have long considered myself to be a conservative, but not a Republican since about 1970.
The main value of the Republicans is that they keep the Democrat criminals in check. And vice versa.