Sunday, April 01, 2007

Very interesting diary on Republican identity politics

One thing I have found both frequent and frustrating about the politics of the right-wingers has been their lack of a consistent set of ideas of reasons they oppose and attack other people. The problem is that what is consistent is not reasons or ideas. What is consistent is who they hate. They don't seem to begin with reasons for hating someone. They first agree to hate someone and then once they have agreed on who they all hate, then the public reasons for hating those people are developed. The reasons and ideas they present to the public are tactics to express that hatred.

an interesting side-effect of this is that once they have all agreed on who they hate, the surest way to get kicked out of the right-wing club is for a 'winger to compromise with the target of their mutual hatred. This is emotional tribalism.

That's why the multiple marriages of the many potential Republican Presidential candidates really don't matter to the rank and file. As long as each potential nominee attacks Liberals, Democrats and Al Gore on every front, the issues surrounding family values will not be important to the 'wingers. The ideas publicized as "Family values" are a club they use on Liberals and such mutually agreed enemies of the Right-wing tribes. As long as you are "One of them," a "tribe-member," violating such ideas is acceptable because someone who is "One of them," would have good reasons for violating those ideas. Those who are NOT accepted right-wingers cannot be trusted to judge morality for themselves and must have it imposed by right-wingers.

Go read james richardson's excellent diary to get a much fuller explanation.

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