Here in conservative America, anyone who doesn't believe in god, question evolution, question climate change, enjoy being the "I" in "do as I say not as I do" thinking, anyone who is openly different and proud of those differences is a leftist out to destroy the Country. American conservatives deal in extremes. Everything they say and do is designed to maintain fear and anger. There is a pervasive arrogance that they are always right, that they are the keepers of the American way, even when it contradicts the Constitution or history. They feel they know better than anyone else what the founding fathers wanted in this country and they are under the mistaken, historically inaccurate delusion that liberals have somehow managed to control and mess up everything.
Fox News knows this and knows how to plant the seeds of distrust for anyone who disagrees with their message. They lie constantly, while painting 'fair and balanced' over everything they do. They know their audience and they know how to keep them frightened. I've seen nearly all of the so-called liberal networks express anger and disappointment in Obama. I've NEVER heard Fox say one disparaging word about a Republican. In fact, when one of their own is caught doing something sleazy, they 'accidentally' put a (D) after their name when reporting. This has happened several times (Mark Foley, Mark Sanford, Larry Craig).
Even while conservatives constantly claim the majority and to speak for "the American People". They are always persecuted. Always. Why else would they cling so hard to the Second Amendment? Why would they carry weapons to political rallies, demand and receive the right to carry their guns to public parks and churches. Even if they obtain these rights when the "leftists" are in control of the government, they accuse the left of trying to take away those rights. Modern conservatives, in general, are not terribly interested in facts. They accuse liberals of being all touchy feely and weak, yet they are the ones trembling in fear that the president of the U.S. is black, probably born in Kenya, is a radical Muslim and/or a radical Christian, wants to take away their freedoms by doing the opposite, and tax them into oblivion after giving them tax cuts. I saw one guy in a clip from a teabagger rally who, after being asked if he received a tax cut, confirmed he had and then said "it wasn't enough" and went on claiming that his taxes went up.
They are the party of cognitive dissonance. And just like the more fundamentalist Christians in America (because, in fact, that is a MAJOR prerequisite), will always claim the majority and still whine about being persecuted when anyone disagrees with them or proves them wrong. They have various definitions of the word "freedom". They repeatedly claim that this is a Christian Nation founded on The Bible, despite being constantly corrected, they will only believe what they want - the definition of faith is 'belief not based on proof' ,and this is clearly how they perceive everything in their lives. You will never win an argument with a hardline conservative if you use logic, common sense, evidence or facts, you are arguing with someone who deals in beliefs, if the facts don't fit those beliefs, it's the facts that are wrong.
When Bush was in office, they were a nasty bunch, branding everyone who didn't follow along as a "terrorist" or "anti-American". While Bush was removing freedoms from the American people with the PATRIOT ACT, they had no problem with it at all. Felt it was a good thing. It was a concrete representation of their constant fears. If Obama did any of the things Bush did, the conservatives AND liberals would be up in arms.
Modern American conservative do not seem terribly original. They are simply saying about Obama what we said about Bush. Except we said it with evidence, they say it because they don't want Obama in the White house. They accuse liberals of worshipping Obama just as they worshipped Bush. I find more liberals upset with Obama but not for the reasons conservative are. It makes discussions about our disappointments absolutely ludicrous. We are upset over something he did, they don't like him so it turns into an "I told you so" situation, where what they 'told us' has nothing to do with the reasons we're upset. But at that point it's irrelevant because, in their minds, they were right again and that's the important thing. I recently read a comment from a conservative who said his main fear is that Obama will claim some National Emergency in 2012, declare Martial law and stop the elections. Even their tinfoil hat paranoid conspiracy theories lack originality.
Unfortunately the fact is, for those of us who are liberal, nearly every politician is a disappointment because none of them are anywhere close enough to our views to feel we are actually being represented. I laughed when I heard conservatives, right out of the gate, referring to Obama as "far left". If they are afraid of the far left, and they think that's where Obama stands, they should be absolutely terrified of me.
