Ask a conservative what the biggest problem in America is today, and you’ll get answers like overtaxation, a sexualized culture, lack of respect for authority, insufficient church-going or big government running amok. But if you then asked the conservative what the real source of the problem was—the beating heart pumping blood to each and all of these socio-politico-cultural wounds—you’d get the same answer: liberalism.

On the other hand, you could ask a liberal a hundred questions about the problems facing our country before you’d get to an answer that placed conservatism at the heart of the nation’s ills.

And conservatives learn these messages when still young. What does a “campus liberal” do? Well, it depends what his or her issue is: fighting sweatshop labor, or environmental degradation, or the Iraq war, or any of a dozen other problems about which liberals are concerned. What, on the other hand, does a “campus conservative” do? Fight liberals and liberalism.

2. Conservatism is the ideology of the past—a past we don’t want to return to.
3. Conservatives are cowards, and they hope you are, too.

Conservatives view HOPE as one of those four letter (liberal) words.

The only thing they HOPE is that people don't wise up to what they are doing.

3. Conservatives are cowards, and they hope you are, too. We’re afraid, they shout. We’re so afraid of terrorists, we have to become more like the things we hate. We’re so afraid, we have to let our government sanction torture. We’re so afraid, we have to let the government spy on us. We’re so afraid, we have to give the president dictatorial powers. We’re so afraid, we just want to rush to the arms of politicians who say they’ll protect us.

Progressives need to frame their rejection of the fear campaign as an act of courage: Al-Qaida does not scare us, and we will not dismantle our democratic system because we are afraid. The America we love does not cower in fear, as the conservatives want it to.

I really love number 3

...

Progressives need to frame their rejection of the fear campaign as an act of courage: Al-Qaida does not scare us, and we will not dismantle our democratic system because we are afraid. The America we love does not cower in fear, as the conservatives want it to.

This is why I am anti-CT and anti-fatalism. Quit being afraid of Karl Rove, quit being afraid of Sarah Palin, quit being afraid of stupid viral emails sent by ignorant friends and relatives.

We are NOT going back in the closet, we are NOT going back to 1952, we are NOT doing any of that. The people who came before us didn't get shot, maimed, lynched and killed for us to fall down on the job.

F'em.

Their Way-Back Machine is set to 1852.

Exactly!

This is why I am anti-CT and anti-fatalism. Quit being afraid of Karl Rove, quit being afraid of Sarah Palin, quit being afraid of stupid viral emails sent by ignorant friends and relatives.

We are NOT going back in the closet, we are NOT going back to 1952, we are NOT doing any of that. The people who came before us didn't get shot, maimed, lynched and killed for us to fall down on the job.

F'em.

Are the Conservative masterminds and opinion-makers and strategists REALLY afraid of The Terror or are they simply trying to instill fear in the sheep as part of their program? I can't believe that Rove and Cheney and Limbaugh and Hannity and the rest of them see fear as anything other than a tool to control the masses.

They are afraid of us.

That is why I am not afraid of them.

I know people who enjoy the idea of Unions, like the idea of freedom of religion among other liberal ideas who consider themselves conservatives and think "liberal" is a dirty word.

There is something out there polluting the discussion. If anyone can pinpoint the exact nature of this pollution, then that would be the key to actually fixing the debate. The problem is everyone has their own idea of what might be causing it, but it's mostly broad based theory.

I really do not have an idea of what it is.

I wrote this a long time ago in another identity but I believe it is still relevant. It was just off the top of my head and not the best writing but I think you'll get what I was trying to convey.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Acebass/1

Actually, it's more like 1152.

A time pre-science, where faith ruled the day over even common sense, power was absolute, women had less than zero rights, disease went unchecked, child labor was the norm, torture was commonplace, and ignorance was rampant.

The Dark Ages. That's what they want to go back to. Not merely pre-Enlightenment. Pre-Renaissance.