Who cares about the NATIONAL DEFENSIVE AUTHORIZATION ACT.

Let’s talk about sock monkeys instead. RACIST sock monkeys who are coming in the night to beat you with their bananas and laugh at your skin tone.

Having said that – what would you have non-racist conservatives do? If they happen to take a similar position on an issue as the racists do, but for completely different reasons, are they supposed to go against their own reasoning and conscience and abandon that position?

Which issues would it be that you’d agree on? The doubt about Obama’s birthplace? The death panels? The “socialist” takeover? That Obama is a liar? That he’s intentionally destroying the US? Is there really a reasonable basis for any of these?

And do you really think you have something to lose by pointing out the racist undertones of the people who spout this nonsense? Do you actually fear that if you do so, you will lose support for your “reasoned” position, whatever it is? If so, then you’re clearly not one of those mythical “reasonable Republicans”. If not, why would you defend them so much?

What non-racist conservatives should do is to stop ignoring the racism, and expose and condemn it instead. And then return talking about the real issues, with real arguments. Was that really too hard to come up with yourself?

PAUL!!! You are a MACHINE!!!!

And yes, the ability of even Massachusetts Republicans (and I lived there for quite a few years) to become racist when convenient is itself a racist trait, n’est pas? And yes, you voted for Republicans and were thus by implication a Republican. So that is your institutional tie.

Which is not your fault or an indictment of you. But when you ask what to, the answer is simple. Don’t be a passive supporter of what is wrong. And, please, don’t try to excuse yourself from having to either fish or cut bait. (To use a Massachsetts expression)

As far as I know, I don’t have any strong institutional ties to the racist right, unless you count voting Republican or Libertarian most of the time until about 2006. The Republicans in Massachusetts that I used to vote for are pretty liberal by Republican standards (at least until they become interested in national office and realize that they suddenly have to become much more conservative to have any chance).

Just as a fer-instance: where do you get your facts? It’s damn rare for anyone in our rather complex society to always hunt down primary sources. As the song goes,

And when you trust your television
What you get is what you got
Cause when they own the information, oh
They can bend it all they want

Actually, no, it is not a whole separate discussion, because the statement that “the left is just as bad as the right” is commonly used to mitigate the severity of the blame the right deserves. In other words, your statement is just an excuse, a lame excuse, and one that won’t get by without comment despite the “whole separate discussion” thing.

Having said that … what would you have non-racist conservatives do?

Excellent question!!!! I agree with your position on this, but for one thing. Don’t stand there and let it happen. You can disalign yourself institutionally with the racist right, but remain aligned issue-wise. This is, in fact, what they (the racist right) did when they formed the Southern version of the Republican party. They got out of bed with the Democrats because they didn’t like many of their policies. Third parties are generally the result of this sort of thing as well.

Or, you can do what the Democrats have done. Be a diverse party with true, allowable internal coversations, like this:

http://quichemoraine.com/2009/08/discordant-democrats-vs-republican-dittoheads/

Don’t be a dittohead!!!

Should people change their politics just because ugly people agree with them? No. Of course not. However, the current situation should probably make them re-examine their politics for points of commonality with the racists’ that might be telling. For example, much recent conservative politics is based on the twin ideas that some people are just more deserving than others and that some behavior is more excusable in some people than others. Those are both very troublesome propositions, whether “other” is defined by race or by prosperity.

Having said that – what would you have non-racist conservatives do? If they happen to take a similar position on an issue as the racists do, but for completely different reasons, are they supposed to go against their own reasoning and conscience and abandon that position? My position is that they should absolutely not change their positions just because some people with bad motives arrived at the same conclusion.