Decius wrote:
Sure, but this is why you mostly can't be a real partisan while thinking. There are plenty of fundamental contradictions on the left too (we support civil liberties but hold hearings on video game violence and offensive lyrics in rock music).

Too true. And one of my biggest problems with mainstream dems.

We're here to keep you from doing things that we think are immoral, and thats it. You are otherwise on your own.

However, I don't really think this perspective is widely held outside of the "I think what AM radio tells me to" crowd.

I guess my issue is that I can't get a good sense for how big this crowd really is. They clearly have a big voice, but I recognize that that doesn't mean they're necessarily a majority. Since the media (together with a lazy and complicit populace and a concerted effort on the part of the Right, I think) have effectively abrogated the practice of discussing nuance and subtlety, it's hard to tell how many people really are aggressively authoritarian as regards personal sexual, reproductive, etc. rights. I just can't tell. So I'm worried, because it sounds like there's a lot of such people out there, and they really do want to clamp down on those civil liberties. I'm not sure either if that set overlaps perfectly with the "We must do everything to stay alive in the face of terrorists, including restricting rights and watching everyone" crowd, which is an even scarier group since the repurcussions of them having their way is the absolute destruction of the country.

Most of the anti-tax/anti-welfare/anti-entitlement people ... care about economic liberty, and whatever they have to have to get it, thats OK with them.

Probably, though I'm also not convinced that the majority of such self-identifying fiscal conservatives have done the intellectual exercise of following their fiscal beliefs to their logical conclusion, and don't really have a sense for the implicit social effects. Perhaps i'm being unfair.

On the other hand, most of the Christian right is not really as callous as their present issue portfolio and recent leaders like Falwell would have you beleive.

Then they should be screaming about how they're misrepresented, and should be denouncing the foul demagogues that have been effectively speaking for them. Absent another voice, I can't help but see "the Christian right" as a monolithic entity that thinks wrongly about damn near everything I care about.

If there is a sudden "reformation" in the ranks of conservative christians you may see a dramatic do-see-do occur ...

Well, gosh, it's quite a dream, but i'm skeptical. The degree of cognitive dissonance people are willing to tolerate, as evidenced by the past 7 years, at least, is quite incredible to me. Perhaps it will eventually, finally, come to a head and people will wake up and realize how insane it's been. Personally, I'm discouraged. I can't believe how much the country has changed in a few years.

RE: Republican Presidential Candiates on Torture