Moderation vs Extremism in Politics

[TGHusker]

Hmmm....interesting conversation. I consider myself a moderate conservative. I'm puzzled by the notion that conservatives are only interested in the status quo. There are a number of issues that they don't like the status quo on.

 

(note: not all people who view themselves as conservatives agree with all of these topics just like not all people who vie themselves as liberals agree with everything attributed to "liberal" points of view.)

 

1) Abortion = A conservative who doesn't like abortion doesn't want the status quo.

 

2) Taxes = Many conservatives don't like the status quo of the tax policy and want it changed either slightly or drastically.

 

3) Government program waste and fraud = Clean up fraud in programs like Medicare and it could be amazing what we could do with the money.

 

There are three big issues that various conservative groups find important.

 

Just because one side fights the other side over their main issues doesn't mean the first side always just wants the status quo.

Agree -

[Mavric]

A U.S. Army training instructor listed Evangelical Christianity and Catholicism as examples of religious extremism along with Al Qaeda and Hamas during a briefing with an Army Reserve unit based in Pennsylvania, Fox News has learned.

 

“We find this offensive to have Evangelical Christians and the Catholic Church to be listed among known terrorist groups,” said Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty. “It is dishonorable for any U.S. military entity to allow this type of wrongheaded characterization.”

 

The incident occurred during an Army Reserve Equal Opportunity training brief on extremism. Topping the list is Evangelical Christianity. Other organizations listed included Catholicism, Al Qaeda, Hamas, the Ku Klux Klan, Sunni Muslims, and Nation of Islam.

 

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Full Article

[Mavric]

Defense Document Suggests Colonists Fighting British Rule were members of “extremist movement”

 

 

Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained educational materials from the Department of Defense (DOD) depicting conservative organizations as “hate groups” and advising students to be aware that “many extremists will talk of individual liberties, states’ rights, and how to make the world a better place.” The documents repeatedly cite the leftwing Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as a resource for identifying “hate groups.”

 

<snip>

• Under a section labeled “Extremist Ideologies” the document states, “In U.S. history, there are many examples of extremist ideologies and movements. The colonists who sought to free themselves from British rule and the Confederate states who sought to secede from the Northern states are just two examples.”
  

[carlfense]

A U.S. Army training instructor listed Evangelical Christianity and Catholicism as examples of religious extremism along with Al Qaeda and Hamas during a briefing with an Army Reserve unit based in Pennsylvania, Fox News has learned.

 

“We find this offensive to have Evangelical Christians and the Catholic Church to be listed among known terrorist groups,” said Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty. “It is dishonorable for any U.S. military entity to allow this type of wrongheaded characterization.”

 

The incident occurred during an Army Reserve Equal Opportunity training brief on extremism. Topping the list is Evangelical Christianity. Other organizations listed included Catholicism, Al Qaeda, Hamas, the Ku Klux Klan, Sunni Muslims, and Nation of Islam.

 

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Full Article

How dare they!

[rawhide]

what about heathens????

 

ain't no trustin' those bastages

[HuskerLuke]

I'll just jump in here to say that in terms of terminology, I wouldn't confuse the historical meaning of conservatism (or liberalism for that matter) with their modern defintions within U.S. politics. Historically (still see this a lot in Europe) you had liberals, who were really classical liberals, who consistently fought to reduce the government's roles in the affairs of people. Opposite the liberals were the socialists or probably more accurately, social democrats, who advocated for more government involvement in people's lives, generally speaking. Conservatives in this context typically argued in favor the status quo and saw their role as moderating the changes society went through, which is how they got the mantle of traditionalism applied to them.

 

Today, both modern conservatism and liberalism in the United States are bastardized forms of traditional liberalism and social democracy, respectively, with a bunch of caveats and exceptions carved out to fit the American political landscape.

[Junior]

Here's a good one for Moderate vs. Extremist in politics, and a perfect example of why it is so difficult for anything to get done in Washington:

 

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/01/26/266551629/mccains-liberal-record-earns-him-censure-from-arizona-gop?ft=1&f=103943429&utm_content=socialflow&utm_campaign=nprnews&utm_source=npr&utm_medium=twitter

 

Arizona Sen. John McCain has gone soft when it comes to conservative principles. That's according to his state's Republican Party, who sent the former presidential candidate a message on Saturday by voting to censure him for his 'liberal' voting record.

 

The Associated Press says the resolution was approved on a voice vote during a meeting of state committee members in Tempe. It said McCain "has campaigned as a conservative but has lent his support to issues 'associated with liberal Democrats,' such as immigration reform and to funding the law sometimes known as Obamacare."

 

The five-term senator's bleeding-heart tendencies are "disastrous and harmful" to the state and the nation, the resolution said.