Is conservatism doomed because it's wedded to white privilege? Can Republicans abandon their racism in order to remain respectable and competitive? Are Reaganomics and slavery morally equivalent? These were among the burning questions to which Kossacks put their minds this past week.
As usual, each headline is preceded by the blogger's name or pseudonym. Daily Kos Week in Review will return in two weeks. Happy Thanksgiving!
Vent: 2012, swan song for the racist right
...This election was special. This election was for all the marbles but not because [conservative Republicans] want to cut spending or balance the budget for fear of rising debt. No, that's just a smoke screen for the agenda that has survived for way to long.
This election represented the last desperate hope to retain that iron fist grip of racist American leadership. The hope that in Obama's defeat, minorities would not get the even playing field or ladders of opportunity. That through continued racist leadership, minorities would continue to be oppressed and barred from entering into and equally participating in their exclusive, whites only club called "America"...
chaunceydevega: Conservatism, racism not inevitably linked
...My white conservative friends, these feel like scary times for you. As the country changes, the Republican party is going to have to do some soul searching. You will likely be asked to engage in some difficult conversations about the relationship between your political values and racism...If you are smart, patient, and pragmatic, there are voices out there—white conservatives in fact—who are trying to help your movement adapt to the 21st century. Do seek them out. You can get your own house in order, and not live in a state of irrational fear and sadness.
Racism and conservatism do not have to be the same thing in America...
One Pissed Off Liberal: Today's GOP, more damaging than the Civil War
...The modern republican party, being the party of the plutocracy, is the worst thing that ever happened to this country: worse than Al Qaeda, worse than the KKK, worse than the civil-f'king-war. They have all but destroyed public education. They have jailed, tortured, persecuted and killed millions with their hateful pro-war, drug-war, anti-human, profit-over-people foolishness and their selfish disregard for the common welfare...
These are among the most heartless and immoral people who ever lived. The only things they truly believe in are tax-cuts for the rich, the natural superiority of white European racists and profits over people...
Troubadour: Throw that supply-side in the garbage can
...The Reagan tax cuts were the beginning of the erosion of our society, and the endless cycle of budget cuts that first began to turn America's schools, roads, and hospitals from the envy of the world into crumbling artifacts of a bygone era...
...The cascading legacy of [Reagan's] fiscal policies has been eviscerating and torturing this nation for thirty goddam years...
...If our tax dollars just end up going to subsidize the wealth and luxury of the rich, how long before taxation itself is privatized, and instead of the IRS there are just corporate collection agencies with private armies forcing people at gunpoint to pay their own employers for the privilege of working 15 hours a day, 7 days a week? It's happened before, folks - it was the economic system of the Middle Ages, called Manorialism. And that's basically what the modern conservative ideal of economics boils down to: Glorified slavery...
Bill in Portland Maine: What's German for "Tea Party"?
...I had the chance to visit Berlin a couple times in the 70s when I was kid, and it was a jarring sight standing at the wall that divided it: vibrant and colorful on the western side, oppressive and gray on the eastern side. In some ways it reminds me of what this country has become: reality-based, education-oriented and live-and-let-live on one side…authoritarian, trigger-happy, deceptive and loyalty-oath-centric on the other...
