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Some fear GOP is being carried to the extreme

by Chevalier de Pas | September 23, 2009 at 01:01 pm

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Some conservatives are finally recognizing that they are loosing ground with all this extremism, serious conservatives are afraid that this behavior is just undermining GOP's credibility with paranoiac accusations against The President of The United States, Barack Obama.

Amid a rebirth of conservative activism that could help Republicans win elections next year, some party insiders now fear that extreme rhetoric and conspiracy theories coming from the angry reaches of the conservative base are undermining the GOP's broader credibility and casting it as the party of the paranoid.

Such insiders point to theories running rampant on the Internet, such as the idea that Barack Obama was born in Kenya and is thus ineligible to be president, or that he is a communist, or that his allies want to set up Nazi-like detention camps for political opponents. Those theories, the insiders say, have stoked the GOP base and have created a "purist" climate in which a figure such as Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) is lionized for his "You lie!" outburst last week when Obama addressed Congress.

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Rory Cripps

at 14:31 on September 23rd, 2009

I think that many make the mistake of lumping in conservative Republicans with extremists on the far right. It's no different from lumping in Liberal Democrats with out and out communists. So-called "right wing" groups such as the Klan, Skinheads, Christian Identity, etc. have more in common with those on the far left fringe than they do with conservative Republicans. I don't know of any bonafide conservative Republicans that subscribe to the conspiracy theories of the far right--or the far left for that matter. William F. Buckley, who is the father of modern day conservatism, imploded that myth years ago.

Rory Cripps

at 15:36 on September 23rd, 2009

Roy: Yeah! Go figure: Some Dems get bent out of shape when President Obama is called a Commie and some Repubs get bent out of shape when Bush is called a NAZI. And when people like me attempt to maintain an even keel (like a bouncer in a bar fight or a cop in a domestic violence incident) we get it from both ends . . .i.e., "You said what? You must be a right wing extremist! No doubt about it!" And from the other end, "You said what? You must be a socialist! No doubt about it!"

Chevalier de Pas

at 15:37 on September 23rd, 2009

And Obama gets called both; Nazi and Commie, isn't funny?

eastvanray

at 15:59 on September 23rd, 2009

Not if you understand that Nazis and communists were not that much different. Both were liberty-robbing, big government killing machines. Obama may not be a great President but he is clearly neither a Nazi nor a Commie.

Chevalier de Pas

at 16:11 on September 23rd, 2009

Well, I do understand that some conservatives are very radical and are trying to spread the fear to win the elections next year. About Obama, I don't think we have enough span to evaluate his presidency yet, but you know, throwing the first rock is as old as the Christianity.

Hugh Askew

at 16:22 on September 23rd, 2009

Stoning people to death predates Christianity by MANY hundreds of years. In the New Testament (the beginnings of Christianity, as opposed to the Old Testament - which is the Law, the prophets, and the history, of the Hebrews - from which Christianity sprang. Jesus was Jewish, if you needed to know.), the only ones stoned to death were Christians. I don't think they were pitching rocks at each other.

Chevalier de Pas

at 16:31 on September 23rd, 2009

I think that I used the word FIRST to illustrate my comment, did you read that? It is a New Testament story, isn't it?

Rory Cripps

at 17:55 on September 23rd, 2009

So what? They all get called something! Sometimes what they're called is warranted and sometimes it's not! Why do people take it personally when someone calls their favorite politician a name? It's all sticks and stones stuff. I'm incredulous over the fact that many seem to have a personal commitment to politicians as if those politicians were blood relatives.

Chevalier de Pas

at 18:05 on September 23rd, 2009

Unfortunately this country is filled with intolerant people, I am from a time where we were used to respect each other, even strangers were respected. Nowadays everyone is a buddy, lying and calling names don't meaning anything anymore , I personally find that horrible, soon we are going to be judging people in the streets, and maybe throwing stones again. That will be the end of the Democratic state. The history shows that we are always going in circles, maybe is the end of a era.

Hugh Askew

at 16:52 on September 23rd, 2009

From my understanding, the chief witness in the Jewish courts of the time was required to read that statement when that verdict was guilty, and the sentence was death by stoning, tho i am hardly an authority on the matter.

In the circumstance where Jesus used the saying, he was basically repeating what the scribes & Pharisees (the ones that had brought the woman caught in the act of adultery) would have already known, thus exposing their hypocrisy. Note that they all, to a man, left the scene quietly.

So even tho the illustration we are most familiar with is from the New Testament, the saying itself still predates it.