--Conservatives like sunshine...

--NRO recently chronicled the top ten conservative movies along with an explanation of what made them conservatives. Many of the explanations were along the lines of "the movie acknowledged there is good and evil" or "communists were the bad guys". The ridiculous caricature of liberals that conservatives have in their head is frightening.

Exactly. This seems to be precisely the mechanism that was at work in Wingnut's columns. In addition, a certain circular logic: Wingnut, as near as I can make it out, answered Joe's question as to "why does being in favor of family, hard work, and honesty equal being 'center-right'?" largely by simply asserting that conservatives are in favor of family, hard work and honesty.

The point of order below, stating that Democrat politicians are out of step with the liberal half of the public, and that our politicians, not our public, is center-right, was right and needed as well.

Hi,

I got my Aussie citizenship almost a year ago. But I can't drop my old citizenship. Imagine, my expression of my point of view would put me on every terrorist watchlist known to man and flying would be h*ll. I know people like you would consider me to be in an extreme minority, a person who is unrealistically upset by turns in American politics. Please consider my point of view. I in no way expect you to respond except to say that my emotional anger discounts my biased point of view.

I agree that the US is a center-right country ... and in foreign affairs I would say that "center-right" is being too generous. I would say "right-wing" is the term that comes to mind. Lets start by listing some of our "friend" countries found in the middle-east and in the region. They include such bulwarks of democracy as Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Israel is such a "democracy" that it has had to split into "Palistine" and Israel for voting purposes. If all Palistinians were allowed to vote they would outvote the Israelis. So today we have a Palistinian "state" that cannot have an army, cannot control its airspace. Etc. It has also historicaly been invaded and bombed at will. And we support this state of affairs.

Palistine. We encouraged democracy until they voted in an Islamist state. Then we told them they would have to live with the consequences of their electoral decision. We scream when someone tries to interfere with our internal affairs. But in little weak Palistine's case we could care less. Ah, that makes me proud to be an American.

Afghanistan, we're still burning and bombing that place into rubble. Proud to be an American spreading democracy throughout the world even though Stephen Cole says the preident is/was on the CIA payroll. It's great to have our fiends in high places.

Eygypt. When we want a good knowledgable torturer to do our dirty work, we know where to go. Just before another "election" Mubarac will do our dirty work for us. Yup, promoting democracy whereever we go.

It has become abvious that Goering was correct during the Nuernburg trials. He testified that all his crimes weren't that special, that his actions were an extreme example of realpolitik. That his rule was just an example of ruling a modern 20th century nation. That is why our side had to cut a deal with Speer to show how Goering's actions were extreme and shouldn't be tolerated. That is why 20th century soldiers were in favor of laws against torture and starting wars of agression. That is why the "useless" United Nations was born.

My claim is that Hitler's problem was that he wasn't subtle enough, and that we learned the magic of subtlety. I think our brutality is on a different scale than Hitler's and isn't as serious. But we still torture, we still run other people's economies for our purposes and we still support represive regimes around the world when it serves "American interests". And then we call Chinese and Iranian dictators names when they have the audacity to do the same thing.

Hypocrisy isn't a strictly Republican trait. It's downright American.

The great part about all this is that I still have to support this immoral idiocy with my tax dollars. I have to support the military spending it represents. I also have to support the cutbacks in social spending and healthcare this represents so the military "badboys" running America have their toys. Even though the rest of the world knows the score.

Americans talk a great game. But they haven't met a problem that more explosives and firepower can't fix.

And Mr. Wingnut. You are a large identifiable part of the f*cked-up mess that is called the United States of America.

Job well done. See you in hell. I'll be the one next to you calling you every name in the book for eternity. That will be both our punishments.

Maybe then you'll develop a conscience. The American system excised your conscience long ago.

So while 51% of people may identify as pro-life the same poll shows that 76% of people say that abortion should be legal in at least some circumstances.

I have a friend who identifies as a conservative southern baptist. He supports gay marriage. He favors socialized medicine. He supports food stamps and WIC. He opposed the Iraq war. He was afraid of the civil liberties erosion under the Bush administration. He hated extraordinary rendition and Gitmo. While he felt that abortion should not be used as birth control nor to do sex selection, he did feel that there were many reasons where an abortion was the right choice. He felt that abortion should be legal. He felt that the government should keep a balanced budget including levying taxes to pay for programs including socialized medicine. In fact, I never did find an issue on which we disagreed substantially.

On the flip side, I identify as liberal.

So two people have the same basic beliefs but identify differently.

All biographies should herewith be changed. Also, news reporting should reflect the truth, that hard work is a conservative/right-wing ethic, and not state that hard work is at all the province of liberals, which would show a liberal bias. Therefore, this article:

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE55372U20090604

which currently reads:

--the White House had been in touch with Sotomayor, whose background of hard-scrabble beginnings and Ivy League education mirrors Obama's own.

Should read: "whose background of hard-scrabble, that is to say hard-working and therefore right-wing, beginnings, mirrors Obama's own right-wing beginnings."