Reminds me of the book review someone pointed me to recently and about which I posted because it was another book playing on the whole "mind" bizzo. In this case, it was called The Righteous Mind. The author, a member of the Righteous Minded himself, points to research that shows that a conservative is capable of accurately representing how a liberal thinks about an issue whereas a liberal is completely befuddled by conservative thinking.
This flies in the face of the typical assumption of the Righteously Minded, no? That the Liberal is special because he is observant, caring, attuned to the Other, thoughtful, rational, brimming with the spirit of equanimity.
But apparently not quite - not when it comes to understanding the world of conservatives.
I'm also reminded of Robin's chapter on conservatives who turn against
conservativism. They're not exactly _for_ anything in its stead. Though
Robin says he actually thinks differently about this breed of conservative
than he used to, so I'm not sure if that would be his current thesis. He
never makes that clear either.
At 08:38 AM 4/6/2012, Carrol Cox wrote:
>I would like to see someone propose a program, opposing Democrats from the
>right, and providing campaign fodder as it were, that is NOT lunacy. I think
>it can't be done. The DP has so occupied the whole political spectrum to the
>extreme rational right that there is no rightwing program possible other
>than various brands of lunacy.
>
>Also, on Congressional voting. Doug's statistics are of course simply
>meaningless, for reasons Michael has given. What would be meaningful would
>be a two-step process.
>
>1. Prepare a list of the 10 major acts of Congress over the past 20 years
>that have been fundamental in determining national policy.
>
>2. Check the voting on those 10 acts.
>
>That said, the whole debate is meaningless in reference to left needs and
>aims. It is the DP and the DP alone that for 45 years has been the main
>stumbling block to recruiting left activists. Without overcoming that
>barrier the left isn't -- that is, it isn't A Left but a collection of
>leftists individuals and small scattered groups. And that is why yakking
>about "the right" is destructive (in addition to be about as meaningless as
>one can imagine any yakking to be).
>
>
>Carrol
>
>P.S. If my premise re 'room to the right' of the DP is correct, then the DP
>can move further right only by attracting more lunatics.
>
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