Right-wing political ideology, fundamentalist religion, ultra-nationalism, racism, sexism, homophobia, it's all the same thing. It's an idea that says I'm more important than everyone else.
To expand upon my point-
One of the Republican slogans in recent campaigns has been "
Country First". That's their slogan. Their actions don't match the rhetoric. In fact, their rhetoric doesn't match their rhetoric.
Republicans in Congress have been acting like whiny children who can't get their way, throwing a tantrum that their man didn't get elected in 2008, and have been beating their fists and digging in their heels ever since. And I'm not talking about continuing to be against the Democratic agenda, which would be obvious. I'm talking about campaigning against, shouting down, and otherwise rejecting a myriad of ideas they used to campaign for, and even authored. Particularly ideas which were developed on a bipartisan basis, ignoring the Democratic majority, involving just 3 people from each side, who came up with an agreement they all could live with. All because they want to defeat Democrats, not help the nation.
I'd like to be able to point out that Democrats did the same thing during the Bush years, but frankly, I found them to be all-too cooperative.
That's because the current Republican party takes petulant selfishness to the extremes of human behavior, and the Democrats are still dealing with them like they're attempting to deal with reasonable adults. Even with huge majorities in both houses, the Democrats brought Republicans on board with every single major piece of legislation, including health care, and did everything they could to compromise (and I do mean compromise) the legislation to get Republican votes. How many votes did they get? They're morons for even trying at this point.
Listen to what the Republicans are saying and watch what they're doing. They're not being Congressmen. They're simply being stubborn blockheads, and their chosen 'strategy' is an unpatriotic disgrace. It's not "Country First" it's Republicans First. Me First.
When offered a chance to propose their own ideas, free of Democratic Compromise, they opted to produce a few pages of unspecified garbage. A budget without numbers. A generic solution to our problems- let's cut all the waste in the budget and not raise anyone's taxes and that will magically solve our deficit problems! Romney 2012! Gosh, if it is that simple, why haven't the Democrats done it already? They haven't exactly been big on raising taxes under Obama, in spite of the bold-faced lie to the contrary.
But that's just one example. That's just today's political landscape in one country under one party. Is that a representative sample of right-wing ideology? No, not completely. Just a very good example.
Let's move past Republican politics and into right-wing religion. Because let's face it, religion is largely political... if it stayed in the realm of the spiritual, where you opt to simply be a good person and suggested good things would happen if you did, then it would be apolitical, and more philosophical. But it's not. Religion plays a major part in politics and campaigns and even prevents people from living a decent and respected life.
What is the difference between deeply conservative Christian religion in America and deeply conservative Islamic religion in Iran? Let's discuss the similarities.
- What is your stance on homosexuality- It's an abomination and must be prevented from spreading. It is a danger to people, particularly children.
- What is your stance on the status of gay people- They have chosen a lifestyle that is against God, and can only be saved through converting to our religion. They must be held accountable for their wrong choice of lifestyle, looked down upon and declared to be immoral people.
- What is your stance on the status of women- They stay home and have children. Anything else is due to the corrupting influence of Satan.
- What is your stance on the right to choose- Women do not deserve the right to decide to have children. If they are pregnant, they must have that child, even if it kills them. Even if they were raped. By their father. Who has a terrible flesh-eating disease that will also kill the child minutes after birth.
- What is your view of other, deeply conservative religions that are essentially the exact same thing as your own- They are serving a false god and living their lives according to a false set of values.
- What is your view of the irreligious- They're scum of the earth and cannot be saved unless they convert to our religion.
In other words, thousands of years will pass, and the brain will still be stuck in the bronze age, thanks to fundamentalist thought. And whom does it all serve? If this were politics, would it be "God first" or "What is right comes first"? No. It all serves racist, homophobic, misogynistic males. In other words, traditional patricians who believe that they alone are the perfect people and all others are subordinate under them. Other genders, races, religions, preferences, they can all burn in hell. It's not "good comes first" it's "Daddy comes first". The Me-First universe of conservative males who believe that everyone else serves them or is subordinate to them.
Let's talk about ultra-nationalism. Well, on the surface, that would look like an "us-first" philosophy, now wouldn't it? Putting nation ahead of self? Sure, if that's what it meant. Instead, it means putting MY nation ahead of all others, and screw those other nations. Diplomacy is for the weak, BOMB THEM.
And that still relies on the idea of self-sacrifice for the betterment of our nation. What exactly is the Right willing to sacrifice for this nation?
Their
personal finances? Heck no. Higher taxes is against the sacred Norquist code. It doesn't matter if we've been at war for a decade. It doesn't matter if we've been ravaged by natural disasters. It doesn't matter if unemployment reaches record highs, while the elites at the top enjoy unfettered expansion of their already formidable wealth. Raising taxes is a communist plot to destroy America. Expand unemployment benefits? That means I might have to give up on getting a third yacht... no wait, it doesn't, because paying for it would cost me a tiny fraction of that yacht, which I can easily afford whether taxes go up or not!
How about
military service? Do you see a lot of really wealthy people signing up to fight in these wars? Or do you see a whole heck of a lot more poor people in impoverished areas signing up?
What about their
beliefs? Do they concede that while X might be against their religion, it's also none of their business and therefore should not be legislated if other people do it? That it might be better for the nation if they kept their views inside their church and home? No, it becomes very much their business and they demand that their viewpoints become law, essentially that their worldview becomes the only acceptable one, even if I don't follow that religion, I still must adhere to its tenets.
So when they say Country First, what they mean is Me First, Other citizens second, other countries last. That's your ultra-nationalism.
Racism is the same thing. It says Me first, other people of my skin color next, everyone else last. That's racism.
Sexism is the same thing. It says Me first, other people of my gender second, everyone else last. That's sexism.
Homophobia is the same thing. It says Me first, other people of my sexual orientation second, everyone else burns in hell. That's homophobia.
It says I'm more important than everyone else. I'm not willing to do a darned thing to help any one of you, and I think you're all inferior to me.
That's right-wing ideology. It's all the same unjust idea, over and over and over again. Hasn't changed in tens of thousands of years.
What makes liberalism so much better? It's the idea that other people are just as good as me, regardless of skin color, sex or orientation, or national affiliation. It says bombing people indiscriminately in Iraq is not the correct response to a largely Saudi-born plot to harm innocent people. Nor would it be correct to indiscriminately bomb Saudi Arabia. Because there are innocent people there, and just because they're not white, of our nation, of our religion, that doesn't mean they're not PEOPLE.
And that idea has not been around, or at least, in the majority, screwing things up throughout the ages. Tolerance, understanding, and progressive, fair-minded ideals had to evolve and develop and take shape through education and expanding freedom of thought.
There hasn't been an era of history where closed-minded religious/racial/national patrician intolerance wasn't the norm, accepted virtually everywhere. That idea has been tried. It sucks out loud. It goes in the dustbin of history.
And the folks who believe in it will die off naturally and will be replaced with better educated people.
Sounds harsh? Not tolerant enough of backwards ridiculousness? Too bad. If I've ever seen a right-winger go easy on the things they think are wrong, it happened too quickly and too rarely for me to ever see it. As it stands, there are thousands of people across this country, in religious buildings, at this very moment, decrying the existence of gay people, and a Black President. Not one of them are liberal.
