Originally posted by kevcvs57
" can justify an appeal to the rabble; who ought not to judge of what they cannot understand, and whose opinions are not propagated by reason, but caught by contagion."
I was tempted to chop this bit off, but it would not be very honest, I would rather be stuck in a lift with Burke than Johnson. The link I got the the quote from claimed Boswell could no ...[text shortened]... ection right wing Republican rant's are motivated more by resentment than actual Patriotism.
Since I am the author of many of the "alarmist post election right wing Republican rants", please allow me to comment on your theory of resentment vs. patriotism.
I'll be honest - I do resent the confiscation of my money to support programs and policies I do not believe in. I always have. I resent the fact that Obama talks about me, but not to me. As if I and my friends are some necessary evil that must be most grudgingly endured because we're the ones with the money. I lament the lack of can-do attitude in this county, the lives of a generation of Baby Boomers ill-spent because everything came easy for them and now, when it's time to get back to work, neither they nor their ill-bred, ill-disciplined, self-entitled, self-loving brood are willing or able to do that. So we put a program in place for them, instead of telling them to get up off their collective dying asses and work for what they want. Success is hard.
Now, on to that bit about "stirring up the public good without reason" - that's a Stalinist, repressionist statement if ever there were one. The First Amendment is sacrosanct. And I happen to believe that the impulses of government of any stripe should be regularly resisted, on general principle if for no specific good reason. But there are many good reasons to resist the expansion of government, of government spending, and of ever-increasing government largesse at the expense of the productive class when our government is $16 trillion in debt and headed to $20 trillion. Ery quickly. To me, if to no one else, getting at the truth is always patriotic, if not always convenient, easily swallowed, or conducive to the preservation of your worldview.
The next Liberal I come across that can clearly articulate their reason for their political views will be the first one. I may post facts and some inflammatory comments about Obama, but your lot always, sooner or later, devolves into enraged name-calling. Now that's fine; while I wish you would at least provide some amusement by getting creative, your rants against me just don't penetrate. But the fact remains that you are not willing to examine critically and truthfully any situation that paints Obama in a bad light. That's fascist groupthink and very disturbing. I regard the lies and obfuscations of the Bush administration - the yellowcake uranium fiasco, the mobile chemical weapons factories debacle - as a great shame upon America and upon the Republican Party. How you fail to even consider that Obama denied aid to our four diplomats in Benghazi - a scandal far more serious than Watergate - just shows that you are unthinking and ill-fit to lead. It is a tremendous sadness that you so willingly gloss over those deaths.