Are A2k'rs really party members?

I actually am a member of a party, and I still dont tow the party line. Plenty of times I get real frustrated about something I dont at all agree with - and I'll say so, both to other members of the same party and others.

And yeah, I'm actually amazed (or aghast, actually) at how taboo it appears to be on this board to take a clear stand at, well, anything or anyone "on one's side".

And Dys is right - there's always lengthy expositions of how one "doesnt agree with everything Bush says" - but pretty hard to actually catch a conservative lashing out at anything he does.

And yes, I am specifically talking about conservative Americans here. Look at Kerry - a great many liberals/leftists here had nooo hesitations criticizing him. Theres been some pretty harsh, even angry, words about, say, Michael Moore too. But a conservative expressing indignation at Coulter? Just doesnt happen. At most there's the apologetic "well, she's just meant as entertainment".

Some exceptions - Phoenix about the Schiavo fracas; Woiyo about Iraq. But they're scarce.

Trying to find an example, but I dont write much about the Green Left's policy issues here much, mostly b/c noone (apart from Walter) would probly know what I was on about. But here's a post where my frustration with my own party surfaces in a general critique of the American Left's losing choices.

Funny, I've observed this, too (and I've heard exactly that same apology for Coulter). I've heard it suggested that this is one of the strengths of the Republican Party--greater cohesion than Democrats/liberals. Perhaps, however, that's a topic for another thread.

Could it be that, as a party member, I agree with most of the party line? There are party-line aspects I disagree with and I have voiced my opinion about them. The fact I don't continually shout about it from the rooftops of the world shouldn't matter.

I am vocal about what I believe. I believe what I say.

That would probably explain why you became a party member.

Well, I've spoken up very specifically about my views on the thread where think and I dicovered we're in agreement on several specific policies/opinions.

I chose the party that closest represented what is important to me.

The party happens to toe my line.

I am also vocal about what is important to me. I take issue with my party and certain Republicans about a few things and have mentioned them.

I think there is room in this world for Ann Coulter and snicker at about 50% of what she writes. (I may cringe at the other 50%). She's an opinionator. As long as someone allows Stuart Smalley to have a mic, Ann can write.

Lash:

The terrifying part is that Stuart Smalley is a character made up by a comedian.

Ann really believes what she says!

McG-

It seems that Lash and you disagree with my presupposition and you ARE that party member I was presupposing A2k'rs were not party members and really towed any line.

Here is the question I have for you and Lash - please try to hear me not as trapping you or yelling AHA! after you answer. I really could care less about that little crap - I am just wondering.

If you find yourself more than often going along a part line - do you think it taints views raised by 'the other side'?

Can you really hear a democratic argument for it's merits? Do you tend to listen to only one form of media that does not allow you to hear 'the other side'? Is that even possible any more?

Just wondering.

TF

I wonder, if you surveyed folks on the board, which "side" (using the old left/right bit) feels more like it lacks representation of its ideals in American government. Certainly I get the sense that fewer Democrat-aligned-types could honestly say "Kerry is my guy" than Republican-aligned-types couls say "Bush is my guy."

Goes back to the "the righties are more unified" idea, but I suspect very much that us pinkos feel less secure in the knowledge that there's someone in the state and national capitals speaking for us.

What might such a situation do for the tenor of debate...

How America Views Dissent
Douglas' comments during the cold war. Some things repeat themselves.---BBB

How America Views Dissent
by William O. Douglas, deceased Supreme Court Justice

Our Constitutional right to protest allows us more freedom than most other people in the world enjoy. Yet the stresses and strains in our system have become so great and the dissents so violent and continuous that a great sense of insecurity has possessed much of the country.
This insecurity reflects international as well as local worries and concerns.

At the international level we have become virtually paranoid. The world is filled with dangerous people. Every troublemaker across the globe is a communist. Our obsession is in part the product of a fear generated by Joseph McCarthy. Indeed a black silence of fear possesses the nation and is causing us to jettison some of our libertarian traditions.

Truman nurtured that fear. Johnson promoted it, preaching the doctrine that the people of the world want what we have and, unless suppressed, will take it from us. That fear has made us all military experts -- we all know what missiles to keep, what troop deployments to make, what overseas wars to search out and join.

Military strategy has indeed become dominant in our thinking; and the dominance of the military attitude has had a sad effect at home. Domestic issues also have aroused people as seldom before....

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:5uS4XVGyh5QJ:www.constitution.org/wod/wod_por.htm+How+America+Views+Dissent++by+william+o.+douglas&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

BBB =

I saw a T-Shirt on campus the other day that read:

Dissent = Traitor.

Wow...

TTF

Non dissent=traitor.

I'm stunned at the amount of consensus in American politics. I suppose I'm used to a system where party discipline is very strict (they don't call them Parliamentary Whips for nothing) and the consensus-seeking of American politics looks a bit wussy, or at least it seems to sell out ordinary people in favour of big corporate interests - Dems and Repubs are both beholden to corporate interests). It's a game of who can rush to the corporate right the quickest.

But a bit of civility here would be good.