Don’t forget the contradictions in our character (and Canadians, too — we don’t have a monopoly on human complexity). Winthrop has is egalitarian side. It’s evident in his writing. He was just dominated by what George Lakoff would call the “strict father” or authoritarian worldview.

Keep the faith,

Glenn

“We will no longer tolerate your lies and destructive and divisive tactics. We will not be suckered by your efforts to turn Americans against one another while you steal our money, practice de facto euthanasia by denying us health care, destroy the institutions of democracy, kill our children in an immoral war, and make some of us believe that the deaths and thievery are the fault of our innocent next door neighbors.” That’s more like it.

Made me think, reading it all, of the Edmund Burke line: “Evil thrives when good men do nothing.”

Seriously, your comments mean the world to me. Thanks for taking a moment to tell me you liked it.

Take care,

Glenn

There’s probably not one answer, because the elected officials we might call moderate or “Rockefeller” Republicans come in many varieties. Most probably don’t think about the disconnects. It’s not unlike those who take the Bible literacy and aren’t troubled by say, conflicting accounts of creation in Genesis. It doesn’t fit the worldview, so they don’t see it.

Other moderates, or even rabid corporate free market Repubs, never took the extremist right seriously. They just used them, never believing for a minute their extremist views would become law.