I've only been here for two years. I can honestly say that in real life the only people I've met who would agree with the right on ET are: 1 - Shopkeepers or small, as in unsuccessful, traders: Retail is a trade with a razor-thin margin, indulged in by immigrants and people who really don't know that capitalism and shopkeeping are not really related. On a large scale, it employs as "buyers" women who wouldn't know what to do with themselves if they weren't shopping, for the most part. Wal-mart is an exception to this, for now, anyway. All retailers succumb to the Force of the Blonde, eventually, so Wal-mart is only vaccinated, not immune. Shopkeepers have the views you see on ET, because they don't know, for the most part, how to properly manage inventory, recievables, payables, and debt, and almost all of them are undercapitalized anyway, so regardless of if they knew how to manage this stuff, they'd fail anyway. Unsuccessful traders share all of the above with shopkeepers, but without their street smarts. Think Scataphagos. 2 - Inveterate racists. 'Nuff said. 3 - Antisocial pessimists, otherwise known as neurotics, who are mildly paranoid. As in: mostly friendless, in real life. To compensate, they think they're better than anyone else. On the Internet, if you see someone say "sheeple", you've got one. Geeks fall into this category. Left wing geeks at least doubt themselves. Right wing geeks are too stupid to even know the definition of "doubt", much less engage in a behavior that would involve self-criticism. The common thread to all of the above is a complete inability to function in a society where, because you're dealing with republican (small "r") institutions, you have to be willing to compromise. That willingness is lacking in these folks. They think it's heroic to stand in front of the President with a gun and a sign calling for blood, when really it's just borderline treason. The broad middle will and has rejected them. It'll take them 40 years to figure out why and produce another Eisenhower, who can win by acknowledging that in the real world, compromise is necessary, but that you can compromise without giving up your ideals, your integrity, and above all, your love of your country over your membership in a mere party or movement. They will overstep in some way soon. After that overstep, you'll see the country move so far to the left Obama will look like the moderate he in fact is. The rightwingers on ET won't even recognize the overstep, of course. These are people who think threats to a person's life are fine, and military coups are what the Founding Fathers laid down their lives and fortunes for, even though George Washington deliberately set the example he hoped would always be followed by laying down his sword and returning to his farm after the Revolution was won. His actions would be completely incomprehensible to the militarist idiots who think of themselves as "conservative" on this forum.
As long as the left is interested in total human extermination through abortion and homo sex, then the right will always be on the side of good and the left on the side of evil.
Good post, trefoil. Grist for the mill. The right is not doomed, though. They can, and I hope they will (I believe these two poles are part of an inseparable reality), extract themselves from between the rock corporate capitalists who direct them, and the anti-"anything the left wants" hard place. There are conservative principles of inestimable truth, as history clearly continues to show us (else they'd disappear). Right now, those are muted by baser human instincts and lack a champion. By the way, anyone ever read "Witness" by Chambers? I've read that the book "creates" conservatives. I intend to read it, something that powerful must cast light on those core principles pretty well.
You might also want to read some of the following, also: The Mayflower Compact 1620 Articles of Confederation of the New England Colonies 1643 Declaration of Rights 1765 Declaration and Resolve of the First Continental Congress 1774 Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms 1775 The Declaration of Independence 1776 Articles of Confederation 1777 Constitution of the United States 1787 Washington's First Inaugural Address 1789 Washington's Farewell Address 1796 Lincoln's First Inaugural Address 1861 And (although I warn potential readers to use extreme caution, as there have been reports of immediate conversion to the principals of individualism and conservatism): Daniel Webster's First Bunker Hill Oration.
Formation of state stuff, looks like it would get at the underlying duality only indirectly. Thanks though!
Same part as the public school system who does it 1,000 times more than the clergy and the school system is run by the left!