When did Moderate Become an Epithet?

Has it really come to this?

First, the frothing conservatives declared war on Halloween. Then, they declared war on the imagined war on Christmas. Now, in what is rapidly becoming a new seasonal tradition, the right is going after those cookie brandishing kids in green. It’s time again for the war on Girl Scouts.

In recent weeks, as cookie season has reached its annual pitch, anti choice groups have been busy calling the GUSA affiliated with “a distinctly un-holy vision of sexual empowerment secured by contraception and abortion,” and calling for boycotts. The Catholic News Agency this month declared Girl Scouts’ relationship with WAGGGS, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, “troubling,” depicting WAGGGS as “an international agitator for abortion, contraceptives, sexual diversity and ‘comprehensive’ sexuality education.”

Why? Because representatives from WAGGGs were part of a 2010 World Youth Conference that wrote a statement asking for global cooperation on ending poverty, guaranteeing the right to education and “reproductive health services… including access to a full range of contraceptives and safe abortion.” It also supported gender equality, including recognition for LGBT individuals “as part of the spectrum of gender and sexual identities.”

So a group the Scouts is affiliated with is affiliated with a larger group that made a statement about maternal health and gender equality. Yup, this totally means your daughters will be getting Try It badges in abortion.

The Scouts also found itself in hot water recently for simply tweeting HuffPo’s list of “Incredible Ladies Who Should Be Women Of The Year For 2013″ and asking “Is there anyone you’d add to this list?” Though activist Malala Yousafzai dominated the list, it also included Wendy Davis. That’s all. Last month, GUSA similarly linked on Facebook to a Washington Post story on American Women Who Made a Difference in 2013, including Gabby Giffords, Robin Roberts and Kathleen Sebelius. By pointing out lists of high-achieving women — including women who advocate for women’s health and rights — clearly, GUSA was pushing an abortion agenda. Breitbart went particularly apoplectic over the incidents, with a story declaring this week that “A part of every Thin Mint and Do-Si-Do, every Samoa and Savannah Smile goes to support abortion advocacy.” Delicious, peanut buttery abortion advocacy.

Continue to article HERE

Another source

OK look I don't always care for this sources obvious dislike contempt for the right, but I am wondering have conservative mindsets really gone this far? Going after a group like the girl scouts all because they deal with a group that deals with another group that has dealing with some other group that makes the ultra right scream bloody murder. Has the Glen Beck type of guilt by association game gone mainstream?

I don't watch TV I don't even have cable so is this the kind of crap that's on TV now? I do have HULU though if you care.

I have some views that I consider conservative or right of the middle, but it is things like this that I find disturbing. I am starting to think the middle isn't where it once was.

It wasn't very long ago there were a lot of people butthurt when Gov. Andrew Cuomo said very mean things about how conservatives are simply not welcome in the state. Cuomo didn’t really say that, but he did say this.

“Is the Republican Party in this state a moderate party or is it an extreme conservative party. That is what they are trying to figure out … Are they these extreme conservative, right to life, pro assault weapon, anti-gay? Is that who they are? Because if that’s who they are, and if they are the extreme conservatives, they have no place in the state of New York. Because that’s not who New Yorkers are. If they are moderate Republicans, like in the Senate right now, who control the Senate – moderate Republicans have a place in this state.”
Read more at wonkette.com...

When I first read about what Cuomo said I thought the guys a prick but I am starting to think it is things like the hatred towards a group like the Girl Scouts that he was probably referring to. I still do not like Cuomo and never have especially for idiotic crap like soda bans, and I am a gun owner. Of course I would never move there however there are other states for different reasons I would never move to either.

Down in Louisiana a 6th grade Budhhist kid was harassed by the school because of his faith until his parents had to transfer him to another school 30 miles awayLink. In Idaho lawmaker is pushing legislation that would allow businesses to deny services to gay people or single mothers as long as they cited sincerely held religious beliefsLink. That can mean even life saving services.Who else are they going to deem sinful? Would they see my tattoos and refuse me? That bill opens the door to discriminating for just about anything in the name of religion. In Virginia parents who enroll as a home school must meet basic requirements, but by filing a separate religious exemption they can excuse themselves altogether from the duty to educate their children and Utah Senator Aaron Osmond has announced his plan to do the same in his state with Senate Bill 39. that would mean parents who are exempt from those standards would also be immune from prosecution for educational neglect—even if they fail to educate their children-at all.Link Some of the same people that want the freedom to not educate their kids also want to take away a women's freedom of choice. In Texas a man had to court to respect his wife's wishes to not be kept on life support when she was legally brain dead.link and another link skip to the end of those links to see the result.

Those were only a few examples of some very recent issues, but it seems like the right is at war with anyone they disagree with. I grew up in a conservative household my father was fairly conservative but he would never call someone or group that disagreed with him a commie socialist. My mother was just right of the middle until she was afflicted with dementia, and now she could fill in for Sean Hannity on FOX news at least for a while which makes me think the rights mindset has gotten sick. Ultra right seems to have become the norm now to where they would have even labeled my father a liberal.

Have the Right always been this way, am I only noticing it as of late because I haven't watched cable for over a year (in other words I am not numb to it) or are things as I think they are where the goal posts for the extremes have been moved?

reply to post by Grimpachi


The title of this thread contains a gross generalization of Conservatives, but reading through the story it seems that they are staying true to the extreme religious right faction of Conservatism. Conservatism is much broader than the religious right and their theocratic ideology. By the way, I am a VERY zealous Conservative Christian, however my Libertarian side won't permit me to force my religious beliefs on the general public.

There is a difference between conservative and republican, they are not the same.
Neither are democrat and liberal.

I think we are seeing the death throws of the republican party in action, I pray the democrat party is not far behind. Both of the two are somehow simultaneously at both extremes at once. It's weird now. Things don't make sense.

Carefull though on calling beck an extremist, if you listen to his words a bit, you just might find you're off.

Years ago Barry Goldwater made the statement that if the religious conservatives got into power in the GOP that it would be the end of the party. How wise that man was. Too bad we can't clone about 500 of him.

reply to post by OptimusSubprime


Well I am very glad you are not the type to do such. I may be overgeneralizing however I don't know how else to put it.
I have been thinking about this for a while because as I said I do have some conservative ideals and I really do not want to see Hilary as our president but when I look to the conservative party they seem a hell of a lot different from the party I used to know. I do not think the party will allow another Reagan he would be considered a liberal by today's standards. I am just thinking about it all and have the feeling we are screwed.

reply to post by Hoosierdaddy71


Yeah but it all boils down to either the right or left holding power in the end.

reply to post by caterpillage


I agree with everything you said there except the part about Beck. I will not even go into what I actually think about him. I will save it for a rainy day rant.

azdaze
Years ago Barry Goldwater made the statement that if the religious conservatives got into power in the GOP that it would be the end of the party. How wise that man was. Too bad we can't clone about 500 of him.

He will be looked upon as a profit.(of doom)

At this point do we really have a conservative party, and a liberal party? Or do we have two parties that are both complete sell outs to corporate interests and wall street banks? Neither one of our "parties" have our best interest in mind. It is no longer a question of conservative versus liberal, it's now truely the 99 percent versus the 1 percent.

A better question: When did moderate become an epithet?

Extremes are dumb.
All of them.

Phage
A better question: When did moderate become an epithet?

Extremes are dumb.
All of them.

Sounds 'extremely' moderate.


Pick a side ... and prepare to go down with the ship, I say!!

reply to post by Snarl

Doh!

reply to post by caterpillage


Politicians have been sell outs for at least as long as I have been alive> I have only heard stories of ones that were not. My father only spoke of two politicians he held in high regard one is the republican holy grail Reagan and the other to my surprise was Huey Long he would say he was corrupt as hell and fully admitted to it but he did more for his state than any other politician in that century. Of course he had only known him from what he read, and my pops loved history.

Grimpachi

reply to post by caterpillage

 

I agree with everything you said there except the part about Beck. I will not even go into what I actually think about him. I will save it for a rainy day rant.

I would like to see your thoughts on him actually. I have been listening to him for a while now. And while I agree with most people who say he is a fear mongering opportunist, I think we have in him someone who is truly looking for the truth. I don't know, certainly I'm as a Beck fan, no worse off than an Obamabot.

edit on 2 1 2014 by caterpillage because: (no reason given)

Phage
A better question: When did moderate become an epithet?

Extremes are dumb.
All of them.

edit on 2/1/2014 by Phage because: (no reason given)

Now that has happened in my lifetime, and I honestly do not know.

It has been long enough that I am not sure where the middle is anymore.


Edit to add:

I think your question is a more fitting title. Thanks.

reply to post by Grimpachi

By today's standards one could call Reagan a liberal in a number of aspects. And he actually talked to O'Neill, despite the public sideshow.

Oops, misread thread titles and posted in the wrong forum..

reply to post by Phage


They definitely worked together more than what the current counterparts do even with the shutdowns they had. If either side works with the other now people scream murder.

Both sides want it their way the middle ground no longer exists. Rome is burning.

Just for some perspective, 50 years ago Barry Goldwater ran as the Republican nominee for President of the United Sates of America. He was widely known as Mr. Conservative. let's take a look at some of Mr. Goldwater's viewpoints through paraphrasing and quotes...

"I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!"

" To my mind the single essential element on which all discoveries will be dependent is human freedom."

"I think every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass." ( talking about Jerry Falwell, Moral Majority leader")

" On religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both.
I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in "A," "B," "C" and "D." Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me?" ...Speech in the Senate, 1981

"Most Americans have no real understanding of the operations of the international moneylenders... the accounts of the Federal Reserve have never been audited. It operates outside the control of Congress and... manipulates the credit of the United States "

"The big thing is to make this country, along with every other country in the world with a few exceptions, quit discriminating against people just because they're gay. You don't have to agree with it, but they have a constitutional right to be gay. And that's what brings me into it."

A few passages from his Wiki page...

Some of Goldwater's statements in the 1990s alienated many social conservatives. He endorsed Democrat Karan English in an Arizona congressional race, urged Republicans to lay off Bill Clinton over the Whitewater scandal, and criticized the military's ban on homosexuals:[62] "Everyone knows that gays have served honorably in the military since at least the time of Julius Caesar."[69] He also said, "You don't need to be 'straight' to fight and die for your country. You just need to shoot straight."[70] A few years before his death he went so far as to address establishment Republicans by saying, "Do not associate my name with anything you do. You are extremists, and you've hurt the Republican party much more than the Democrats have."

In a 1988 interview on Larry King's radio show, Goldwater was asked if he thought the U.S. Government was withholding UFO evidence; he replied "Yes, I do." He added: I certainly believe in aliens in space. They may not look like us, but I have very strong feelings that they have advanced beyond our mental capabilities... I think some highly secret government UFO investigations are going on that we don't know about – and probably never will unless the Air Force discloses them.

en.wikipedia.org...

Just to add a bit, he was unfairly portrayed by a media that was stuck in LBj's back pocket as a war monger and a racist.There could be a whole thread written about that. Simply put, what happened to conservatives is they stopped listening to and electing men like Barry Goldwater.

A new poll shows that only 43% of republicans believe in evolution. Makes sense, considering the party hasn't evolved in 50 years.

rupertg
A new poll shows that only 43% of republicans believe in evolution. Makes sense, considering the party hasn't evolved in 50 years.

Makes me wonder if the people responding in that 'poll' were in fact Republicans. I don't think I've ever met anyone who actually disagreed with the concepts of evolution. They may not agree on all of the details, and scientific BS -cough- evidence, but to deny evolution is clearly an act of ignorance.

One thing is certain ... the conservative base (Republican if you insist) is evolving.

-Cheers