Moyers: What's happened to the conservative movement in America?

An intelligent, wide ranging, calm, easy to understand discussion with Bill Moyers and two conservative Republicans.
Highly recommended and another wonderful show by Bill Moyers.

Sean Hannity, Bill-O and Rush aren't fit to wash Bill Moyers car.
Why this guy doesn't get a wider audience is beyond me.
Oh, that's right... I remember.
We're stupid.

What's happened to the conservative movement in America? Conservatives Mickey Edwards and Ross Douthat discuss why they believe their movement has gone off track during the last eight years and what it means for the Republican Party. Douthat is senior editor at THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY and co-author of GRAND NEW PARTY, and Mickey Edwards is a former Republican Congressman and author of RECLAIMING CONSERVATISM.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.html

The "American Dream" segment in the last five minutes was especially compelling.

there was a time when conservatism stood for civil liberties, balanced budgets and smaller government.

Sure they weren't too generous about giving stuff away, but believed that education was a good investment and a safety net was a good part of a proper civilized society.

government. It has always stood for oppose civil rights, oppose government intervention, support defense spending, support tx breaks for the wealthy, oppose immigration, support government meddling/eavesdropping, oppose government regulation, oppose education, oppose welfare, oppose affordable housing, oppose the environment. The party of Lincoln morphed into the party of intolerance and has remained steadfast for over 100 years. If you begin to read the writings of arch conservatives like William F. Buckley and Patrick Buchanan you begin to realize that conservatism is merely a thinly disguised form of fascism.

values etc turned out to be a FACADE for the Selfishness, the Greed, the Peterism/cronyism, etc Philosophy of the GOP..

They have been EXPOSED for what they really are...that dude

on Moyers show proves it....he is trying to clean up the ACT....

Too Little TOO LATE...Bush/GOP fucked it all up...and continues the down slide....

The GOP knew the Bush Dude was fucking the whole picture years ago...they were hoping we Dems would impeach him & Cheney...they having no guts to do it themselves....If anyone was to impeach and look good...it would have to have been the GOP...but

They were SPINELESS...the GOP became AFRAID of BUSH/CHENEY...so they are hoping we would do their DIRTY JOB....They even sent their trolls out there to push for impeachment.

It didn't fly...peeps knew this was something the GOP themselves had an OBLIGATION to do.

Which they didn't....and now what? Shit on the Face.

talking points. i will give him credit for trying. i could tell he was a little uncomfortable with some of the things he had to say. mickey edwards appeared to have as many issues with him as moyers did.

ellen fl

While I thought the younger guy was a bit overzealous in his social conservative viewpoints, I found myself agreeing quite a bit with what Mickey Edwards was saying. I don't know anything about him, and he could be a huge POS for all I know, but many of the things he was saying to Bill could have been taken right out of the Proressives' playbook.

It's pretty obvious that both the Liberal/Progressive and Conservative movements have suffered under the leadership of Bush/Cheney and the Delay/Gingrich types. I blame the Conservatives for not reining in their more crazy proponents.

Mickey Edwards is (I think) one of the original founders of the Heritage Group.
And that's about as right wing as you can get.

It was very refreshing and worth watching to see Bill call these guys out, calmly and rationally.
That's why I own a TV.

>...why they believe their movement has gone off track during the last eight years...

:rofl: You're kidding, right? They elected W, and still wonder where they went wrong? :eyes:

And it is sinking the publican party boat.

When conservatives totally lose morality and conscience, it is perhaps time to give it a rest:



Authoritarianism
and
Conservatism:
Political Implications of
Recent Psychological Research
Dr. Chanchal Bhattacharya

*********
Although the Berkeley group explicitly differentiated
authoritarianism from conservatism, the F Scale consistently showed a moderate correlation with
a wide array of measures of conservatism

http://www.cpsa-acsp.ca/papers-2007/Bhattacharya.pdf

And I'm a grandpa..

There ain't no "transitioning" about it.

1) This train has been plummeting down the ravine so long that we left "off-track" a dozen miles back...

2) No, we are -not- going to assist the Repugs with their newest meme, that conservatism was good until George Jr screwed the pooch. Try going back to Saint Ronnie as the first person to dilute the message and pander to the christo-fascists.

MICKEY EDWARDS: The Republican Party is not healthy. The Republican Party is not healthy at all. I mean, it's, I think, it's lost the confidence of the American people. It's lost the confidence of most Republicans. You know, it has, you know, you'd be amazed, Bill, how many people I talk to every day who have been lifelong Republicans who just can't support the party anymore. One of the things that is harmful to John McCain is that people aren't looking at John McCain, is he a good guy, is he a bad guy? He's got this Republican label. And I think our party is in quite serious trouble.

*******

Real conservatavos are standing around with scapels in hand crying.

You know it is. The rich have low taxes and much of the country's wealth, business and especially banking are unregulated, and our food and water are becoming unsafe again. This is what conservatism wanted all along and this is what conservatism is getting it, with the added benefits of media and energy monopolies that are acting like it. Rejoice in the essential services that were robbed from the public and handed to the plutocrats, thus degrading the essential services they are supposed to provide. This is exactly what your bunch always wanted. All you have left to do is rob us of the only security we have when we get too old to work.

Don't try to blame this particular kleptocracy, boys, this stuff started when Reagan got in on the coattails of the televangelists and started to put the screws to 95% of the country.

You wanted to fuck this country and everybody who works in it and you succeeded brilliantly. Now own your glory.