“But Utt was a flaming liberal compared to the ultra wing-nuts in Orange County where the John Birch Society flourished and the House Un-American Activities Committee was their surrogate God.”

I think republicans have become spendthrift, belligerant, sadistic, busybodies.

aka Democrats

I mean be able to be pragmatic and give some to get some. Exercise problem-solving skills instead of their considerable abilities to obstruct all progress.

And you know that the Democrats are having a very hard time uniting over their own agenda due to ideological disparity– so what are you talking about?

For those of us raised as traditional conservatives (fiscal restraint, non-interventionist foreign policy, free trade, individualism founded in personal freedom, reasonable taxation, etc), the far right with their neo-con foreign policy, anti-freedom social agenda and the rest don't look like conservatives. They look like radicals and extremists. But, they call themselves conservatives, and I fear that we are reaching a point where the general population may adopt their definition of conservatism instead of the traditional view. When these folks talk about how the GOP needs to be more conservative what they are really saying is that the GOP needs to move to the radical right.

My view: if the GOP would, in fact, return to traditional conservative values, the extremists would find themselves looking to form a third party.

I agree that 2010 will be a Republican year, 20 + seats gained in the House and small gains in the Senate. Oddly enough, part of that will be due to the GOP seeking out traditional conservatives, rather than extremists, to run in swing districts.

tidbits writes: “Question for you: would you agree that the most conservative, in the classic sense of the word, people today are liberals because they tend to revert to past ideas (big gov't. New Deal or Great Society models) rather than seeking truly new, innovative and creative solutions to problems?”

First… thanks for your kind words. And I said 'loyal opposition' not 'opposition' .

Good question and my short answer is no. I believe that conservatives now, as always, believe that maintaining the status quo and protecting the four or five percent that truly control the country is their primary goal.

I can not remember (other than Nixon opening the door to China) a conservative with a new, innovative and creative solution to any problem nor would I accuse liberals of reverting to the past. I see it just the other way around.

This will be the second time in two weeks I've used one of my favorite Truman quotes, but it seems more pertinent now than it has for a while:

“There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know.“

Do you mean being a “comic book” PC Token, neutered variation of the Dems?

Or do you mean current Dem “bi-partisanship,” which means to be silent and agree to all Dem acts?

“Return to the Sixties!”

They really are the real regressives (or “retrogrades” or “retrogressives”) as well as reactionaries.

(I could add “revanchists” not only toward 1980 and Reagan, and Bush after his 2000 win, but even currently with the torture extremist political stunting.)

Pollster gets it's numbers by averaging ALL polling data from all polling organizations so I'm curious as to the source of your statistics.

No biggie. In fact, the reactionary phenomenon specifically has been present (with its accompanying frequent resentment, etc.) specifically since the election of Reagan and public rejection of liberalism in the 1980 elections. (Thom Hartmann: The 1960s and 1970s were paradise. Then Came Reagan…)

Liberal Moderate Conservative
20 39 38
22 40 36
23 39 35
20 38 38
23 38 37
24 42 32
22 37 37
22 44 34
19 44 34
23 41 32
22 39 36
22 41 33

It seems pretty logical to think this data is being gathered in the greater DC area and it would have a sampling bias towards “liberal” responses.

Yes, the dislikers of conservatism can continually replay their same 45 that a half dozen entertainment personalities define conservatism or that Republicans playing congressional defense right now doesn't suit them.

Nonetheless, all that commentary about “pragmatism” appears to be on pretty weak ground from the commenters when they ignore the fact that liberal ideas can only claim a permanent 20% or so of voters despite having elected their most celebrated icon of moving the country towards liberalism.

Speaking of replaying records, let's replay this thread a year from now when 2010 election matchups are developed.

Both JBS founder Robert Welch and the JBS effusively praised J. Edgar Hoover as our nation's most knowledgeable, reliable, and authoritative source of data on the communist movement and upon what would be effective and legitimate anti-communist activities. Significantly, even Hoover and senior FBI officials described the JBS as “extremist”, “irrational”, “irresponsible”, “lunatic fringe” and “fanatics”.

For a 90-page report on the JBS and its assertions based, primarily, upon first-time-released FBI files and documents, see: http://ernie1241.googlepages.com/jbs-1

More info: ernie1241@aol.com

Their other problem is that they let unelected loudmouths like Limbaugh speak for the party. Its a disgrace that VP Cheney advocated Limbaugh's approach over Powell's.

They have a filibuster prrof majority!

Correction: They had, they no longer do with the passing of the “Chappaquiddick Lifeguard”.

Even when they had one, they couldn't make the sell to moderates in their own party though.

You are in deed correct in that the media outside Santa Ana regarded Utt as a nut extremist. You artfully pointed out the Beatles culture which drove Jimmy bonkers. He took great pride in voting against every tax increase and perhaps even many budget resolutions. But Jimmy was a good politician. He figured how much taxes his constituents paid to the IRS and worked diligently on the House Appropriations Committee to get that money returned to his district in public works projects and other favors — this, years before the advent of earmarks. He was a remarkably intelligent gentleman even though this upstart reporter disagreed with his concept of the role of government in our society. As I said, I truly admired the man.

There is no freedom for those oppressed by inequitable economic political conditions. There is no equality in opportunity. Ethical business practices has long since died away as a discipline in principal.

By international standard, our supposedly liberal party, the Democrat Party, is considered Moderate. Our Right wing party, the Republican Party, scares the hell out of the world.

Within the United States there are far too many individual political factions, most are intellectually weak, and, many are armed. I find it interesting that in modern nations where government has more obvious political power over the citizenry, that there is less need to exert that power, fewer if any armed factions, and, much much less political discontent.

As for Limbaugh – and the rest – they're only concerned about one thing. Ratings.