Are any right-wingers OK?

[LeftishBrit]

This is based on debates that I've had in other threads. My view is that right-wingers are all bad, whether they are supporters of Bush or opposed to him. One may welcome divisions within the Right, because they weaken it; but *all* right-wing people and movements are a danger to their countries and the world.

That is my view. However, some people have argued that some right-wingers are much better than Bush, and that one should not reject a viewpoint just because it comes from a right-winger.

To clarify: when I speak of 'right-wing', I am not referring to cautious conservatives who try to avoid radical change of any sort, whether to left or right; liberal Republicans; or the majority of mainstream Europaean Conservatives. I am referring to such people as Pat Buchanan, LePen, the British National Party; or on a possibly less extreme level, Ron Paul or David Davis. All of these people may reject this particular war and/or the current intrusions that America and Britain are making on civil liberties, but hold fundamentally far-right social and economic views - and often support or at least accept racial and ethnic prejudices and xenophobic views - which in my view make them totally unacceptable. However, there do seem to be some arguments here that at least some such people are better than the Bushies and neocons. By contrast, to me all right-wingers are fundamentally similar and represent a major danger.

So what do people think about this? (Mods: please feel free to lock or delete if this post appears inappropriate.)

[mcctatas]

1. Some wingers are OK some of the time...

Hagel, Specter, ok, that's all I've got...

[nancyr]

2. I think they're all evil.

I don't even care to be around people who think the way they do. It's like they're missing some vital link to being human.

[recoveringdittohed]

3. Walter ("Freedom Fries") Jones, R-NC

Jones seems better than most right wingers. He has come around on supporting a withdrawal from Iraq and is for raising the minimum wage. I think he many be one of the less obnoxious right wingers but as the Wikipedia article on him states he does have a 90% American Conservative Union rating so he is voting wrong on a lot of issues.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_B._Jones

[NJCher]

4. there might be a few exceptions

But basically, my view is that they are defective people. There's something wrong with them, though I can't quite put my finger on what it is. It has to do with authoritarianism, though, and also their inability to be able to abstract.

I don't want to be around them, either. There's something maladjusted and sick about them.



Cher

[spoony]

5. In power? No. As individuals, taken as a whole, yes some are OK.

I think most of us have RW people in our lives. But usually their RW tendencies aren't the sum of the person. It is, in fact, helpful to know people like this because it keeps things in perspective. That is, it illustrates that their RW ideas are not (typically) rooted in malice*, and that many of them can change. Others, of course, are zebras whose stripes are there to stay.


(*the exception to this is the RWer who seeks power, as those are far more likely to really be the villains they're painted as)

[asjr]

6. First of all I think ANYONE is better

than Bush. That said I really can't think of any RWer who would be any good. The only Republican in my lifetime that I would consider a "good guy" was Eisenhower. I think that was because he played golf most of the time while Mamie slept in until noon. After Nixon all Republicans turned into frogs.

[Va Lefty]

7. I get the idea that Pat Buchanan doesn't believe a lot of the crap he says on TV

I think it's a game to Pat, score points, get opponent off message and flustered. I think he knows what role he is supposed to play and, like a "heel" in Pro Wrestling, he is very good at it. The idea that he doesn't really believe what he says may make him less or more egregious depending on your pov.

[proud patriot]

8. My grandparents are cool to me

:shrug:

[LeftishBrit]

9. One clarification: I'm not referring to everyday voters/ supporters of RW parties...

but to those with real power, whether as politicians or media people.

[BrotherBuzz]

10. Retired Congressman Pete McCloskey

I applauded his action when he came out of retirement to run against slime ball Richard Pombo in 2006. He lost the primary, but his campaign against butt hole Pombo opened many eyes and the floodgate of anger toward Pombo, who was thrown out of office in the General election.

Oh, wait a minute, Pete is no longer a republican. He registered Democrat after the primary because he grew to despise the party he so loved many years ago.

He was also the first member of Congress to publicly call for the impeachment of President Nixon in a world long ago and far away.

Good man in my eyes.

[LeftishBrit]

11. I have heard of him and respect him...

but he was a liberal Republican, not an extreme right-winger.

There have also been British Tories whom I don't think were too bad (e.g. Macmillan and Heath). And many of the important liberal social and economic reforms in France occurred not under Mitterand, but under his very moderate Conservative predecessor Giscard.

I was thinking not of nominal party membership, or of people who are simply not ready to make a lot of left-wing changes; but of arguments that sometimes come up to the effect that people like Ron Paul and even Pat Buchanan are not too bad because they oppose Bush and the war; or that 'paleo-Conservatives' are better than 'neo-Conservatives'. My view, as I said earlier, is that all seriously right-wing leaders are dangerous.

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. Scott Ritter

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3501427