What kind of conservative do you dislike the most?

[Kievan Rus]

Within the modern conservative movement, there are essentially three branches; national-defense conservatives, economic conservatives, and social conservatives.

My pick would certainly go to social conservatives. Although few of them are willing to openly admit it, social conservatives are little more than intolerant people that believe in the supremacy of white, heterosexual male Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Racism within the movement of social conservatives is no longer overt and is largely teeming below the surface today. Many Teabaggers have shown their racism against black people, and commentators such as Rush Limbaugh have shown their true colors with inane comments on "Obama's America." Misogyny is a little more pronounced among social conservatives, who are often at least opposed to a woman's right to choose, and in some cases honestly believe that women should remain within the home and are inferior. Most social conservatives are openly homophobic, and a good deal of them are also openly xenophobic given their reaction to Hispanic immigration and social conservatives decrying that they "want their America back."

Social conservatives are what make our policies regressive compared to the rest of the world. Thank them for the "war on drugs," the 21 drinking age, the Super Bowl XXXVIII Janet Jackson uproar, and a whole host of other things.

What do you think?

[mdmc]

1. racist conservatives

so I guess "social"

[yellowcanine]

2. the smug ones. George Will and William Kristol come to mind.

[mike_c]

3. it depends upon how they're cooked...

...although I'm not fond of conservatives in any form, to tell the truth.

[tavalon]

43. Best.Answer.Ever

[Jennicut]

4. National-defense types....starting a war for ridiculous reasons.

Oh heck, I hate most of them.

[CJCRANE]

I dislike hypocritical conservatives nt

[MineralMan]

5. The ones on TV.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

6. all

[TheKentuckian]

7. I seperate them out as theocrats and moneychangers. The neocons are not an independent branch

they just glom onto any host and work their magic that way. The neocons/neolibs are careful to fit in anywhere including with otherwise liberal folk (I can't say I don't have a touch of it).

I guess the theocrats suck a little more but its not a big lead.

[dflprincess]

8. The ones who call themselves Democrats

but vote like Republicans.

[timeforpeace]

20. Touche. Those are the ones who hurt us the most.

[RKP5637]

9. Can't stand the Social Conservatives. Damn pious hypocritical asses! n/t

[sui generis]

10. SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES

The only kind. Concerned about everybody else's personal and private choices, these people should go live on an island somewhere after sterilization, so they won't have children to abuse.

The other two fall under "fiscal" conservative, and both have two forms. Spend "more" on military - dumbass republicans. Spend less on war by not being at war: color me that kind of fiscal conservative.

[Stinky The Clown]

11. Those who try to dress up like Liberals

Many of them posters right here on DU. Or are supported by those who post here on DU.

[the other one]

12. Self righteous ones

and stupid smirking ones

[Crankie Avalon]

13. Probably the social conservatives...

...they're the dumbest, easiest to manipulate, and most numerous. They're the "low information voters" who vote en masse for the other two types of conservatives in exchange for a little showboating on abortion or gay marriage from them.

[abq e streeter]

14. the handful of intelligent ones, who should damn well know better, but choose to remain blind

also, one minor disagreement re: "the war on drugs" ....at least here in New Mexico, it was a right wing/libertarian governor, Gary Johnson, who went out on a lonely crusade against the insanity of the "drug war" and advocated full legalization , while the local Democratic establishment, including people like current Lt. Governor( and very possibly our next Governor) Diane Denish as well as then-Young Democrats Pres. Terry Brunner who vociferously and rather condescendingly denounced Gov. Johnson's attempts to even have a discussion of the issue . ( and yes, right wing loonies also battled him--I attended a debate recorded for NPR between Johnson and Bush's DEA head, Asa Hutchinson, a graduate of the prestigious Bob Jones University).But from what I've seen,Democrats have been equally culpable in the insanity of the "drug war".

[HughBeaumont]

15. Economic conservatives.

Social conservatives I can merely brush off as repressed nutbars.

Economic conservatives shoot ALL of our feet without choice. They've been doing so in droves for 28 years straight (or 400, depending on what historian you ask).

[Jackpine Radical]

16. Authoritarian-wolf conservatives--

the psychopaths for whom conservatism is merely a convenient framework used for exercising power & control over the droolers.

[undeterred]

17. I don't see them that distinctly.

I think peoples views on social issues can evolve. I guess what makes me the angriest is a bunch of hawks dissing Democrats who have served.

[Umbral]

18. Breathing? nt

[Romulox]

19. "Economically conservative, socially liberal" types. nt

[hamsterjill]

21. The bible thumpers

Who use bits and pieces of Christianity to justify their kill! kill!! kill!!! attitudes toward their fellow man.

As a Christian myself, I know a hypocrite when I come across one.

[butterfly77]

22. Bluedogs and...

the kind like Joe Scarborough who try to pretend that they really care about the people when they only care about some people and Big Business. Really,I should say all...

[RKP5637]

39. Absolutely true about Joe Scarborough! A fake!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

23. The ones who call themselves "moderate Democrats" while supporting a Republican agenda.

[unpossibles]

24. All of them, but mostly 'social'

I used to be more tolerant of the economic conservative, but I've lost that as I've started to think they are just greedy assholes who are willing to sell their own families down the (polluted) river to save a buck.

The hardest part for me is that I don't mind if someone has a different opinion than I do, even if I find it repugnant, but even the more sane-sounding, reasonable ones like George Will are still hypocritical assholes, they're just nicer about it than the rabid Ann Coulter types, and more subtle thus more dangerous because people take their crazy ideas more seriously.

The more I think about politics and society, the more I think that conservatives just have not thought things through, and I include the Libertarians in this. They see a country with no/few laws/government as being some sort of paradise where nothing stops you from achieving your dream if it's supportable by the so-called "free market" but they fail to look at the centuries of history which show otherwise. There is a reason laws were invented and honed, and there is a reason for a government which theoretically protects us from those who wish to harm us out of greed or malice. These institutions exist for a very good reason, and I think they want some sort of fantasy land.

What makes them think that in a world with limited government that someone more rich/powerful than themselves won't just abuse them, but this time they would have no form of redress other than to basically hire their own police/army/power?

They complain about the government rescinding their rights, but they are lazy and possibly crazy. They ignore years of their rights being slowly stripped by anyone (like Reagan, Bush & Bush) who claims to want the same thing, then go ballistic when someone (like Clinton and Obama) tries to fix some of the damage, and blame them for the problems.

Hell, you cannot even point this out to them.

Fuck them. They can believe what they want, but if you look at history and the reality of the myriad problems we're facing from their horrid policies, it's hard to respect anyone who cannot see Conservatism as anything but a failed theory. I have more respect for UFO and Occult groups; at least they're harder to prove wrong.

[treestar]

36. Right, they assume they will be the ones at the top

In their fantasy land, they aren't rich because of laws and regulations and restrictions. How dumb. They would be taken advantage of even more than most liberals, given their idealism over the "free" market.

[unpossibles]

40. exactly. And I love how they say things like

"well, if Corporation X pollutes or produces a dangerous product, the market will correct that and they will lose business."

Um, what about all of the fucking people who might get sick and die before "the market" reacts?

I also love it when these types rail about how corporate interests control Congress (which is sadly true), but then instead of wanting to regulate that so it doesn't happen, they think removing Congress would solve something. Really? So... without having to both trying to pay lobbyists to control Congress, then ... I can't even wrap my brain around it enough to make fun of, that's how fucking stupid that line of thought is.

Also, these are the ones who want to privatize everything, from schools to police and fire departments. Seriously. I've heard people make that argument with a complete straight face. I always respond with "you know what a pain it is to figure out if you're covered by for-profit medical insurance when you get sick, right? Can you imagine trying to find your membership card or whatever if you had an emergency? Also, when was the last time a private company did not jack up the rates constantly simply because they can?"

And as far as schools go, they always point to how private schools do better (which is not even true, necessarily), yet fail to realize that if EVERYONE were in private schools, we'd have the same problems that the public schools have. Currently underachieving private students get hustled out to public schools so the schools keep their average artificially high. Where will these kids go if there is no public option: homeschool? Prison?

I honestly think they really don't think it through, nor do they appreciate why we have the system we have. And I wonder if when their car breaks down if they want to abandon it, or do they try to fix it instead? Or if they send it to the untrained mechanic who hates cars, but "they'd want to share a beer with" instead of the expert who knows about cars and wants to fix it properly.

[treestar]

42. IA your last paragraph - the market only works like magic if people

know their own interests, and of course they don't, and they don't have access to the type of information you'd need - how often do people sign things they haven't read? These people really must never have tried to read an insurance policy. You'd have to consult a lawyer every time you did something. You'd be suing in court every time you were defrauded. (Which is why so many of these nutjobs are lawyers).

[Echo In Light]

25. Those who are, yet, being good, 'normal' Americans, fail to realize it

[TygrBright]

26. I think the Libertarian wackjob covey get on my wick the most.

Because many of them actually have some intelligence, they simply refuse to use it to reason from B to C. They go from A to B and sit there smugly demanding the rest of us to agree with their myopic, me-centered, short term, narrow slice of reality.

helpfully,
Bright

[Ruby the Liberal]

27. The kind that sports a D beside their name

[Initech]

28. Business conservatives like Neil Cavuto

Now with every decision you make - you gotta ask yourself "Is this good for the company?"

[Jester Messiah]

29. The ones still breathing.

Ok, if that casts too wide a net, how about the ones that can't or won't or don't realize just how badly off eight years of Bush left the country. That their ideology has failed utterly, and that all of their underlying assertions and assumptions have been decisively proven wrong.

[CatholicEdHead]

30. Social, Religious Right Conservatives

rise my emotional ire the most, though it seems like the financial Republicans (not conservative per-sa) do more damage overall.

[mvd]

31. All three

They are all hurtful in their own ways. Social conservatives will deny people rights or push their fundie religion on people. Economic conservatives, like Mike Malloy said last night, deny that all people need some help. And foreign policy conservatives gave us the Iraq situation.

[CanonRay]

32. Living ones

[Codeine]

33. I have to choose?! nt

[FreedomFlower]

34. Those that try to use the bible as justification

If they actually read it, they would realize that Jesus' message was the opposite. "Love thy neighbor as thyself, etc."

[B Calm]

35. The kind who work for a weekly paycheck!

[treestar]

37. A toss up between the racist right and the neocons

The ones who go to war to make money do the most damage. The ones who want the US to be a white, Protestant nation where women know their place are more annoying than damaging.

[lpbk2713]

38. Those who malign the "Librul" Media.

To them Faux Snooze is the only reliable source of misinformation. :eyes:

What a laugh! :rofl:

[Leftist Agitator]

41. The breathing kind.

[TexasObserver]

44. the kind that votes in the Democratic primary