Liberals and conservatives hate each other but everyone agrees that we have America's best interests at heart?

Question

Right?

Answer 1

says who?

Answer 2

No, Liberals and less-liberal Liberals hate each other and do not have America's best interests at heart. Conservatives have little say in America, their only power comes from the truth. When and if people believe it.... the public is used to the spin being applied to issues and it has a difficult time accepting what is right before their eyes.

Reasons they don't have America's best interests at heart: Open borders, allowing illegal aliens to invade the USA, failure to deport illegal aliens, failure to put enough military might in the mid-east to finish the job, allowing the media to harm our military operations, using race as a political weapon, members of Congress calling our troops murderers without the benefit of a trial(treasonous or seditious acts in my view), and allowing political correctness to influence decisions, not erradicating political correctness, not profiling arabs/muslims(the group from which almost all terrorists originate). ETC.

Answer 3

I think both parties put their interests first on occasion. However the polarization of politics today means that the parties' rhetoric is becoming more heated and political ideas the parties put forward is becoming more extreme. That means that even if both parties have America's best interests at heart their conflict is making shared actions towards that end less and less likely.

However I'd have to give the award on both counts--extremism of rhetoric and policy--to the Republicans. They aren't conservatives any more in any sense other than being Social Conservatives and that's one reason why they've become so extreme in their rhetoric. The leadership uses these hot-button social issues to energize their base and part of that is inspiring hate of the left. Listening to any right-wing 'news' broadcast or talk radio will bear this out. That strategy of energizing the base through focusing on the most divisive of issues is why when looking at these posts from right-wingers you could imagine that every Republican in America thinks that anyone left of center is a 'baby-killer' or a coward or a traitor who's on welfare for life.

There's also a lot of interesting mythology coming from the Right about themselves. One of those myths is that Republicans and right-wing followers are somehow powerless against some enormous, evil Liberal machine... like in "Seing Clearly"'s post. He imagines himself as a powerless outsider--which may be true--and tries to project those feelings of 'powerlessness' to a political party that's had ABSOLUTE control over our federal government for six years and most of it for more than twenty. However there's got to be a reason why they're failing, even though they're so morally superior and control all branches of government--and it can't be their fault. So it must be some huge nefarious Liberal plot that's brought them so low... right? No doubt he also thinks that Christians are a ruthlessly persecuted minority--despite the fact that the same government is run pretty much entirely by Christians. The Democrats are mostly Christian too. Folks like this think that having to respect minorities and their rights--or even the mere existence of those who don't agree with them--amounts to persecution and victimization. As long as they think that way they won't be able to work with anyone with differing beliefs for our common benefit. If they believe anyone with a differing opinion is a mortal enemy then how could they?

Republicans have been very successful with using this politics of polarization to turn out the vote. They've also been very successful at moving their agendas forward while making no effort to reach out or be concilliatory with their opposition. They've been so successful that they've gotten Liberals and even some Democrat politicians pretty mad and ready to escalate the conflict themselves--to "give as good as they get." That and the fact that the Democrat party has become accustomed to a measure of success by adopting the policies and views of the right a la Joe Lieberman--and become complacent about being the #2 finisher in American politics--is making the left more strident and reactionary. When being a nice guy gets you nowhere with guys who constantly label you negatively that's a pretty understandable reaction.

With this fixation on Liberals as some sort of evil traitors at home I don't think the Republicans are acting as much in the interest of America as they are at vilifying Liberals as the cause of their woes when they really need to be looking at themselves and thinking about the whole of America, not just their half (or third). They've had total control of the country--and it's been a total disaster. The rhetoric is about to become superheated but they don't realize that it's finally starting to wear thin with a majority of Americans. Maybe they'll figure it out after an election or two and try and focus on moving America forward instead of focusing on 'evil' Liberals and divisive social issues.

Answer 4

how can two groups that spend so much time flapin their yaps about each other get any work done to have our best interest at heart.

Answer 5

both have their own interest only.

Answer 6

No

Answer 7

No.