Daniel Dvorkin's Journal: There are no moderate Republicans, part the nth

More proof, as if any were needed, that modern conservatism is completely insane.

At this point in the conversation, we're usually treated to a chorus of, "Hey, liberals say crazy things too!" And the answer to that is ... well, yeah, kind of. Which is to say, there are plenty of left-wing lunatics out there, and many of them put their lunacy on display at every opportunity.

The difference is that these left-wing lunatics do not have anywhere near the power or prominence of their right-wing counterparts. They're not hosting nationally syndicated talk shows. They're not parlaying famous last names into political careers. And they are sure as hell not running the Democratic Party, as the right-wing lunatics are clearly running the GOP.

Here's the thing, conservatives. We marginalize and trivialize our extremists. Maybe we shouldn't do that; sometimes the extremists have legitimate grievances. But it's better than what you do with yours. You celebrate and lionize them. It's not just Reagan; it's Limbaugh and Coulter and Savage and Hannity -- and yes, Boehner and Cantor and McConnell, and the current version of Romney (which may of course change next week, or an hour from now, but for now ...) We keep our lunatics locked up. You put yours in charge of the asylum.

So here's my challenge. If you are tired of liberals making hay of every crazy thing some conservative pundit or politician says, do something about it. Point and laugh at your own side's lunatics, as we do. Make us believe that common ground is possible, that you have the same ends for the country that we do even if we disagree about the means. Put your racists and fascists in the same room where we keep our communists and anarchists, and keep them decently out of public view.

Or if you're not willing to do this, understand that we have no choice but to consider you just as bad as the worst of your number, and act accordingly.

It's the conservative war on the English language

[damn_registrars]

They have made it a party policy to redefine as many words and grammatical constructs as possible. This is just another case of that - they've redefined "moderate". A sane person would see the word to mean something along the lines of someone whose opinions are close to a compromise between differing factions. A conservative, however, sees a moderate as someone who only wants 99% of what are the most concrete of conservative principles, and might be willing to sway slightly on the last 1% if they get eno

Re:

[cffrost]

They have made it a party policy to redefine as many words and grammatical constructs as possible. This is just another case of that - they've redefined "moderate". A sane person would see the word to mean something along the lines of someone whose opinions are close to a compromise between differing factions. A conservative, however, sees a moderate as someone who only wants 99% of what are the most concrete of conservative principles, and might be willing to sway slightly on the last 1% if they get enormous concessions in return.

This may in part be why it's said that reality has a liberal bias; in comparison to our European brethren, most Democrats are probably right-leaning moderates. In comparison to me, most Democrats are too far right, even with Obama and his supporters out of the equation.

I would probably be more at home in Europe, though my energy consumption may be difficult to satiate there; I spent one month in Europe (Spain), and I ran into two problems in that regard: Inadequate hot water for showering, and a widespread

moof

[Bill Dog]

I find that commentator's comparison abhorent.