Face to Face With Facebook Hate!

Hate Speech Runs Roughshod All Over Facebook.

I’m amazed by the number of hate groups there are on Facebook that disguises themselves as religious organizations, ministers, and self-proclaimed prophets. They’re little more than deceivers and thieves, preaching hatred and division for profit. And then there are those groups claiming to be “patriots,” out to save their country, but in fact, they’re little more than supremacists and purveyors of bigotry and racism, sowing the seeds of domestic terrorism.

On the plus side, this allows us to analyze the mindset being propagated by these deceivers. Facebook is one of the most effective tools for espionage ever devised. It will enable them, and all the other agencies out there, to track and monitor the mental state of certain groups and individuals, and to see who’s connected to whom. We too can learn much from observing their stance and hateful rhetoric.

I’ve visited a fair number of these sites over the years to get a sense of the minds behind these spinners of fear and hate propaganda and to delve into the minds and read the many comments of those who subscribe to these lunatics. Occasionally I’ll post a comment and enter into a discussion with someone. That can be very insightful into the way that some of these people think, or instead, don’t think, but rely on right-wing propagandists to tell them what to believe. Some responses I receive are incredibly harmful, and some extremely positive. No middle ground, but still, in the process, many have requested permission to repost my comments and articles on their timelines. I gladly agree.

I will admit that I have several pieces I’ve written that I frequently post on these sites and elsewhere, but only when I feel they’re on topic and to the point, regarding the article at hand. More often than not, I’ll be deleted and blocked by so-called patriots and religious groups, but in doing so; I know someone has read my post. I’ve entered into their mind, and I trust the words I’ve posted will haunt them. Yes, I have intentions but no expectations. I find it more than exciting that I can be both cursed and praised for the same words. 

I realize that in most cases I’m merely “casting pearls before swine,” but there’s always a chance I may reach some of those who are seemingly unreachable. That the words may in some way act as a catalyst, and perhaps some of these people will reach deep within themselves and touch their souls, that the words I’ve posted might assist them in their awakening. I hope that they might rid themselves of the destructive mindset of these cults that have control over them. I wish them freedom.

Written By House of Public Discourse Member Gary Markle 

Hate Crime In Charleston Nothing New For South Carolina

The recent hate crime in Charleston, South Carolina was just another day in paradise for a state with a long history of indifference and bigotry. South Carolina the first state to succeed for the Union and fire the first shots of the American Civil War. South Carolina in more modern times was fighting with all her might in the courts to keep their Confederate flag waving. South Carolina a hotbed for Right-Wing Christian extremism. South Carolina a major stronghold of the racist Tea Party. South Carolina the home of one of the most racist Senators in American history Strom Thurman. Who can forget Susan Smith white woman who drowned her children and then blamed it on a black man?  And, now, Dylann Roof.

Roof now in custody has been reported to have confessed to the killing of nine people.  Fox News and Christian Zealots can try and twist the shooters motivation all they want, but sources close to the story claim Roof stated his reason for committing this crime was simply because of the color of their skin.

Hate Crime Person

His victims comprised of  six women and three men. There is no shadow of doubt in this writer's mind that this was a hate crime.

Since the Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown hate crimes, the House of Public Discourse has researched with exhaustion how these acts of violence and domestic terror have been fueled by racist indoctrination's.

We don't know how this man parents raised him but what we do know he was not born with this evil hate. Hate crimes and violence inflicted by police officers are not accurately reported. Therefore, it's difficult to gauge the levels of hate crimes in America.[See Source]

As a lifelong resident of the South, I know there are many interracial friends who would bend over backward for one another. There are those who put on a front when the cameras are on but in secret harbor this same type hate for the other races that this young man held. That's not to say they would arm themselves and go shoot up the church house.  South Carolina has a culture of racist hate and hate crimes are nothing new to South Carolina. Granted the scale of this latest event has left many speechless. What more proof-positive of this institutionalize hatred than the insistence by the people of South Carolina to keep one of the foremost symbols of hate the Confederate flag as their state flag. They claim it's a heritage. Yeah, it's a heritage alright a legacy of hate.  This " Charleston Hate Crime Is Nothing New For South Carolina."

Authoritarianism + Racism + Fascism =The Tea Party

Mussolini

If you are behind the curve on just what Authoritarianism is please see Leave Your Authoritarianism At The Church House Please! As we begin the 2016 Presidential Election in earnest knowing who your constituents are is vital and even more important where they came from, in short, their history. In asking myself this question with the task of answering it properly my study was quickly directed to a term Mussolini American Republicans. Our research here in the HOPD quickly found that the Tea Party mindset is nothing new and has origins dating back to Mussolini. There was an attempt to set up a fascist dictatorship in America. The upshot of the movement was to create an organization with a goal of reaching some 500,000 men. Their purpose was clear and simple. Intimidate the government. A Congressional committee was formed on the matter. Subsequently evidence found a plot to overthrow FDR.  This behavior is very much akin to the growing Secession Movement in America today coming primarily from the Tea Party crowd.[See Article] 

How fascists plotted to overthrow the US Government

Then low and behold the name Prescott Bush  materializes. That's right the original Bush traitor. The Daddy and Granddaddy to the modern day, Bush family who all but ruin this country and drove into the ditch. Prescott Bush was a Nazi traitor to this country and like his grandson Bush, Jr should have been tried for treason. [See Source] 

In 1932, Mussolini stated:

" We are absolutely opposed to Liberalism." 

Just like the Tea Party of today the Mussolini American 

Republicans felt that Egalitarianism was an absurd political lie.

What is Egalitarianism? 

Just like the Tea Party of today the Mussolini American Republicans felt that Egalitarianism was an absurd political lie. The moocher comments we hear today from the Tea Party and the go " fend for yourself," mantra of the Libertarians are shockingly similar to the outcry's of the Mussolini American Republicans. They claimed FDR's New Deal would lead to collective irresponsibility. Not unlike today's Tea Party, they claimed the fertile and beneficent inequality of men cannot be leveled by suffrage. 

These Are Not Lincoln Republicans!

Our research in the House of Public Discourse has concluded that the modern-day Tea Party is nothing more than a fascist movement motivated by racism and enabled by Authoritarianism. With the 2008 election rendering America, the first person of color to the White House created the spark to ignite this reemergence of blatant Fascism in America. The movement has been spearheaded by the American Christian Right. See the right-wing authoritarian follower is easily brainwashed. The late Jerry Falwell, Pat Roberston, and John Hagee have been some of the biggest perpetrators with a list growing daily. TV Pastors see money in Fascism, Racism, and Authoritarianism. They are obvious power and control seekers.  

Buy Our Source Here

Another similarity, just like the Mussolini American Republicans hated FDR the same can be said of the Tea Party towards Barack Obama. 

The Tea Party tries to sell their organization as a cross-section of America. They allege they are a nonpartisan mix of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans. This is absurd. Our research in the HOPD clearly reveals that the Tea Party is primarily made up of Right-Wing Authoritarian Followers who make up the ranks of the Republican Social Conservative faction within the party. The Religious Right. According to a study conducted on the issue found that most of the Tea Party followers suffer from " The Hitler Syndrome." [See Source]

BREITBART AND THE TEA PARTY HITLER SYNDROME

The study points out over a dozen traits found in Tea Party members were consistent with Authoritarianism. These evaluation were based on the answers given by those participating in the study. All of these answers were a clear indication that a vast majority of Tea Party members suffer from "The Hitler Syndrome." 

THE RELIGIOUS-REICH AND RIGHT WING DEATH SQUADS

Russ Limbaugh stated on a national radio station he wanted the right-wing death squads to come to America. What appalls this writer is our tax dollars funded these death squads? The American Republican Right has sponsored one of the most bazaars morally reprehensible acts ever in the history of man that is only rivaled by today's Isis. All this killing was done in the name of "GOD." Under Ronald Reagan, he merged the CIA operation with the " Vatican." In Reagan's zeal to bring down Communism, he empowered several former Nazis in Eastern Europe. Our study found that many of these operatives were Holocaust deniers. Moderate and Liberal Priest who opposed the Nazis doctrine were removed from power. Under G.W. Bush, the Bill of Rights was annulled. This annulment granted the now merged CIA and Vatican the right to spy on any American for any reason. What very few Americans realize is that our U. S. Supreme Court was given over to the Vatican.

In England, Bush's counterpart Tony Blair restored the Church of England to the Vatican and the E.U, was brought under the control of the Vatican. 

All of this was by design a plan and now the last piece of the puzzle. This   activity was said to prove GOD's forgiveness. And, while Rome's GOD had plenty of forgiveness for Nazis and pedophiles it strangely couldn't find any for the Nazis resistors in the Church. 

Rev Jay Smith

A South Carolina Roman Catholic priest has told his parishioners that they should refrain from receiving Holy Communion if they voted for Barack Obama because the Democratic president-elect supports abortion and supporting him "constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil."[See Source] It became apparent that no matter what President Obama does the extreme racist  Religious Right Nazis were going to criticize, obstruct, and commit sedition in this writers view. Here in the recent, we can add the 47 senators letter to Iran which constitutes treason under the Logan Act. The bottom-line is we have hoards of people walking around who call themselves Tea Party Patriots who are nothing more nothing less than brainwashed Nazis repackaged as American Patriots. 

Racism Alive And Well In Southern States (Video)

Obamacare + Obstruction X Threats of Impreachment= Racism

The answer to this equation is often the understood but not spoken reason for much gridlock in our government today. Upon my reference, I came across an article, Yes, The South Really Is Different — And It’s Because Of Race. Personally, race has no geographical boundaries in my view. However, the point is well taken that in the South, racist tactics meet little to no resistance such as in gerrymandering, voter suppression, and the very common racial profiling. 

Republicans Have Attacked Civil Rights Legislation, Implemented Questionable Voter ID Laws, with  Regressive Voting Rights Laws  Under Federal Review.

The list could go on, and the pushback is starting to rear its ugly head. With all the rigor and rhetoric of the past weeks, we heard many dogs whistle words coming from the politicians, pundits and citizens; words like "obstruction, ransom, hostage," and phrases like ‘Domestic Terrorist.” There have been many people who feel the actions of the principles on the right were, in fact, seditious. Well, that is a gray area, but one thing this episode did reveal is that the practice of institutionalizing racism is alive and well in the South.

What is Institutionalize racism?  The Urban Dictionary defines it as, “the process of purposely discriminating against particular groups of people through the use of biased laws or practices.” 

 Even though the main purpose of the last government shutdown may have been Obamacare, the underlying issue to all the obstruction and gridlock that led to the shutdown was in fact the fight over the overall regressive policies and practices of the radically right controlled Republican Party; which really were nothing more than prime examples of institutionalized racism. Obamacare is a racial slur given to name what is, in fact, the Affordable Care Act. Yes, it's true that individuals host their set of racist feelings that are, in fact, indigenous to oneself. However, one would be remiss not to recognize the role that institutional racism has played in American History and American Culture. Racism in this country would not have thrived if not for institutionalized racism.

Examples of Institutionalized Racism

• Slavery In The United States- [No Commentary Needed] Civil War ring a bell?
• Racism In Medicine- In a report posted by Mike LaCon/flickr.com he stated that Racism has influenced U.S. health care in the past and continues to do so today. “The most shameful chapters in American history involve the U.S. government funding studies that allowed poor black men in Alabama to succumb to syphilis or Guatemalan prison inmates, mental health patients and soldiers to be afflicted with the disease and other sexually transmitted infections.”
• Racial profiling- People are profiled every single day in this country based on the way they look. People of Middle Eastern and South Asian descent report being routinely profiled at the nation’s airports. In New York City,  Black and Latino men have been unfairly targeted by that city's  "stop and frisk policy.”
• Voting Rights legislation- With the Supreme Court's affirmation that certain aspects of the Voting Rights were no longer relative, there has been an onslaught of voting legislation ram-rodded through.  The Republicans help state governments to make it harder for minorities to vote and use other mechanisms that  purge the rolls of valid voters,  and limit time and access to vote.
• Church Sunday- Racism and segregation can be witnessed in no finer fashion than on Church Sunday.  Even though there have been more inter-racial Church congregations spring up across the country,  most Churches remain segregated and in fairness,  what seems to be by choice. The United Methodist Church and the Southern Baptist formally apologized for their support of Jim Crow laws and other racist practices in recent years as well. Despite their efforts to diversify, overall church congregations remain mostly segregated up until this day.

With the actions of the Republican Party and the Libertarian and Tea Party, all radical elements

within those parties are freely exercising  institutional racism by using the politics of nullification;  the doctrine which holds that the states, singly or in concert, can defy federal actions by declaring them invalid or just ignoring them Don’t expect to see any real change any time soon. In fact, we are seeing emboldened politicians with gerrymandered “safe zones” using nullification to voice the anti-government passions and hate for Obamacare, a fully legally enacted law. We have seen both overt and covert actions to curtail voting, repeal legislation and in the case of President Obama, delegitimize his presidency. 

There Is A Strong Sectional Stronghold of Institutional Racism In  The South

This reality is an understatement. The force of change brings about fear and suspicion to Southern people. Government is seen as an intrusive force with invasive intentions to do harm to individual and community. However, when you look at all unbiased reports, the Southern States garner the most benefits from the “Big Government,” they so rail on about.

To put this all in perspective, a little history lesson is in order. In practical, these radicalized elements within the Republican party are not  new free radicals, they are old radicals nothing more than the old Dixiecrat. The George Wallace Crowd is a group that housed the KKK and other white supremacists within the then Democratic party. You know, the ones who left the party and the Republican Party had no problem embracing when the Democrats adopted both the New Deal of FDR and later the Civil Rights legislation of 1964, which enacted the Voting Rights Acts of 1965.

All of this culminated in a Southern Strategy which is in full force and unlike anytime in history entirely exposed itself since the election of one Barack Obama, the first person of color to the White House and with a foreign name at that. On her nightly show, Rachel Maddow does an excellent job of explaining how this institutionalize racist mechanism has been used for years in the South and moreover, how they won elections using it.

Now that there has been an unveiling of just how some of these racist tactics can be harmful to the overall common good of our citizens, the people are getting a clear view of how right-wing politics is holding back states like North Carolina and Texas and Florida.

Now that there has been a turn on the lights moment when the American people can clearly see how obstruction, voter suppression, and how institutionalized racism has directly caused a government shutdown and legislative gridlock, and the result has been the Republican Party getting the lowest approval rating ever recorded by any political party ever, we can maybe just possibly effect change in the South one voter at a time.

The Repackaging Of The Fascist Playbook

Just like Joseph Goebbels, who headed the Nazi propaganda machine, present day pundits like Alex Jones, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and politicians like Ron Paul are making the same claims today as did Goebbels in Nazi Germany.


There seems to be a growing reality concerning the Libertarian and Tea Party movements in this country and can best be summed up in a phrase, “conspiracy nut balls.” While claiming to be all about freedom and liberty, any fair evaluation of their agenda tells a much deeper and darker story. These groups seem to stay up nights trying to erode our civil right to live a quality life. Moreover, their platform would have us barely existing, languishing in debt. They have been successful in many regions of this nation, through their highly funded media echo chambers, at taking away many of our social protections and denying the American people the social justice We The People have fought so hard for over the years.

For example, politicians like former Texas Senator Ron Paul and his son Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky), backed by special interest groups funded by the likes of the Koch Brothers, have executed a media campaign to distort and diminish public support for fair social safety net programs. Their delusional anti-government claims of socialism, among others, have deceived and scared and convinced droves of people into believing their government is out to get them and is something much less than  "of, by, and for the people.”

We The People Are The Government.

Not just the wealthy, perfectly healthy, spoiled easy-come trust fund successful entrepreneurs. The Tea Party and Libertarian movements in this country amount to nothing more than Social Darwinism. Their agenda is plutocracy. They demonize government as evil. They demonize groups of citizens with the intent to divide and conquer. All in all, this is nothing more than the repackaging of the Fascist playbook. Just like we saw in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. With unconstitutional overreach by the Judicial branch, which upheld the claim money as free speech and corporate person-hood, we have seen this type behavior before from the Anarcho-Capitalist Corporatism of Nazi Germany. 

In these modern times, we see advocates and pundits like Ron Paul, Alex Jones, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Lou Dobbs put on their Joseph Goebbels mask spewing all sorts of conspiracy propaganda lies against all types of groups and minorities. All  these people are doing is propagating the desires of the wealthiest people in our country and the world like the Koch Brothers. These reckless capitalist want nothing more than to have all forms of regulation out of their midst. Just like the Nazi, they disdain the chronically ill, poor, disabled and out of work Americans. They embrace voter suppression laws for they know their leverage goes up if the voter turnouts are low. Disabled, welfare poor people are nothing more than parasites that should do nothing more than fend for themselves.

In today’s society, the Nazi propaganda takes the form from the pamphlets of old to conspiracy websites, radio talk shows, cable news and now social media Facebook pages. Just like in Nazi Germany, in the 1930’s and 40’s, we see the demoralization of vast segments of our citizenry. The Tea Party crowd, as well as the so-called Libertarians, have blamed people’s economic despair on everything but their failed austerity policies. Groups like liberals, socialist, immigrants, freemasons, minorities have all been targeted.

The Tea Party, GOP and the Libertarians know their agenda is a minority viewpoint. Just like in Germany, they understand they have no shot of gaining influence in a unified America. They understand that their only chance of getting their platform in practice is to cause a polarization of the American people. By using prejudice and institutional racism as their weapons, they have attempted and with much success to split this country into small groups just like the Nazi did in WWII Europe.

We The People must realize that this massively funded propaganda attack has a purpose.

Who stands to benefit from this propaganda? Is it the middle-class? Is it the moderate and working poor? No, it’s the corporations and the elitist who need We The People out of their business so they can run their enterprise to the detriment of our environment, our workforce, all in the name of capitalism and the free markets. This is not a classroom theory this is history repeating itself.  The right-wing, the Libertarians, the Tea Party are using Social Darwinism to demonize and separate groups for the purpose of demonizing them as threats to our country,our culture, our society as threats to our free markets and democracy. It’s scapegoating 101. Just like the Nazi Party, these radical modern-day organizations have waged a war against equality of the person. They don’t want free healthcare for all. They don’t want a good free public education to survive. They have cut programs to the poor, sick, veterans of wars, taxed the middle class while giving huge tax breaks to the upper one percent. These are not theories they are facts. Moreover, they have ostracized groups who have tried to help these segments of our population. Calling them socialists, communists, and have turned the word "liberals" into a pejorative. Name calling is their forte  which they have made into a science.

Don’t Be Swindled By The Hype

Many fell prey to this rhetoric just as many have bought into it hook, line and sinker today in America. Hitler needed suckers as do the Koch Brothers and what better way than to revisit the tactics of a madman who for a time had all of Europe at his feet. They need people to do lots of hard work for cheap and shunned the unions and have fought against the massive inequality that has come to pass in present day America. Matter of fact, it was Unions and Organized labor that were the biggest enemies to the Nazis and  to the Ron Paul’s of this present day. Organized labor demanded fair pay and safe working conditions and other worker benefits. The Tea Party and Libertarians require no minimum wage, no regulation and desire a desperate under-educated demoralized worker.

All the mindless sheep followers of the Tea Party and Libertarians are, is the Aryan Nazis of yesteryear. The Koch Brothers, and others like them, with their Americans for Prosperity, Citizens United, Cato Institute, all born from the John Birch Society genre, have systematically distorted the real facts, and replaced them with lies for decades now.

They abolish the truth by attacking it. They claim it's one big government scheme to take your rights away. Then they create a false reality. Then they tell you what you hear in traditional historical mainstream media and other educational sources is propaganda. The old ” bait and switch.” It's ” Big Brother,” coming to get you. Conspiracy, to hide the truth, planned lies to confuse and deceive us all.

There has been a game-plan with a playbook for decades, now.

This game-plan and subsequent playbook, are their way of brainwashing people, to incite paranoid suspicion, and cause people to lose faith in traditional scientifically well-established academia. Their goal is to get you to question long-held views and realities, all of which have been drawn from easily verifiable accurate authorities in news, science and history.

The Tea Party and Libertarians are anti-intellectuals.

Hitler hated mainstream established knowledge, science, publicly funded schools and institutes of higher learning. He claimed they were bastions of Liberals, Communists, Zionists, and Socialists. Hitler ruled the German people with speeches of hate and lies that these groups were spies trying to deceive the real Aryan German. 

The Tea Party and their Libertarian counterparts have a similar hatred of historical record and facts. They highly question reality and facts. Scientists question reality by using inductive reasoning. But the Tea Party and Libertarians use deductive reasoning. This type of argument is surely not intellectual nor science in any manner. These organizations run on gut feelings based on misguided indoctrination, false assumptions, and faith in preconceived notions no matter their validity or not.

In Nazi Germany, the cost of higher education became so expensive that attendance at these colleges and universities fell some 50%.

One of the bigger topics, in present day America, is the high cost and the coinciding debt that is associated with getting a good education today. What better way to brainwash people with conspiracies, than to keep people dumb and too poor  to be able to get an affordable public education. Then hammer away in their Koch Brothers media echo chambers that getting a great education from public schools and universities is not needed cause there nothing more than enclaves of Socialism.

In this writer's viewpoint, the real conspiracy is the far-right's push against getting a college education and anti-intellectualism. Just last election cycle we saw this from radical presidential candidate Rick Santorum a Tea Party type of guy.

Just like Joseph Goebbels, who headed the Nazi propaganda machine, present day pundits like Alex Jones, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and politicians like Ron Paul are making the same claims today as did Goebbels did in Nazi Germany. They claim that the two-party system is broken and, in fact, a scam. They even claim that traditional Republicans are not far-right enough for them and that all Democrats are nothing more than liberal socialists. Just like the Nazis, they hate any government-run or funded anything (except the military, of course).

The Tea Party and Libertarians hate government, they claim the IRS, welfare, regulations, taxes and the Federal Reserve and Keynesian economics are nothing more than socialist, communist plots. Fear-mongering is their order of the day and the base of their playbook. This is where all claims by these radical far-right groups of valuing freedom of speech, freedom of expression, equality and other liberties they defend and fight for fall apart when put under a close study. When you inductively and rationally examine their ideology, economics, and theories, you find a huge disconnect with what these do in practice.

In fact, in most cases, they inhibit and weaken and destroy these very liberties and freedoms. In this year there will be much debate on which direction America should take and this writer would suggest examining the issues to look at your motivations and why you think as you do and make an honest evaluation as to how you came to that view and most importantly participate because there are factions who do not want you to and are spending huge sums of money to discourage you from doing so. What we are seeing in practice  from the Tea Party, Libertarians, and the radical far-right Koch Brothers funded think tanks, is the repackaging of the Fascist playbook.

To The Christian Right, Nelson Mandela Was A Terrorist

Nelson Mandela's life was an example for all of us to follow. The entire world  mourned  his death, we rejoice in his spirit and may it give us all renewed strength never to give up. These were my feelings back in Dec 6, 2013 during the time of his passing and are the feelings I share to this very day. America, we have a far-reaching problem Religious Extremism in any form is self-destructive, unproductive, and dangerous.


To many in America, Nelson Mandela was a terrorist. As we have learned, the Radical Right, Christian Zealots and Dominionist are on a political/theocracy witch hunt to this very day as they were throughout Nelson Mandela life.

American Right Wingers and Christian Zealots labeled Mandela, a terrorist.

The History

The African National Conference [ANC] relationship with the U.S. has been a complicated one. The U.S. has not always supported the efforts of the ANC to gain their freedom from oppression. There were many conservative groups and Christian right groups that had strong lobbies in Washington, D.C. while in the 1980’s who urged Congress, not to give any aid to the anti-apartheid cause.

The George W. Bush administration removed  Mandela from the terrorist watch list imposed by Reagan just prior to Mandela receiving the Nobel Peace Prize on his 90th birthday in 2008. Even so, some Republicans supported the Mandela movement — 21 Republican senators voted to sustain the Reagan veto.[See Article] 

Despite a growing international movement to topple apartheid in the 1980’s, President Ronald Reagan maintained a close alliance with South African government that was showing no signs of serious reform. And the Reagan administration demonized opponents of apartheid, most notably the African National Congress, as dangerous and pro-communist. Reagan’s bill to impose sanctions on South Africa was overruled by Congress.[See Source] One could argue that this issue along with abortion [social problems] was the genesis of the modern-day influence of the “Christian Right ‘ in the political mix. However,  the man we know as Nelson Mandela confounds the passage of time, and his legacy will endure in the hearts of all the people of the world. Where there is such a parallel is the close resemblance of the tactics used by the South African apartheid government and that of the “Jim Crow” southern states. What raises this writer’s eyebrows is the trend in those same southern states to regress back to the “Jim Crow” era.

Rev. Jerry Falwell

Republican VP Dick Cheney labeled the ANC as a “terrorist organization.”  The Christian right front  has been vocal in opposition to Nelson Mandela and his ANC group directing the flock to write their congressman and senators to oppose sanctions against the apartheid South African government. Notably, Christian right patriarch Jerry Falwell commented:

"South Africa is torn by civil unrest, instigated primarily by Communist-sponsored people who are capitalizing on the many legitimate grievances created by apartheid, unemployment and policy confrontations."

Pat Robertson

In 1986, the 700 Club did a series of reports on South Africa and the white government’s struggle against the African National Congress. While many socially liberal religious leaders decried the apartheid regime, Robertson openly supported it because he felt that it was a bastion against communism. For Robertson, everything else was secondary to defeating what he saw as the enemies of God. Robertson sent a copy of The 700 Club program to Freedom Council’s Dick Thompson to have it forwarded to Pat Buchanan, who in turn promised to show it to the president. Reagan’s attitude toward South Africa was one of his most controversial foreign policy stands, and Robertson was one of Reagan’s few allies on the policy.

Those same forces that have been at work since the influx of the “George Wallace Democrats” over civil rights legislation and now the evangelicals spurred on by the Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson 700 Club, and others all who deemed this very much-loved “soldier of love” man a communist terrorist are the same identities of today who have done nothing but obstruct and demonize President Obama. The same ones that called Martin Luther King, Jr. a Communist, home-grown terrorist, and urged Hoover to put him under FBI surveillance.

The George Wallace Crowd Are " Alive  & Well"

Civil Injustice Creates Civil Disobedience! ( One Tin-Soldier Time)

We see right now how civil injustice creates civil disobedience. Also associated with social injustice, our nation is spiraling headfirst into civil disobedience. Injustice is opposite to Justice. It can be natural or civil in nature. Natural injustice is acts that do harm to mankind by violating natural rights. Civil Injustice is the unlawful violation of civil rights. [See Source]

The Civil Rights Acts Are Under Attack!

How Soon America Forgets?

America is a nation that was founded on the rule of law. In the Ferguson case, it was a grand jury's to make the right call. Many in America think  the process has run amuck. Civil Disobedience is rising up not only in America but all over the world. People are angry. With the recent events surrounding the killing of unarmed civilians on the rise, to coin a phrase," Houston We Have A Problem."  We have heard calls coming from the White House to please protest peacefully. From day 1 of these incidents becoming front-page news, many in America know these events are routine. There is a given that is undeniable; a deep distrust exists between police and persons of  color in America. This distrust can clearly be linked back to racial discrimination.

Civil Injustice Goes Way Deeper Than Ferguson?  

This issue is about America. We The People have a right to be angry. What has become evident to so many people now, that others who have had encounters with law enforcement before understand, is that the Judicial System is rigged.  What has resulted is a firestorm of civil disobedience across the country. 

We are all for Civil Disobedience at the House of  Public Discourse. On the issues of racism, corruption, and inequality they all equal to the sum of Civil Injustice. 

People Are Mad As Hell And They're Soon Not To Take It Anymore!

  

Thousands of people have protested in our nations' capital. Despite the cold of New York City, thousands showed up for demonstrations. There has been an outcry to change the legislation and process of police related shootings and deaths roaring across America.

According to most reports, the mood of the crowds has been calm but defiant. All sources show there are a plenty of police nearby. 

With all of this activity and protesting, there is one thing that remains paramount, " Cops Almost Always Go Free." Indictment on law-enforcement is rare. 

We Must Have Civil Disobedience or We Have Nothing.

Non-violence does not mean acceptance. However, resistance is necessary and has been throughout American history. Civil Disobedience is not at all passive.  It involves strikes, boycotts, an unwillingness to cooperate, and mass demonstrations.  In fairness in the realm of Civil Disobedience, sabotage is not out of the question.  What is imperative is that your civil cause plays to the conscience of the world. The recent activity of police in America has awakened the conscience of the world to the level of Civil Injustice in America today.  To a point, maybe we can use these tragedies  as a springboard to effect change.  Direct actions do not devalue the use of political rights such as the right to vote, civil liberties; however, Civil Disobedience checks those controlled and now rigged mechanisms. It is important that we recognize just how and who are writing and passing laws these days.  What are the motivations behind these laws?  These factions  include many lobbyists who write the laws and buy the politicians to introduce them. [Laws]   

  

There are and have always been people in America who are troubled by Civil Disobedience. The 1% and Global Elites and their  strings-attached politicians get a little upset when the people raise a voice. The purpose of Civil Disobedience is to do that very thing, to upset the status-quo.  It should be the goal of every person who calls himself an activist, or someone who cares about people or the good-ole concerned citizen to rise up with a loud voice at these troubling recent events in this country.

It should be clear; Civil Disobedience's primary intention is to disturb the stimuli and in this case, the civil injustice in America. It has become evident we have a secret police in this country. Our research at the House of Public Discourse has clearly shown a total regression of civil rights, civil liberties, and other social justice issues on many fronts. The police in this country act as if we are a totalitarian state. Speaking out for injustice has never been a beautiful game in America. Many have lost their lives in this struggle. All of these recent events has brought me back to my junior high school days in the mid 70's and the man with the plan was Billy Jack. With a country out of control and with civil injustice creating civil disobedience America needs that " One Tin-Soldier," more than ever.

Will The Real Rand Paul Please Stand Up!




Rand Paul

" Libertarian" Rand Paul supports a federal bill that would arrest marijuana users. Typically this type of statement from a right-wing Republican would not be newsworthy. However, in the case of known flip-flopper ' any which way the wind blows' politician Rand Paul this is a complete about-face from previous statements made by the senator from Kentucky.



Seems this self-proclaimed Libertarian Republican politician who has positioned himself  as the champion of the anti-government crowd has no problem with big government [Federal Government] from intruding the rights of states to regulate marijuana use.  Matter of fact, he's all for it. Very quietly, as in the " hush of the night," senator Paul supported the Republican-controlled House of Representative's measure called ' Enforce The Law Act." This bill would allow Congress to sue the president for not faithfully enforcing laws. In this case Federal law. The type of rules these so-called Libertarians loathe.

“We write laws and he is just deciding willy-nilly if he likes it he enforces it, if he doesn’t, he won’t enforce it, and we really think he needs to be chastened, rebuked, and told that he needs to obey the constitution,” Paul said. 

This position  is a complete departure from previous comments from Rand Paul where he indicated support for the states to set their terms regarding marijuana use. On March 24, 2013, he[Paul] told Fox News,

“The main thing I’ve said is not to legalize them [marijuana and synthetic recreational drugs] but not to incarcerate people for extended periods of time.” [See Source]



Rep.Bob Goodlatte (R-Va)

Our staff here at the House of Public Discourse are well aware of Rand Paul's knack for playing of words. His base made up mostly of uneducated poor white people, and anti-government and white-supremacist groups don't catch these contradictory statements, or they don't care.

Paul, cannot claim ignorance for this flip-flop. One of the senators that introduced the bill Bob Goodlatte (R-Va) submitted a committee report citing President Barack Obama failure to enforce federal marijuana laws as an example of his federal overreach. 



Back in 2013, the Justice Dept.,[ See Source] proclaimed it would not contest states marijuana laws. According to multiple sources many in Congress, support the president's action or inaction regarding this subject matter.



 Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon)

“It doesn't seem right to me to continue to waste our limited resources punishing people for doing something when it's legal under state law, the majority of Americans want it to be legal, and much more dangerous drugs like heroin are making a comeback,”

This bill passed the House with 228 Republican votes. 181 Democrats voted against the bill. At first, it was doubtful that Rand Paul would have a chance to vote on this with a Democratic majority in the legislature. However, with the results from the 2014 election giving the majority to the Republicans and impeachment of Barack Obama swirling around this bill could and very likely will be revisited. If the bill does come before the senate,  it will be one of those moments that beg the question, " Will The Real Rand Paul Please Stand Up!"

The Christian Right Returns To Its Racist Past

The Religious Right Has Tried for Years To Lose Its Racist Image.

With the emergence of the Tea Party and its overtly racist attitudes, one can't help but be reminded of another so-called Christian organization the KKK. Over the years, the Christian Right has tried to wash itself clean from its racist past. In  his 1996 Book titled Active Faith, conservative Christian activist  Ralph Reed, Jr admitted that Christian conservatives had been on the wrong side of the civil rights movement.

“The white evangelical church carries a shameful legacy of racism and the historical baggage of indifference to the most central struggle for social justice in this century, a legacy that is only now being wiped clean by the sanctifying work of repentance and racial reconciliation,” [Ralph Reed,Jr] 

"Racial Reconciliation" has become a buzz word for the Christian Right. 

During the Bush, Jr years, factions of the anti-gay and anti-racism were co-mingled in a weird way. In 2006, at the Greater Exodus Baptist Church.  An African-American church in Philadelphia leaders of the religious right invoked the words of Martin Luther King, Jr and Rosa Parks on behalf of gay-marriage bans and Bush judicial nominees.[See Article] All this played into the Bush compassionate conservative narrative that he ran on in 2000. According to an article in Progressive Values. Org what a difference an election makes.

'Even if you believed that compassionate conservatism was always a bit of a con, it’s amazing to see how quickly it has vanished, and how fast an older style of reaction, one more explicitly rooted in racial grievance, has reasserted itself.'

"Today’s grassroots right is by all appearances as socially conservative as ever, but its tone and its rhetoric are profoundly different than they were even a year ago. For the last 15 years, the right-wing populism has been substantially electrified by sexual anxiety. Now it’s charged with racial anxiety."

 No sooner than Democrats took office the anti-government, and religious right screwballs began their demagoguery. However, with the recent explosion of GOP sex scandals and other scandals the right has had to take a break from their incessant moralizing. To compensate, we have seen the right-wing politicians and pundits, and their media echo chambers shift gears to a relatively new term, " Producerism."

What is Producerism?

According to the article, 

"Producerism sees society as divided between productive workers — laborers, small businessmen and the like — and the parasites who live off them. Those parasites exist at both the top and the bottom of the social hierarchy — they are both financiers and welfare bums — and their larceny is enabled by the government they control."

This shift in gears plays well with the personality traits of the racist right-wing wing extremist and religious zealots.  The article when on to point out that during economic distressed times when people have a sense of " getting screwed," these sentiments of  racism and anti-Semitic are embolden.  So, the occasion of having our first black president elected to office has given these factions a green-light to flood our existence with this tomfoolery. 

"It’s not, after all, as if the Christian right was something completely removed from the old racist right — rather, as Reed acknowledged all those years ago, they were initially deeply intertwined." [badattitudes.com] 

Tony Perkins, before he immersed himself in homophobic interracial amity once paid Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke $82,500 for his mailing list.[Source: The Return Of The Repressed] In 2004, David Barton, president of the Texas GOP at that time  spoke at an event featuring white preachers and ministry workers dropping to their knees before their black brethren to plead for forgiveness.[Source:The Return Of The Repressed] Barton, years earlier was a keynote speaker at a Christian identity movement. At this event, Barton was on narrative of this movements mantra that. " blacks are sub-human, ' mud-people." The bottom line as blacks have become more politically active. And a force in the electorate. The factions on the right like this so-called Christian Right front have had to change their tune of racism and bigotry towards gays and lesbians and immigrants. But, the old truism, " you can't teach an old dog new tricks," is a valid one in that with the election of a black president these deep-seated prejudices have festered once again. Hence, in this writer's view the Christian Right has returned to its racist past.

Written By: Johnny Hill

Research By: Roni May

Personality Traits Of The Right Wing Extremist

There are many facets to the personality of a right-wing extremist. There have been many studies conducted on the issue. As a starting point, The Authoritarian Personality (1950) by Theodor Adorno, explored the connection between personality and fascist orientation. This study identified a personality connection characterize by a dynamic between authoritarian aggression and authoritarian submission. The study also found a common thread of anti-semantic and  anti-liberal sentiments existed in the right-wing extremist. However, much of this early study has given way to more recent research. But, the one constant factor remains, most right-wing extremist hold prejudices against minorities and any behavior that does not conform to the perceived values of the group.

In recent times, right-wing extremist have been re-labeled right-wing authoritarian followers.   

In a sense, these attitudes are broad social, and political predispositions and feelings towards people who are outside the authoritarian belief patterns.  Recent research has focused on exogenous personal dispositions, in order to identify and explain individual differences and political orientations and behaviors.

These dispositions or traits are;

• Openness to experience.
• Conscientiousness.
• Extraversion.
• Agreeableness.
• Neuroticism (or emotional instability)

People who score high on openness are curious, open-minded, creative and value novel stimuli. The conscientiousness person loves for there to be an order and obedience to norms and rules. Impulse control and task orientated goals are paramount. Extraversion implies an out-going personality and approach to life. Traits such as sociability, assertiveness and positive emotionality are common in extraversion personalities.People who score high on agreeableness are modest, trusting, altruistic and tender-minded. Neuroticism describes a pattern of negative emotions. That is related to feelings of anxiety, vulnerability and uneasiness.

There has been an ever increasing bevy of empirical data on these personality traits which investigates attitudes towards out-group members, especially immigrants. This new evidence has clearly shown that openness to experience is the most important predictor for differences of prejudice towards these out-groups. This attitude differs from the right-wing authoritarian who tends to feel they have a social dominance over these so-called out-groups. They tend to have a superior sense of morality for example. Similarly, agreeableness persons show a high disregard for right-wing authoritarianism and their views of social dominance and negatively reject right-wing extremist orientations. By contrast, conscientiousness people have shown a severe disdain for minorities and immigrants according to the study. They embrace right-wing authoritarian viewpoints, and many either agree with or find an excuse for right-wing extremist actions. Neuroticism [Neurotic] relates solely to right-wing authoritarian views and makeup a majority of people who join or participate or sympathize with right-wing extremist groups. The Extraversion [ Extrovert] exhibits no systematic association with out-group derogation or right-wing extremist elements.

Right-Wing Extremist

Based of this research, this writer contends that people who tend to be opened-minded to experiences are tolerant to others from  perceived out-groups. People from another background are interesting to the open-minded person.  Moreover, this open-mindedness fosters appreciation for their different ideas and opinions. This reality makes them less likely to advocate anti-pluralist political ideologies.  For this reason, most open-minded people are demagogued by the right-wing extremist as being such things as socialist, communist, do-gooders, and lastly, liberal swine. In fairness, the open-minded person tends to feel that the right-wing extremist are uneducated derelicts of society. People who score high in agreeableness approach others with trust and are sociable and don't tend to get caught up in group boundaries. Moreover, agreeable persons are altruistic and advocate equality rights and support democratic ideas rather than laws of the strongest and go fend for yourself mentalities of the right -wing extremist.

However, people high in conscientiousness show a deep hate and fear of those in the out-groups. They challenge their established group relations, traditions, and social norms. In addition, their love for order makes them more comfortable with authoritarian political beliefs. With the Neurotic, who tend to be emotionally unstable they feel threaten by those in the out-groups. They show the condition of  institutional racism and exhibit superiority attitudes towards minorities and immigrants alike. These attitudes serve as compensation for their paranoia, and feelings of uncertainty. Therefore, they are attracted to right -wing extremist beliefs.  For the Extrovert, relationships can be ambiguous. They value self-expression and self-enhancement which results in a view for the obvious, " freedom of expression." However, this sense of freedom coupled with their dominant focus on their personal advantage some extroverts draw to the hierarchy-based beliefs of the authoritarian and can lead them to right-wing extremism.  
         

  

The Politics Of Morality, The Political Divide (Part 2)

freep.com

It goes unspoken that many of today's 'hot-button' issues are related to morality. Abortion, stem-cell research, gay rights, tax reduction, health care, and even foreign affairs. In part one, The Politics of Morality (part 1), the aspects of morality discussed were of a personal nature. However, the morality at the center of today's moral discourse is social. Social morality has developed into a set of standards. In the case of abortion-how much should society value life? With stem-cell research- what should be the limits of scientific study? In regards to gay rights, how people should live and to what extent should people's civil rights be associated with the way we live? Health care begs the question, how should public taxes be distributed. The tax debate is centered around on what society rewards and encourages. Lastly, regarding foreign affairs -how should society spread its morals to other societies. [Source: Morality and Political Discourse by Yanpei Chen]

Personal Morality is absolute. 

In general, people tend to agree or disagree with personal morality traits of an individual. In comparison, social morality, in today's moral debates, there is a huge disagreement between people on what should be social norms. People gather themselves in groups and try vehemently to impose their morality on others as being the proper social norm. In America, these disagreements have formulated along political party lines, factions, and demographics. [See Article: Party Identification Has Become the Lens Most People See Through ]

In America's two-party system, these disagreements have tended to lump 'We the People' into opposing sides on just about any issues period, but; especially moral issues.

With the election of America's first person of color to the White House, we have seen no compromise whatsoever. In fact, many citizens in this country feel that the obstruction by the Republican Party has bordered on sedition. [See Article: Tea Party Seditionists Say Default Not So Bad] This environment has led to an " us or them," mentality.

No Moral Issue Can Be Settled To The Satisfactions of All!  

The above truism brings this writers research to the realities of just how conservatives and liberals think. Political thinking is very much cognitive. Thus, Cognitive science plays a role in the evaluation of how these left and right factions of political thought process issues in their brains. One thing is for sure; you can't think without a brain. Cognitive science suggests how our brains are shaped determine very much on how we think. Any idea that you may have that you have learned that you use over and again makes up a part of your mindset [way of thinking] according to many Cognitive scientists and is physically represented in our brains. This fact matters in our way of political thinking enormously. The idea that people have the same rational is absurd. People do not think the same. We all have our own unique conceptual systems of thought. However, there are some universal systems of thought. In terms of morality, there are lots of metaphors. Morality is righteousness. In general, morality is a sense of well-being. Helping people. Being a person of high morals is seen as a person of emotional wealth. For example, a person who tends to help people will have many who feel indebted to them thus emotional wealth. On the flip side, when a person does things to harm others there becomes a sense of making restitution for the wrong-doing so morality can be seen as a form of emotional economics

Forgiveness plays a huge role in morality. Revenge for a wrong done plays a role in morality. Feelings of guilt have a place in the realm of morality. Once again, all this goes to the moral accounting metaphor. Metaphorically speaking, morality has an economic system of accounting that calculates a person's morality. How does all of this relate to politics? In a word, framing. Cognitive thought creates framing [images] in our minds. For example, when you say apple, an image of that fruit appears in your mind. Politically, when you speak of tax relief what frame or image comes to your mind? We all remember when George Bush, Jr took office his first order of business was the Bush tax cuts.[Tax Relief] The first mental image that comes to mind is the word relief. If there is a need for relief, there must be an affliction of some sort. The term relief means that some faction is being harmed by taxes, and the moral thing to do is to provide tax relief for those afflicted. So, because of this harm Bush, Jr political handlers set him up as a hero and anyone trying to stop him are the bad guys. So, when you add text to that metaphorically, what they are saying is " taxation is an affliction."

So, for many in America today when they hear the term 'tax relief' this is the frame that appears in their minds. When they hear this over and over it becomes a part of their physical brain. What happens when this accrues is 'taxation is an affliction,' becomes common sense to the person. Now, with this said, it becomes clear. How media outlets like Fox news, which claims to be fair and balanced, can have two liberals and two conservatives on a discussion panel, but; the host is conservative and can frame the questions with the now known factor that most right- wing authoritarian followers will have in their mindset that 'taxation is an affliction. If you take the other sides terms, if you are opposing it politically, and you take a question that fits their ideology and argue against it you are basically arguing for it cause you will be offending the common sense of the targeted Fox news viewer. Your argument will, in fact, reinforce that ' taxation is an affliction.'

      In terms of the modern day debate over taxes and how they should be implemented and who should pay what share of them [taxes] I was reminded by George Lakoff book: Moral Politics , of Dan Quayle's acceptance speech at the 1992 Republican convention when speaking about the progressive tax  he made the statement:

Dan Quayle 

      "Why should the best people be punished?"

The first questions are why is this even considered an argument against the progressive income tax. Second, Dan Quayle assumption is that people with the most money are the best people. And, in terms of morality, this is completely false. But, to a person who has been condition on the notion that " taxation is an affliction," will buy it hook, line and sinker, even though, it goes against their own best interest. Why? Cause it plays into their misconception of their common sense. Why do I use the term misconception? Let's look at current events of current common sense discrepancies among right- wing authoritarian followers.

What are right-wing authoritarian followers?  

In general, a conservative person is against abortion and for a flat-tax. As a liberal, I am totally opposite to this position, so I don't get what the two issues have to do with one another. More baffling, why people are for the flat-tax but against environmental regulations. Moreover, why people who are against environmental regulations are overwhelmingly in favor of gun ownership no matter a person's mental capacity. Then, I can't understand why these same people who are for no gun laws whatsoever are for tort reform. Confused? These examples are pretty wholesale among conservatives, but; what do they have to do with one another? This conundrum is a typical example of a Cognitive science problem. What is it that brings these ideas together and unites them for conservatives? What brings these example into some natural order that certain mindsets of people agree in totality? What is it that makes this possible? Liberals ask the questions how can you be pro-life and for the death penalty? How you can be pro- life for a zygote, but; be for cutting aid to starving children and support and create laws that would detain and punish refugees [mostly children] from fleeing oppression. Conservatives claim liberals as irrational for not wanting to put a murder to death and sanctioning abortion. What this boils down to is different world views.

 What is it that defines the different views of the world people have physically embedded in their brains? Why do conservative's talk so much about family values? With all the complex problems we as a society face in these troubled times, why is the main issue for conservatives always family values? Some conservatives see their way of thinking and the grouping of these mindsets as a family of like-minded souls. In practice, however, the reality is that there are many different world views which lead to the conclusion there are many different notions of family. As previously pointed out there are two notions of family.

• Strict father figure family. [Authoritarian]
• Nurturing parent family. [Egalitarian]

Regarding the conservative authoritarian model which has been the model embraced by conservatives throughout the country my research led me to one James Dobson. Dobson has so many people writing for him he requires his own zip code.

Who is James Dobson?   

Dr.James Dobson

   Dr. James Dobson is the Founder and President of Family Talk, a nonprofit organization that produces his radio program, “Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk.” He is the author of more than 30 books dedicated to the preservation of the family, including The New Dare to Discipline; Love for a Lifetime; Life on the Edge; Love Must Be Tough; The New Strong-Willed Child; When God Doesn’t Make Sense;Bringing Up Boys; Marriage Under Fire; Bringing Up Girls; and, most recently, Head Over Heels.


Dr. Dobson is one of those individuals accredited for much of the Republican Party's move to embrace religious factions [Christian Right] into the party fold and his Focus on the Family operation was a huge mechanism in answering the question; why do conservatives always focus on family values. However, ask any liberal and they will tell you flat out that Dobson view of family is distorted.

Case in point.

    

What Dobson has done is use fundamental theology and other doctrines and geared his writings and precepts of the ideal family into conservative ideology. This en-turn creates politics of morality, which causes a political divide cause as we have learned there are many world views, and many notions of  family.  Dobson, and many of the Christian right and the Republican Party claim to have a strict view of morality. It goes like this; it's a gender system of family structure. Daddy is different than mommy. The father must be strict he is the head of the family the authoritarian figure. There is evil out there in the world and it's the father's role to protect the family from it. Because there are winners and losers in this world, the father must be a winner to support the family. In the Dobson model, children are born badly, in the sense as a child if it feels good they want to do it. Children don't know right from wrong, and you need a strict father to teach them right from wrong. The major dilemma here is the various views on how to teach children right from wrong and this dilemma indirectly has caused a political divide in America and morality is the root.

Dr. Dobson model advocates punishment when they do wrong. Dobson claims that the punishment must be painful enough that the child will correct themselves next time when confronted with a choice. The idea is that the child will internalize the correction and not do wrong again. Dodson advocates spankings. Dobson claims beating a child is okay as long as they are over the age of 15 months. In the Dobson model and subsequently the republican model, a child and person can only become moral through discipline. The claim is through this discipline a person will become self- reliant and a prosperous adult.

Conservatives believe there is a link between morality and prosperity.

Discipline allows one to be obedient to the moral authority which makes one more successful, happy, and prosperous. There is a logic here. Suppose someone is not prosperous. Then you're not discipline enough. And, if you're not discipline enough you're not moral. So, you deserve your poverty. We see this mentality played out in our modern day political debate. We have seen Tea Party, Libertarians, and Republican Party main-streamers and related legislation on both the federal and state levels take on a " go fend for yourself," narrative. This attitude is a prime example of the politics of morality and how it has caused a political divide in America. All of this has social implications.

Another major part of the Dobson [conservative] model is after a child has grown and become mature if they have gotten the self-discipline they can go out into the world and take care of themselves. If they haven't, adhered to this discipline they should still go out into the world [tough-love]  and let the world discipline them.[The School of Hard Knocks] If they can't make it, too bad. Now, there is another part of this. Why is it moral within this system or doctrine to pursue your self-interest? Dobson is very clear about this; he proclaims this as being in step with Adam Smith version of capitalism. 

Noam Chomsky brings perspective on Adam Smith.          

Adam Smith claimed that if everyone pursued their profit by the 'invisible hand' the law of nature would maximize one's goals. The model suggest it's good to pursue your self-interest because that's good for everybody else. In this model, what's bad, is to interfere with someone's self-interest. According to Adam Smith taxation is an interference. And, that's why Dan Quayle said "why should the best people be punished." So, fast-forwarding to our modern day times, under this "train of thought" the Koch brothers are the best people because they are pursuing their self-interest. The next interference is government regulation. Government gets in the way of people pursuing their self-interest. There is also a term in conservative language for those who don't pursue their self-interest. When people pursue the good of the community they are labeled by conservatives as " do-gooders."

 A 'do-gooder,' is one of those people who is trying to help somebody and are getting in the way of those so-called best people self-interest. Once again, this is a prime example of the politics of morality and, how, it has created a political divide in America. Now, there are lots of other facets of this family values model. What does this conservative family values model say about social programs? Conservatives claim that all social programs are immoral. Why? They claim they hurt the people they are trying to help. Because, they are giving people something they have not earned. This action makes people dependent on the state, hence the term "nanny state." This dependence takes away their ability to be discipline that takes away their ability to be moral beings. So, in the cognitive minds of the right-wing authoritarian follower social programs are immoral according to this logic. In addition, you have the mindset as the father as the strict figure with the moral authority. Moral authority can be a very interesting idea because it brings together two trains of thought.


Morality
Authority
In the text, this translates to morality and power. Part of conservative thought is that people who are in power, who have pursued their self-interest, are moral and should have the authority over the rest of us do-gooders. In short, moral people should rule. The discipline people should rule. This belief gives rise to a conservative hierarchy or moral order. In the moral order which is part of the conservative model, you have GOD above man, man above nature, adults above children, western culture above non-western culture, America above other nations. It's the idea if you look at forms of authority historically that will show you what GOD has made moral. Then there are other versions. The bigotry ones, the ones that are so out front in today's Republican Party. It goes pretty much like this man above woman, whites above non-whites, straight people above gay people, Christians above non-Christians. Now, in fairness, not all conservatives have those bigoted views. There are non-bigoted conservatives. However, it is important to understand as a liberal it has been hard for me not to lump all conservatives into the irrational, mean- spirited, greedy and stupid box. In fact, all conservatives are not irrational, mean- spirited, and stupid. Conservatives have a strict interpretation of morality. For the most part, most conservatives see themselves as moral people. In this writer's view, this reality can sometimes be a "hard-pill-to-swallow."

What Morality Do Progressive and Liberals Have?    

Written By: Johnny Hill

Article Source: Moral Politics by: George Lakoff