Pay Dirt

For some years now I have been studying conservative extremism with grim fascination. I could not understand how so many people were willing to adopt its strange ideology, much less get caught in the fanaticism it generates. I've read books, listened to hours of lectures, and watched the news hoping to grasp clues to its rationale and popular appeal.
    So many contradictions. They say they want small government, but then only expand it. They definitely want lower taxes for the wealthy, even if it means destroying our economy through deficits. They prefer rabble rousers to statesmen, They say they revere the Constitution, but really care only about 2 or 3 of its amendments. They say that the U.S. is the greatest country in the world, and that they love is here, and then do nothing but complain about it, and try to dismantle so much of its core ideals (such as equal rights). Their prominent radio and television propagandists, ranging from the egocentric ranting of Rush Limbaugh to the lunatic buffoonery of Glenn Beck, seem transparently idiotic, yet remain incredibly influential.
    How, I wondered, can any of this be? In this day and age, people should be more intelligent than to fall for such blatant hypocrisy and manipulation. None of the answers I came up with made a sufficient amount of sense.
    And then, quite suddenly, it all came together. Chris Matthews, on Hardball, ask the question if the Tea Party movement was based on racism. The question was not taken too seriously by the guests, but was really quite profound.
    The strange qualities of American conservative extremism really are rooted in the slavery issue of our early history, when the mindset first congealed in its present form. Not racism, per se, although that certainly contributed to it, and lingers beneath the surface for many, but the mindset that was stubbornly generated to allow for slavery's existence among a people who knew better.
    When a society that espouses freedom, equality, individuality, republican virtues, and virtually identifies with them, at the same time embraces and defends slavery, a bifurcation of the moral intellect quite simply has takes place. A mindset of defensive self-righteousness develops that makes it possible to contradict its own ideals.
    Excuses have to be made for its purposeful lapses of conscience. Simple logic has to be looked upon with suspicion, and even discarded at times. Ignorance is defended, along with a deep distrust of reform. The mob mentality circles the wagon against the rest of the world. Most notably, guilt has to be repressed, leading to the kind of anger that becomes irrepressible. To the dispassionate observer, it all looks foolish, hypocritical, and unworthy of free people.
    Sound familiar?
    When a portion of society attempts to sustain its own guilty conscience any way it can, it produces a continual offense against reason, and presents a fundamentally threat to the real virtues of human nature. Subconsciously we know this. Values have to be shaken together to support a mixture of both good and bad. The Constitution has to be loudly declared as somehow that supports this. Religion becomes a vehicle of intolerance and hate. Fear is used as a weapon to support the irrational. The constant build-up of rage leads people to the brink of violence.
    History bears this out. As northern states became more vocal in their condemnation of slavery, even though they could do little about it, the enraged south moved to cessation, and fought a terrible Civil War on its behalf. Well over half a million Americans were killed. And for what? States rights? Regional pride? Those may have been the catch words, but history shows the step-by-step truth.
    The Civil War was not followed by shameful admission of wrong-doing, or a desire to do the right thing. It was followed by lynchings, the KKK, Jim Crow laws, segregation, discrimination, and resistance to civil rights reform. White southern rage was the undercurrent to all this. To highlight the insanity of their anger, they considered themselves the victims, as if they had been the ones in chains working the fields under the threat of the whipped. Their responses do not make moral sense without deep psychological undercurrents of guilt and self-loathing at the base of it.
    Consider how they have taken both the Constitution and the bible and distorted their meaning to support ideas that are basically un-American and un-Christian. Fanatical conservatives do not see this, of course, having been raised in it, but it is obvious to everyone else. They dare to call this conservatism, but it is unlike any other conservatism in the world.
    This dark side of Americanism, this shadow side which cannot bear the light of real American ideals, is very much with us today. Slavery may be past, but the mindset continues, retaining its war against reason. It is a dynamic born from guilt and the stubborn pride of slavers. Its occasional racist undertones still crop up now and then to prove it.
    What are they fighting against? Intelligence that they deride as elitist. Compassion that they somehow translate in communism.
    What are they fighting for? What can only be construed as chaos. They claim to love and defend the Constitution, while trying to sabotage and dismantle the government that is based in out.
    America was built on Age of Enlightenment ideals. Today's conservative extremists want to reshape the nation away from those ideals in order to accommodate their anger, shame and feelings of inferiority. They want to accommodate their guilt by changing the law of the land. To their eyes, the more people who suffer from this anger, the more who nod at its unreason, the better. Because truth is a mirror they cannot face, they willingly and even joyfully support lies and conspiracy theories. Unable to build anything positive, they commit themselves to sabotage and mean-spirited derision.
    Propagandists who voice their anger and paranoia, are looked upon as leaders, legitimizing negativity by fueling it with added vitriol. It is not unusual for mob rule to be led by loud, emotional rhetoric that caters tour lowest instincts. As their most vocal proponent, Rush Limbaugh, unashamedly admitted during an televised interview that he does this entirely for profit.
    The extremists are talking about revolution. Their gullible followers are stockpiling firearms and ammunition. They are insulting the Constitution, democracy, and the intent of our founders by systematically disrupting political discussions at town hall meetings. There is nothing patriotic about this.
    What is most dangerous about their actions and ideology, however, is that this is not just a political threat. It is an assault against reason, which is a threat to human nature itself. Hence the ugliness and nonsensical quality of their protests. Hence the perversion of religion and humanism, along with expressions of greed and sheer ignorance. Consider how they have become defenders of pollution and global warming; purveyors of war and prejudice; enemies of science and all truth in general; deniers of equality; conspirators so accepting of lies as to base their opinions on little else.
    There is an existential danger in such disregard for truth. Resistance to this kind of conservatism must therefore be imperative for all good people or conscience.

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