The Chaos of Conservatism | Eastern North Carolina Now

    The interview programs of Sunday are always interesting to me. Tops on the list of topics were all the "religious freedom" legislations across the country. The map showed the SE and mid-West as the main places for the ill-advised constant fight over marriage and the gay issue.

    NPR has an insightful article concerning this:

    Here is the core of the problem as cited in the article:

    "Yes! It's about a much bigger, much more fundamental problem for the GOP. A new Pew poll showed that 61 percent of young Republicans favor gay marriage.

    Hutchinson said his own son signed a petition asking him to veto the bill that he instead sent back to the Legislature for revision.

    The Republicans can't appeal to young voters if they're on the wrong side of gay marriage, because gay rights is a symbol of tolerance for so many young voters - not to mention suburban women. The same is true for one of the fastest-growing parts of the electorate - Hispanics. How do Republicans show Hispanics that they are welcoming and inclusive if they oppose a path to legalization for hard-working immigrants here illegally?

    The views of the GOP's white, older, conservative primary electorate are farther away from the center of American public opinion than the Democratic base is right now. That's the challenge for the GOP - it needs to project an image of tolerance in order to win the White House while at the same time satisfying its conservative base, which, in this case, wants Christian florists, bakers and photographers to have the right to refuse services to gay weddings. It will take a very talented candidate to square that circle."

    I have watched with amazement as young Americans do what is not typical of youth and growing up REBEL.

    I grew up in the 60's as the Vietnam War raged alongside integration. Most young people wanted to see change in America. We were tired of the discrimination and the war was obviously not one able to win anything in a far off 3rd world country. My 1963 classmates were coming home in boxes or with PTSD!

    President John Kennedy had pretty much made up his mind to withdraw from Vietnam. He clearly said to Walter Cronkite that the problem was that of Vietnam citizens---and they had to decide for themselves what to do. Others made sure his will ended as his head was blown off in Dallas, TX. Change by death was becoming a way of life for America. Martin Luther King, Jr. followed and then Robert Kennedy. As one citizen I was wondering why we had to have such violence in our society to "conserve a status quo."

    I have not been prone to demonstrations. My way was to debate issues in conversation and then go to the polls to decide who could best lead us to accomplish that which I thought was important. Once the election was over, encourage those elected to do Progressive things to move forward. The new outlook was to keep on demonstrating over some cause and get all the attention you could.

    The current hullabaloo over marriage and conservatism is to the point of RE-DI-CU-LOUS, in my view. We know our nation is founded on freedom of the individual. We know that gay people exist and are more visible than ever before. In the South they have always been around and known. We just loved to have someone to criticize behind their back. It is another form of assassination of things not liked.

    Perhaps the real problem is --- the number of snits in the South are multiplying. We have always had those "up North" who pretended such lack of prejudice. It was obvious their prejudices lay in social status and whether you were Irish or whatever. Their protests over southern black-white relations were a farce. If you really wanted prejudice then go as far north as Chicago and Detroit and see the ugly face of racial hate . . .

    What we have today is a growing hate and prejudice coming from all corners of life.

    Much Conservatism is built on hate and posturing. My Southern Baptist Convention's conservatives perfected "LIBERAL" as a flame word applied to anyone not attending their private airport planning meetings to take it over. Old W.A. Criswell, famed blowhard pastor of Dallas First Baptist Church, gladly called us "skunks!"

    He is a prime example of "prejudice gone wild." Back in the 60's he came to SC to address the Legislature. He started his bombast and then got caught up in the emotions of racial hate and went on to rage about "letting those of low social place go to school with us. . ." It hit the front pages. Upon his return to Dallas a group of men from his church meet him at the airport. In no uncertain terms, they scolded him for his stupid remarks and how embarrassed they were to hear it said so publicly.

    The real problem was he ran his mouth on things hidden behind the church curtains in "prim and proper Dallas religious circles."

    Had I not been to Mobile, ALA, helping with recovery after Hurricane Katrina, I would not have a clue as to real and deep Southern Pretense. I saw there, large churches of all kinds from Catholic to Pentecostal. It was expected that any "good person" be present in church on Sunday. Their attendance was so great that all the off-duty cops have jobs directing traffic at these big show churches each Sunday. Only SEC football draws more.

    One pundant in the local paper notes the biggest Southern Baptist Church, Dauphin Way, as "The Church of the Immaculate Intersection." It happens to be where major highways meet and no one in that town fails to note BIG! If you pastored it, you were going to become a Southern Baptist Convention President eventually.

    Southern pretense / real values --- that is the question for today . . .