Religious factions will go on imposing their will on others unless the decent people connected to them recognize that religion has no place in public policy. They must learn to make their views known without trying to make their views the only alternatives. Barry Goldwater
(see this post with all it's images here)
James Dobson is a major leader of the social conservatives. He is considered one of the more moderate of the 'Value Voters' leaders because he doesn't support spanking any child under the age of 18 months, while other conservative leaders do.
Dobson is now attacking Barrack Obama for "deliberately distorting the Bible" and "dragging biblical understanding through the gutter." Isn't it time for progressives to start unmasking how the values of the conservative movement have failed? Isn't it time to ask them some questions about their values? How about asking your family, friends, neighbors, colleges, etc, "Have Conservative Values Failed?"
Let's raise the question. It should be easy for anyone to answer. It's time for progressives to take back the values debate and promote an open and honest discussion about values. Document what you find out and share it with the rest of us.
Here are some people who have taken up the challenge.
Failed Conservative Values: Elaine Charkowski on Patriarchy Family Values
Elaine Charkowski talked with me about how conservative values have failed. She says, Conservative Family Values is about patriarchy and fear of authority. It’s about not using your own mind and woman are to be subservient to the man. The type of power used is random punishment and reward, which studies show is the best way to drive animals crazy.
View @:Democracyforamerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com
Failed Conservative Values: Louise Specht on Hierarchy Authoritarian Narcissism
I asked Louise Specht about the the failure of conservative values. She addressed the hierarchal and authoritarian nature of conservativism and how this can lead to narcissism for the people at the top. Steven Colbert does a great job of imitating a conservative on the Colbert Report. I just saw him begin his show lately by saying, "Did I tell you I love me lately?" He hit's the nail on the head, as does Louise.
View @:Democracyforamerica.com - Opednews.com -Dailykos.com - Groups.yahoo
Failed Conservative Values: Dona Ridgeway on Authoritarianism
Donna Ridgeway is a blogger living in the Santa Cruz, California area. She was raised republican and was in the military, but then started questioning. She says the Failed Conservative Value is authoritarianism, it's a lose lose situation because if the authoritarian fails, everything fails. However she sees a lot of problems with progressives as well. There's a lot of egos with progressives and herding cats is hard.
View @: Democracyforamerica.com - Opednews - Dailykos - Groups.yahoo
Failed Conservative Values: Arianna Huffington on Family Values Hypocrisy
Arianna Huffington is a well know progressive speaker and activist. She started the popular Huffington Post website and it seems you can't turn on a progressive TV show without her popping up on it and taking a swipe at the conservatives. I saw Arianna at our local bookstore where she was promoting her new book, The Right is Wrong. During the Q and A, I asked her how conservative values have failed. She had plenty to say.
View @:Democracyforamerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com
Failed Conservative Values: They're Not Working - George Lakoff
George Lakoff is a linguistics professor at UC Berkeley and author of numerous books on metaphors, framing and politics. Howard Dean has called him, "one of the most influential political thinkers of the progressive movement." George was at our local bookstore talking about his latest book, The Political Mind. During the question and answer period, I asked him if he personally feels that Conservative Values have Failed and if so, how have they failed?
View @: Democracyforamerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com
Failed Conservative Values: David Sirota on Economic Darwinism
David Sirota came and talked about his new book, 'The Uprising' at the Oakland Democracy for America meet-up on June 11, 2008. During the Q and A, I asked David how conservative values have failed and he talked about the failure of Conservative Economic Darwinism. The full video of his 70 minute talk and slideshow is now online.
View @: Democracyforamerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com
Attack of the Anaconda - Failed Conservative Values Metaphors
Sometimes it helps to use a bit of imagination and creativity to look at things in a different way to shake up the status quo and change mindsets. I've been asking people to create a metaphor for the Failed Conservative Values. For example, if conservative values were a type of machine, or land, or animal, etc., what would they be like? Here are some of the images people came up with; anaconda, meat grinder, quicksand and mud stuck elephant.
View @: Democracyforamerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com
Failed Conservative Values: Nancy Kops on Selfishness
I interviewed Nancy Kops and asked her about Failed Conservative Values and what are Progressive Values. She feels caring is the most important liberal-progressive value. She knows many conservatives and finds them to have good hearts and be very caring about the people around them. However, she can’t figure out why they can be attracted to the Republican Party. She thinks they just don't see the big picture.
View @: Democracyforamerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com
Failed Conservative Values: Arun Akkineni on Self-Righteousness
I interviewed Arun Akkineni about Failed Conservative Values. He felt that self-righteousness is a Failed Conservative Value and it's scary and dangerous. With self-righteousness, you see the world as black and white and don't see the nuances. You also don't incorporate other peoples ideas, which makes for poor decision making. He points to the current conservative administrations creation of the war and occupation of Iraq, as an example.
View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com
Failed Conservative Values: Aris Harmon on Fear and Power
I interviewed Aris Harmon about the failure of conservative values. He said conservatives can be very nice people but they try to maintain the status quo and are afraid of change. For this reason, their fear of change is easily manipulated by other conservatives such as, Grover Norquist and Abramoff, whose sole value is power at any cost. He also sees the failure of critical thinking as the reason conservatives are so easily manipulated.
View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com
Failed Conservative Values: All about Greed
I interviewed people around the Democracy for America booth at the California Democratic Party Convention in San Jose. I asked people how have conservative values failed? It surprised me how many responded that the conservative value of greed was the biggest failure. Here are some of the comments.
View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com
Failed Conservative Values: Jim Dean on Corruption
I interviewed Jim Dean, Chair of Democracy for America (DFA) at the Democratic Party Convention in San Jose, California. I asked Jim how conservative values have failed. He says current conservativism is like a despotic dictator and is about corruption, power and the rewarding of friends.
View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com
Failed Conservative Values: Norman Solomon on Dog Eat Dog Greed
I interviewed Norman Solomon at the 2008 Democratic Party Convention in San Jose, California. Norman is a columnist and his book "War Made Easy" was recently made into a movie. He talked about how he sees 'dog eat dog greed' as a Failed Conservative Value.
View @: DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com
Failed Conservative Values: Jeeni Criscenzo on Scapegoating
I interviewed Jeeni Criscenzo in Sacramento, California. Jeeni brought up the prevalent use of scapegoating by conservatives. I find it curios how a Conservative Movement that preaches individual responsibility is so adept at finding scapegoats and not taking true responsibility. I think it has to do with the type of responsibility they preach. It is not the unqualified progressive sense of responsibility, where you feel responsible for yourself and the society around you, but rather conservatives always talk about a qualified 'individual responsibility' which actually is really no longer true responsibility, but rather a value of selfish self-centeredness. It's like taking the value of love or caring and saying we're for 'individual love' or 'individual caring'. The values lose their meaning and are turned into nothing but the Failed Conservative Value of individual selfishness and greed.
View @: DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com
Failed Conservative Values: Barack Obama on the Status Quo v Change
In his Pennsylvania primary speech, Barack Obama talked about change and how the Status Quo resists change. As I interview people about what are Progressive Values and about how Conservative Values have Failed, the interviewees repeatedly talk about the conservative fear of change and the promotion of the status quo. We start off with this exploration of the Failed Conservative Value of the Status Quo with Barack Obama's speech on change versus the status quo.
View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com - Groups.yahoo
Progressive Values Stories: Brianna Leavitt on Taking Back Family Values - Justice & Responsibility
I interviewed Brianna Leavitt at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley. She feels conservatives have taken over the term Values and Family Values, but she doesn't want to just give up the words to them. She goes on to talk about the Progressive Values she learned in her family. Her mother always reached out to the poor and homeless. Brianna was taught empathy, justice and responsibility by her parents and grandmother. These are in opposition to the Failed Conservative Family Values that exclude people.
View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com - Groups.yahoo.com
Progressive Values Stories: Peter Harvey on Community versus Intolerance
I interviewed Peter Harvey at a Oakland, California Democracy for America meeting. Peter passionately talked about the progressive value of community and shared an early memory of the community reaching out to him. However, he thinks that conservatives have completely missed the mark of religious teachings by going off into intolerance.
View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.comFailed Conservative Values: Violence and Brutality
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This article is a rather harsh critique of deeper Failed Conservative Values. In interviews, Richard Wagner told me he thinks thuggery is a failed conservative value and Herman Blackmon mentioned the lynch mob. I didn't think that either the lynch mob or thuggery were actually values. They seem more like manifestations of a value or perhaps of multiple values.
View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com - Groups.yahoo
Failed Conservative Values: Barbara, Carole, Nina on Dogmatism
I'm starting a new series of articles on how Conservative Values have Failed. It's obvious that conservative ideas and policies have failed, but the failures go even deeper to the very heart and essence of the conservative movement, to their Failed Conservative Values. In this series, we will pull back the mask of Conservative Family Values, Conservative Traditional Values, individual freedom, individual responsibility, individual liberty, Compassionate Conservativism, etc. to reveal the underlying Failed Conservative Values of fear, authoritarianism, secrecy, dogmatism, greed, indifference, self-righteousness, arrogance, hypocrisy, etc.
View @:DemocracyforAmerica.com - Opednews.com - Dailykos.com - Groups.yahooAnd There are more stories to come:
James Dobson at Wikipedia,
James Dobson is an American evangelical Christian and chairman of the board of Focus on the Family, a nonprofit organization he founded in 1977.... As part of his role in the organization, he produces the daily radio program Focus on the Family, which is broadcast in more than a dozen languages and on over 7,000 stations worldwide, and heard daily by more than 220 million people in 164 countries, according to Focus on the Family's own statements. ..... He is an evangelical Christian with conservative views on theology and politics. He was recently named "The Most Influential Evangelical Leader in America" by Christianity Today magazine, and Slate has termed him the successor to evangelical leaders Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.
Some Questions for Discussion:
How have conservative values failed?
Ask your friends, what do they say?
Failed Conservative Values
Assist us in systematically building the arguments and telling the stories that reveal how Conservative Values have Failed. Join in our effort to create a documentary and book on the subject by contributing articles, posts, chapters for the book and video clips. Check our website for more information and a growing outline of tasks that need to be done on this project.
See more Progressive Values Stories:
Edwin Rutsch
What Are Progressive Values? Documentary Project
ProgressiveSpirit.com
and Study Group
Cross Posted To:
democracyforamerica.com
