Jon Stewart did an excellent expose on the brand of Conservatism being practice today. He uses the words of prominent Conservatives to show the inconsistency and un-tenability of their positions.
He first shows Bill O’Reilly, Allen West, Rush Limbaugh, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, & Laura Ingraham attacking the so called government intrusion & tyranny against personal freedom. He then segues into a brewing solution in Idaho, a group that would build a Conservative Mecca with enclosed walls where “Marxists, Socialists, Liberals, and Establishment Republicans” would not want to be a party of. Interesting it seems more like an isolated prison.
In a silly monologue, Glenn Beck detailed the city he would build, a sort of Conservative utopia, Independence, USA. What Jon Stewart is able to do is use Beck’s own description of what he envisions this Conservative mecca to be, as exactly what it is, a city that mimics Marxist ideology with a strict Conservative social code. It is central planning on steroids.
Stewart’s closing statement is both true and prescient:
Beck’s vision for this town tells you a lot about the freedom fetishes who swear at every turn that their opponents attempt to govern democratically are tyrannical assaults on our founding freedoms. But they don’t really believe in freedom, freedom to. They believe in freedom from; freedom from Liberals, freedom from people they disagree with… These folks that cloak themselves in patriotism pretending they alone can reveal the true intent of our constitution are not our founding fathers reincarnate. They are just another f— neighborhood association whose nostalgic utopia will fall apart the minute somebody decides to paint their house mauve.
The deconstruction of today’s brand of Conservatism above is rather funny. The message however is not. This ideology has inflicted material damage not only to America, but to millions around the world. Too many have allowed an ideology filled with inconsistencies and proven destructive tenets to dominate the discourse for too long. This ideology repackaged has brought wars, income and wealth disparity, the inhumane disregards of AIDs in its infancy, the destruction of the environment, and much more. One just need to watch the gun control debate to see how it is always morphed to fit the needs of a select few.
