Review of 'The Authoritarians'

[alohawolf]

Link to The Authoritarians (a free eBook) or Amazon.com The Authoritarians

I stumbled on to this book on the recommendation of a friend, I read it and was impressed with the conclusions it draws, In my lifetime I have seen a dramatic shift toward the right in the Republican party, the GOP is no longer a big tent, at best its several smaller tents with connected awnings, with no room left for people like me, whom are social liberals, but at times fiscally conservative.

In reading this book, I was able to recognize traits of RWA's in people around me. For example, I know several people who suffer from the extreme compartmentalization a Mormon scientist, who can both hold the semi creationist doctrine of the LDS Church and work on study of the solar system, this contradiction alone make my head want to explode.

I also have several friends, who while being actively gay, are also Neoconservatives and see no issue with their personal needs for equal rights, and the party's call for in some cases recriminalization of homosexuality.

I believe that in the end RWA's are not bad or evil, but their recent prevalence does explain the extreme lack of elasticity in politics in the Unites States over the last decade and some of the seemingly contrary positions held by the Republican party on whole.

(if you think anyone mentioned in this entry is you, your wrong, both people mentioned are composites of several people)

Comments

[heavens-steed.livejournal.com]

I don't see how the Republican party has changed much since the days of President Reagan, and that constitutes my entire lifetime. The one thing that we do share agreement on is that the GOP needs to improve on being a big tent party. I am particularly frustrated by the rejection of gay conservatives and Republicans by the mainstream establishment. I also think that the GOP needs to do a better job appealing to racial minorities. The Republican party will not survive as an 'all white party', though the main reason why minorities lean so strongly to the Democratic party and liberalism is because of cognitive dissonance, brainwashing, and slavery to welfare. Conservatives need to do better at breaking those chains.

I also have several friends, who while being actively gay, are also Neoconservatives and see no issue with their personal needs for equal rights, and the party's call for in some cases recriminalization of homosexuality.

I have seen no such calls from the mainstream Republican party to recriminalize homosexuality. I know that there are fringe, ultra-conservative Christians that would like sodomy laws enacted again, but I do not believe they make up a significant force in the conservative movement. Sodomy laws certainly are not a priority issue among the Republican party. I don't know of any of the Republican candidates running for president who have called for reviving sodomy laws.

As for 'equal rights', that could mean anything. I assume that you are referring to the issue of marriage. I don't understand why we need state sanctioned gay marriage. If I found another man that I wanted to commit myself to for the rest of my life, I would be perfectly fine with a civil union which affords nearly all the same legal protections as marriage. I don't need the state defined title of 'marriage' to validate my relationship. So if by 'equal rights' you are referring to legal rights, I agree. But I do not agree that government or society needs to adopt the idea that gay marriage and traditional marriage are entirely equal and the same in every way when they clearly are not.

[alohawolf.livejournal.com]

I can't see how the Texas Republican Party is NOT mainstream.

http://www.texasgop.org/about-the-party (which links to..)

http://s3.amazonaws.com/texasgop_pre/assets/original/2010RPTFinalPlatform.pdf

How is Gay Marriage and Traditional Marriage unequal?

(Though I agree, I dont need or even want state blessings, I do however want financial advantages offered to married folk)

[broduke2000.livejournal.com]

Why we need Gay Marriage:

1) So, when I'm watching Wheel Of Fortune, and Pat Sajack asks the winning contestant who's out in the audience to cheer him on, instead of replying "my long term friend," he can say "the love of my life" or "my husband."

2) So when the gay guy wins, and his audience members run onstage to celebrate, he can kiss the winner, like the Heterosexual couples do.

[broduke2000.livejournal.com]

Gee that can be taken two ways. That should say: ...asks the winning contestant: "Who did you bring to cheer you on?"

Duuh!

[berin.livejournal.com]

Good points. But I'd say that

1: Fuck being PC. Call your Husband your Husband. Don't be defiant. Just say, cutely, "Oh... I brought my spouse. Stand up, Phil!"

2: You should do this, too. Don't make a show of it and let the censors handle the fallout.

Just my thoughts. The only way to get acceptance is to make what you're after so totally boring that no one looks twice. What "the straights" are really afraid of is that you're going to have partner-swapping parties and big old-fashioned orgies. It's jealousy writ another way.

To be a really "radical" gay couple, adopt a bunch of kids and dote on them. Raise them in a solid home and make them do well in school. That'll really piss off the neighbors.