Misnamed?

[LoveLife&Laughter]

History is filled with the wreckage caused by radicals on both the left and right. Radical revolutions swallow themselves and cause great collateral damage to the institutions and people caught in the crossfire.

A new and dangerous convention, people who are radical in their goals and methods are routinely mislabeled 'conservative.'

• Ted Nugent is described as a 'conservative' in pieces reporting that he believes President Obama to be a "subhuman mongrel" who leads a "Nazi" administration.

• Edmund Burke, the patron saint of real conservatism, must be spinning in his grave when Sarah Palin is called 'conservative.' This is the lady who relishes in going rogue and did a Madame Defarge by putting a bullseye on Gabby Gifford.

• The Tea Party is 'conservative' even when it is closing down the government and recklessly bringing the U.S. to the very brink of economic default. 'Tea Party' and 'Conservative' are in fact a contradiction of terms -- the 'Tea Party' recalls a moment of revolutionary defiance, not of conservative negotiation and cooperation.

• The governor of Texas threatens to secede from the United States and also to destroy our traditional barrier between church and state, but is nonetheless referred to as a conservative.

It goes on and on ...pick up any newspaper and you'll find numerous similar examples.

How is this relabeling dangerous? The media have carelessly allowed radicals to disguise their radicalism. The words 'conservative' and 'radical' carry powerful psychological connotations and important political implications. Their misuse has important consequences. Real conservatives are always alarmed by dramatic breaks with traditions or leaps into the unknown. Change is necessary and inevitable, but must be done carefully and with respect for the precedents of the past and the risks of the future.

A radical is a person who advocates thorough or complete political or social reform; representing or supporting an extreme section of a political party. Synonyms: revolutionary, revisionist, Antonyms: reactionary, moderate, conservative.

Radical connotes disruptive, dangerous, and impatient with the status quo. Radicals are willing to break dramatically with past and gamble the house on their ideology and/or their self-interest.
By these definitions, Ted Nugent, Sarah Palin, David Koch, Charles Koch, Rick Perry, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Newt Gingrich are all reckless radicals. Mislabeling them as conservative legitimizes their recklessness and creates the misleading psychological mindset that they are trying to preserve, protect, and honor American traditions.

Isn't Barack Obama is a classic conservative in temperament and policy, with just some minimalist progressive leanings?

[Ioruach]

We do seem to fling about labels with reckless abandon don’t we. But it is so much easier than  using appropriate, descriptive language. For that you’ve actually got to think.  Just reach into that pigeon hole and pull out the usual, commonly used noun. It’s so easy.



[exedir]

It is a state of the nation...and that nation likes labels...it is so much easier...

Now, as to nutritional labeling...hey, they are hard enough to read...much less make any sense out of.