NationStates Jolt Archive

Republicans in America have become dangerous idealists. For example, their idealism led them to invade Iraq with too few troops (in spite of the warnings from Gen. Shinseiki) beleiving that once Hussein was gone Jeffersonian democracy would flow like oil from an Iraqi pipeling flooding the region and transforming it. They blindly follow such ideology without regard for facts. Once they claimed to be the rational party of realists, opposed to the idealistic democrats. Now they are idealists as well, only of a much more dangerous stripe. But that's just my opinion.

Strange, I never noticed that. And you're absolutely right.

I would suggest that Republicans on the whole remain somewhat realistic about the world; however if you remember that the current administration has much of its influence from so called "neo-cons" the situation becomes a bit more clear.

Neo-con mentality is actually a form of neo-Liberalism (big "L" liberalism, not left-wing liberalism), mated with conservative stances on social issues. Their integration and subsequent humiliation in the Republican party is one of the most interesting things to happen in the last 8 years.

Its the adrent neo-cons who advocated most strongly for the Iraq war within the conservative thinktanks in the months preceeding it; it was them again who advocated "tourture lite" for prisoners in the War on Terror. It was also the neo-cons who have been virtually silent for the last year now; their embarassment over tourture scandals and Supreme Court decisions has taken the wind from their sails.

Republicans in America have become dangerous idealists. For example, their idealism led them to invade Iraq with too few troops (in spite of the warnings from Gen. Shinseiki) beleiving that once Hussein was gone Jeffersonian democracy would flow like oil from an Iraqi pipeling flooding the region and transforming it. They blindly follow such ideology without regard for facts. Once they claimed to be the rational party of realists, opposed to the idealistic democrats. Now they are idealists as well, only of a much more dangerous stripe. But that's just my opinion.

My opinion is this. Every political party has its strong idealists in every possible direction. The politics that go on inside of parties are rarely known to the public except the ones that go on in our own parties. For instance inside the Constitutional Party they are constantly arguing about how much religion should come into play. The Libertarians have the civil and social types. The Democrats have the greens and the gun owners inside their own party. The Republicans have the most recent deal with stem cell being a disagreement among the party. And so on and on... I think Idealism from any perspective unless that Idealism is for freedom for every American to decide within their own communities seems to be narrow mindedness. That is why I consider myself a realist but not as optimistic as I once was.