People keep saying this like it's a bad thing.
If ultra-conservatives are marginalized, not so much on TFP but in general, then the center will move right under me and I can stop leaning left so hard. The middle is where I really want to be, but the middle has been drifting towards conservatism since at least Reagan, and I really want it back where it belongs.
Without ultra-conservatives running the Republican party, all of a sudden, elections start being about issues again, and stop being about ideology. That's a good thing. Without so many arch-conservatives clouding the argument with ideology, maybe we get to debate issues without having to have every fact gainsaid, and every debate sidetracked into either minutiae or absurd propositions about the merit of the current administration. Incidentally, having a mass exodus of leftwingers would have a similar effect (not identical, but similar), but I wouldn't stick around to enjoy it.
So to have the most ardently conservative republicans here decide to call it quits, I just can't feel too sad about it.
Quote:
Originally posted by jcookc6
I find it hard to debate a liberal. They think they are always right, ...
So I am here to defend conservatism.
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That malady is not limited to liberals (although what passes for a liberal these days is often just an apalled centrist) I offer the following quote from onetime from earlier in the thread as support for that:
Quote:
Originally posted by onetime2
Anyone who thinks the board is better off without the above mentioned posters is wrong. They bring a certain diversity to the board that it will no longer have.
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Perhaps I am being unfair to onetime here. I read it as a preemptive "you're wrong" with buzzword support (diversity) that I find unconvincing. Losing the fringe of a debate leads to a better debate IMNSHO.
Still, I am rather glad you are both sticking around. By and large, onetime is informative to read, if nearly always at odds with everything I believe to be right and good, and that's a good thing. I haven't read a ton of your posts yet, jcookc6, so next time I run across a thread that interests me and find you there, I will see how you propose to solve the problem under discussion without the removal of our current executive, and, who knows, I might agree with you. Don't bet what you can't afford to lose on that, but I am surely willing to listen.