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smooth,
i find it hard believe that you were not originally associating bumbling with rural people given the relationship between the first and third sections of text in the post i was referencing. but, given the informality of the discussion and the nature of the medium i will give you the benefit of the doubt.
i suppose i will do the underhanded job of taking your own verbage and twisting it into a rebuttal. we can all agree that the abstract words that appear in our political discourse carry with them lots of association and baggage. just think of the many things words like freedom, working class, patriotism, american and liberty mean to eachother.
your post alluded to the idea that liberals want to take an alternate path (being by nature progressive) and conservatives tend to prefer the status quo. ok, i'll go with that for a little while... but that idea soon runs out of steam.
the term "america" and "anti-americanism" are being used differently by each side of the discussion. one side is using the word primarily in a geographic context (america: the country between canada and mexico) and the other uses the term to invoke a more idealistic definition.
when a conservative describes a liberal as being anti-american... he is using that term to communicate the idea that the liberal in question is not aligning with the principles america stood for in the past. you admit that liberals often desire an alternate path, and that conservatives desire a status quo. so... by using that very same language, we are saying that conservatives promote the continuance of past belief systems (your words) while liberals encourage an alternate path to other belief systems.
if you define america by its past principles, actions, and history (as millions do, whether that be wise or not)... then you are forced to do something anti-american (using the preceding definition) if you choose to adopt something that is unlike the traditional belief system.
so, using the conservative view of what it means to be american... they can be perfectly even-tempered and intellectually honest when they describe a liberal as being anti-american.
there is no demagoguery or hypocrisy involved, simply a radically different view of what being american really is.
i know i haven't touched the sociological issue of the perception of class and how it affects voting on economic issues... but this will have to do for now.
good discusion, best i've had on TFP in a while.
words, semantics... i feel we're nearing a new tower of babyl sometimes.
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If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.
~ Winston Churchill
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