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jesus christ....
i am going to put aside for the moment my suspicion that you are simply being obtuse and explain this once more.
if you read the post from earlier, the argument is that the central organizing feature of conservative politics DOUBLES that of racism.
it is about creating this category of the Other--that which is outside--it does not matter which one, really: "secular humanist"--"liberal"--"terrorist"--because the point of the move is not an accurate characterization of what is outside but a generation and reinforcement of a sense of who "we" are: conservative folk, the real americans--through the defining of an outside.
from there follows the definition of a mode of conflict---They want to ruin what matters to Us, the Real America, stabbed in the back by the fifth column blah blah blah you know the routine from here, powerclown--and so because the desire to destory is imputed to the Outside, anything and everything is justified in response.
ideologically speaking, it seems that conservatives---like evangelicals----see something that confirms their beleifs in the suspicion that they are being persecuted.
they imagine that they are nice folk who react in defense--and in 3-d life this is often the case.
that the threat they react against does not exist outside their heads, or outside the claims articulated for them by their pundits of choice, is irrelevant.
the point:
the type of argument itself, this whole mode of defining who we are by who we are not and everything that follows from it:
that this is the classical form of racist argument.
it is really quite simple.
so when rove was trooped out this past week and issued his obviously fatuous pronouncements about Macho Conservative vs. Touchy Feely Liberals, what mattered about is was not the accuracy of the characterization--which was in fact so stupid as to not be worth commentary--but rather the move itself, which was--as always--to reinforce this sense of Us vs. a Them who wants to Destroy us (how of course is beside the point) and who in turn We are justified in seeking to Destroy.
i do not see what the complexity of this argument resides in: the terms of it are pretty clear.
just to spare myself the tedium of having to address the reverse of what i just wrote:
I AM NOT MAKING AN ARGUMENT ABOUT "CONSERVATIVE RACISM."
SO FAR AS I AM CONCERNED THERE IS NO SUCH ARGUMENT TO BE MADE.
if you don't like the argument, then take it on in a debate: i'd be fine with countering almost anything you could say about it. just don't pretend you dont understand the central claim.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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