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Failed Conservative Values: Congresswoman Maxine Waters on Blame, Hate & Lying
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Men are conservatives when they are least vigorous, or when they are most luxurious. They are conservatives after dinner." Ralph Waldo Emerson
I interviewed Congresswoman Maxine Waters and asked her about progressive and conservative values. In this section, Maxine mentions that conservatives have tricked people with the failed conservative values of blame, hate and lying. These values are also failing because more people are not following them anymore and in fact, people are starting to turn toward progressives values. She goes on to talk about how the occupation of Iraq is a metaphor for the failure of conservative values.
Failed Conservative Values: Congresswoman Maxine Waters on Blame, Hate & Lying
Edwin: Do you think that conservative values have failed?
Maxine Waters: I think that conservative values have failed. But I’m always stunned and amazed at how the conservative message penetrates our society, and how people are tricked by it. I think poor people are preyed upon, and I think that vulnerable people are preyed upon.
I think that when people are feeling neglected and they are feeling isolated, they hear some of these conservative messages, they buy into them. Because all of a sudden they’ve got somebody to blame, to hate, they’ve got somebody to point a finger at.
But I think they’ve failed, even though we’ve been very worried about conservative radio, and those conservative talking heads like Rush Limbaugh and others, who feed people this stuff on a daily basis. It seems to me that as long they’ve been working at it, if they’d been successful, they’d have more people. But I see things going in the opposite direction.
I see the Democratic Party is becoming more progressive. I hear people using the word more. The Democratic Party is growing more, and that’s really an indication that the conservative messages are indeed failing.
Edwin: If you created a metaphor for the failed conservative values, what would that be?
Maxine Waters: A metaphor for the failed conservative values would be like the telling of the truth and the revelations about the lies that were told about the war in Iraq. How after 911 we were made to believe that there were weapons of mass destruction that were turned on us, that we were in imminent danger, and that Saddam Hussein was this horrible man who had control of them, and that we had to kill them, and we had to have his shock and awe campaign, and we had to basically annihilate Iraq and these people.
And as time has passed, the lies have been revealed. The pictures that Colin Powell showed from the UN of the buildings where the weapons of mass destruction were being manufactured all of a sudden, when none existed – they were empty buildings. The lies about the weapons have unfolded only to find that Saddam Hussein was nothing but a talking head himself. He didn’t have weapons of mass destructions. That he was basically a toothless tiger. And even after he was dead, that he was killed, and no weapons were found.
All of this biological warfare that he was supposed to have been in possession of have been found, and if we had but taken more time to do the inspections, as we were being told we needed to do by the UN, we would have learned that in addition to that, the greatest failure of this war is the veterans – the young men and women who are returning, who are disenchanted, who are just very, very turned off, and who are telling us more and more every day that this is a war that should not have been.
They have been asked to do things that they don’t feel good about. And the growing attempts of suicide by those in the war by those who are very, very upset and disoriented by what they have been asked to do.
Edwin:: You are saying the war in Iraq is a metaphor for failed conservative values?
Maxine Waters: Absolutely, I think it is a metaphor. The conservatives would have you believe, as John McCain is attempting to have us believe, that we need but stay there, that somehow we will win this war.
What is win? I don’t quite get what you mean. You mean we’ll kill all the people? We will control all of the oil? What is win?
We are occupying Iraq. We have basically torn up this country. We have destabilized the entire Middle East. We have more people that are angry with us. We are disrespected in the world because of this. And so it is a failure. And it is a metaphor for the failure of the conservative philosophy and agenda, in my estimation.
(In a future article, Maxine talks about the progressive value of respect.)
Some Questions for Discussion:
How else have conservative values failed?
In what other ways have conservatives expressed their values of Blame, Hate & Lying?
What are the progressive alternatives to Blame, Hate & Lying?
Failed Conservative Values
Assist us in systematically building the arguments and telling the stories that reveal how Conservative Values have Failed. Join in our effort to create a documentary and book on the subject by contributing articles, posts, chapters for the book and video clips. Check our website for more information and a growing outline of tasks that need to be done on this project.
See more related Progressive Values Stories:
Failed Conservative Values: Jeeni Criscenzo on Scapegoating (blame)
Failed Conservative Values: Violence and Brutality (hate)
Failed Conservative Values: Arianna Huffington on Family Values Hypocrisy (lying)
Edwin Rutsch
What Are Progressive Values? Documentary Project
ProgressiveSpirit.com
and Study Group
Poll: Is Congresswoman Maxine Waters correct that conservatives value Blame, Hate & Lying?
( ) Only value blame and scapegoating. (please explain your choices)
( ) Only value hate.
( ) Only value lying.
( ) All of the above.
( ) All of the above and I agree these values have failed.
( ) No, they don't value Blame, Hate or Lying.
( ) No, they don't value Blame, Hate or Lying but rather value Responsibility, Love and Honesty.
( ) I don't know.
- I've never thought as blame, hate and lying as having any value.
By Susan Rowe on Jul 2, 2008 12:58 AM EDTUsing word the value implies a code of ethical and moral characteristics. There is nothing moral or ethical about blame, hate or lying.
So in truth there is nothing moral and ethical within moral and ethical code of the Republican Party.
It's like all their political rhetoric is destined to be a divine joke on themselves. Sort of like how religious dogma was designed to enslave it's own believers. The Republican party must be full of fear based doomsday predictors.
Barack Obama may recruit defence chief Robert Gates
Sarah Baxter / London Times | June 29, 2008
FLASHBACK: One of Obama’s chief advisers, Zbigniew Brzezinski, co-chaired a CFR report with Robert Gates shortly before Gates was appointed Defense Secretary entitled “Iran: Time for a New Approach.” [PDF]
In defiance of traditional party labels, Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, may ask the defence secretary of President George W Bush to stay on if he wins the White House.
Obama’s top foreign policy and national security advisers are pressing the case for keeping Robert Gates at the Pentagon after he won widespread praise for his performance. The move would be in keeping with Obama’s desire to appoint a cabinet of all the talents.
After appealing for unity with former rival Hillary Clinton and her supporters and big donors last week, Obama, 46, is turning his attention to wooing Republicans and independent voters who may be concerned that he lacks the experience to be trusted with America’s defence.
Another nail in the coffin of "Change"
Well, if he wants a little continuity at Defence...and, after listening and considering his options...
I DON"T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH IT !
BTW i ain'a ideological {(thank g@d)(if there is one)}.
- After appealing for unity with former rival Hillary Clinton and her supporters and big donors last week, Obama, 46, is turning his attention to wooing Republicans and independent voters who may be concerned that he lacks the experience to be trusted with
By Imn2Paine on Jul 1, 2008 7:16 PM EDTThank you, Dan. I can't say that I know how you think about the portion you posted, but I sense you think Barack may/could make a good start at Defense by allowing continuity ... or other unknown...
intrigue
...
Gates has been a grown up in an administration of spoiled brat frat boys.
It would be a strong message to the Brass that a thoughtful, experienced civilian remained in charge. Remember that Gates has called for more resources for"soft power" exercises dedicated to the battle for "hearts and minds" in the regions of the world where American interests are at stake.
The cautionary aspect is that the next Democratic President must rigorously, early and often, exercise his or her role as Commander in Chief when dealing with the US Armed Forces. There cannot be a repeat of Clintonian negotiation with the Command to carry out missions such as special forces in Afghanistan to kill or capture Osama Bin Laden during the Clinton administration which the military leadership declined to carry out.
The prospective arrangement might work, it would depend on Gates' willingness to stay on and his recognition and consistent direction to the chain of command of who the CiC is.
Both United Airlines and American Airlines have announced specifics in their plans to reduce capacity in the fourth quarter.
Chicago-based United Airlines, which intends to cut its domestic capacity by 14 percent, said it will halt operations entirely at two Florida airports-Palm Beach International Airport (PBIA) and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL)-and consolidate South Florida flying out of Miami International Airport (MIA). Presently, United operates four daily flights at FLL and one at PBIA; it currently operates five daily flights within South Florida out of MIA.
Meanwhile, Dallas-based American Airlines, which intends to cut domestic capacity by 11 to 12 percent, and regional affiliate capacity by 10 to 11 percent, said it will eliminate more than 100 flights nationwide. In particular, it will eliminate 19 American Airlines flights out of Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) and 23 American Eagle flights, 28 American flights out of Chicago O'Hare (ORD) and 34 American Eagle flights, eight American flights out of Lambert-St. Louis (STL) and 35 American Eagle and American Connection flights.
In addition, the airline will completely pull out of select markets. It will discontinue American flights out of Oakland, Calif.; London and Barranquilla, Colombia; as well as American Eagle flights out of Albany, N.Y.; Providence, R.I.; Harrisburg, Pa.; Samana, Dominican Republic, and San Luis Obispo, Calif.
http://www.mpiweb.org/cms/mpiweb/blog/commonblog.aspx?viewblog=1249&groupblog=2
You area good driver Denise! I'm hitching another ride
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/23/AR2008052302456_2.html
Fixing the U.S. passenger railroad system is probably the one project we could undertake right away that would have the greatest impact on the country's oil consumption. The fact that we're not talking about it -- especially in the presidential campaign -- shows how confused we are. The airline industry is disintegrating under the enormous pressure of fuel costs. Airlines cannot fire any more employees and have already offloaded their pension obligations and outsourced their repairs. At least five small airlines have filed for bankruptcy protection in the past two months. If we don't get the passenger trains running again, Americans will be going nowhere five years from now.
I brought this subject up at lunch today. I said that I would absolutely take a bullet train from SF to LA. I'm not sure how feasible it would be to be able to build a system to go to somewhere like Seattle or Portland - or even Vegas. I'd take it for sure.
My lunch partners weren't thrilled with that idea (spoiled Cali girls) but it's starting to look really grim. For United to no longer fly into Ft. Lauderdale will affect many people. No biggie to cab it from Miami but that's quite a fee. Car rental might be the way to go, or again, a high speed train to connect these destinations that are starting to lose service.
More video and web conferencing on the horizon. Investment opportunity :)
I agree too. Flying is certainly not fast any more when you take into consideration they want you there two hours ahead and many of us don't live in a main city so we have to drive there. The train is actually fun to ride -- they would have to improve the cars, etc and of course the infrastructure.
Many years ago a fellow named Alan Toffler wrote a book called Future Shock, which we all bought and some read. I think it was about how the future was coming at us at an exponential rate that we couldn't possibly comprehend it altho I really don't remember and may not have read it. Anyway, some years later he wrote another book the name of which I don't remember. But the main premise was that we would end up being 'cottage people' that it would be sort of back to the future, where we would grow our own food, get resources locally, work from home, find our social lives at home. Funny, but that seems to be coming true with the energy crisis, money devaluation, rise of the Internet.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/We--the-Salt-of-the-Earth--by-Paul-Craig-Roberts-080701-528.html
Which country is the rogue nation? Iraq? Iran? Or the United States? Syndicated columnist Charley Reese asks this question in a recently published article.
This slaughtering of foreigners doesn’t seem to bother the American public. Americans take it for granted that Americans are superior and that American purposes, whatever they be, take precedence over the rights of other people to life and to a political existence independent of American hegemony.
The indifference of Americans to others flows from “American exceptionalism,” the belief that Americans are graced with a special mission to impose their virtue on the rest of the world. Like the French revolutionaries, Americans don’t seem to care how many people they kill in the process of spreading their exceptionalism.American exceptionalism has swelled Americans’ heads, filling them with hubris and self-righteousness and making Americans believe that they are the salt of the earth.
Three recent books are good antidotes for this unjustified self-esteem. One is Patrick J. Buchanan’s Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War. Another is After the Reich: The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation by Giles MacDonogh, and a third is John Pilger’s Freedom Next Time.
The hypocrisy of the Nuremberg trials is that the victors were also guilty of crimes for which the vanquished were punished. The purpose of the trials was to demonize the defeated in order to divert attention from the allies’ own war crimes. The trials had little to do with justice.
Several million Palestinians are in Israel’s way. Pilger’s documented account of Israel’s crushing of the Palestinians shows that our “democratic ally” in the Middle East is capable of any evil and has no remorse or mercy. Israel is an apt student of the British and American empires’ attitudes toward lesser beings. They simply don’t count.
What's happening is that American society is sliding into a greater depression than the one Grandma lived through. On the technical side, there has been unending controversy as to whether we're gripped by inflation or deflation. It's certainly deceptive. Food and gasoline prices are rising faster than the rivers of Iowa. But the prices of assets, like houses, stocks, jet-skis, GMC Yukons and pre-owned Hummel figurines are cratering as America turns into Yard Sale Nation.
We're a very different country than we were in 1932. In that earlier crisis of capital, few people had any money but our society still possessed fantastic resources. We had plenty of everything that our land could provide: a treasure trove of mineral ores and the equipment to refine it all, a wealth of oil and gas still in the ground, and all the rigs needed to get at it, manpower galore (and of a highly disciplined, regimented kind), with fine-tuned factories waiting for orders. We had a railroad system that was the envy of the world and millions of family farms (even despite the dust bowl) owned by people who retained age-old skills not yet degraded by agribusiness. We had fully-functional cities with operating waterfronts and ten thousand small towns with local economies, local newspapers, and local culture.
she's great... I have another section for a later post where she talks about the progressive value of respect and tells personal stories of growing up and having to confront disrespect.
Is Congresswoman Maxine Waters correct that conservatives value Blame, Hate & Lying?
( ) Only value blame and scapegoating. (please explain your choices)
( ) Only value hate.
( ) Only value lying.
( ) All of the above.
( ) All of the above and I agree these values have failed.
( ) No, they don't value Blame, Hate or Lying.
( ) No, they don't value Blame, Hate or Lying but rather value Responsibility, Love and Honesty.
( ) I don't know.
- To be fair, I know progressives that hate, blame and lie so me taking this poll would be hypocritical, JMO
By on Jul 1, 2008 7:17 PM EDTHumans tend to do these things, no matter what their political persuasion. Why they do it is immaterial - it's never a good outcome.
for a trucking/distribution company, which I some time think is trying to exterminate Union gals/guys(LOL) like me with carbon monoxide poison ;-) LOL I suck! ...(on the end of a tail pipe).
I used to say to my fellow (hourly) employees...
"We are a dime a dozen"
Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast
_____________________________
Go Barack, beat 'Cain.
Buffalo Springfield - Expecting to Fly
Stand Or Fall
Crying parents tell their children
If you survive don't do as we did
A son exclaims there'll be nothing to do to
Her daughter says she'll be dead with you
While foreign affairs are screwing us rotten
Line morale has hit rock bottom
Dying embers stand forgotten
Talks of peace were being trodden
Stand or fall state your peace tonight
Stand or fall state your peace tonight
Is this the value of our existence
Should we proclaim with such persistence
Our destiny relies on conscience
Red or blue what's the difference
Stand or fall state your peace tonight
Stand or fall state your peace tonight
An empty face reflects extinction
Ugly scars divide the nation
Desecrate the population
There will be no exaltation
Its the euro theatre
Its the euro theatre
Its the euro theatre
Stand or fall state your peace tonight
Stand or fall state your peace tonight
Written by Carlton Barrett, Cy Curnin, Rupert Greenall, and Jamie West-Oram 1982
I almost went to the Cubs/Giants game again but thought the comfort of my living room tonight might be best. Having one of those "winter" summers here - gets quite chilly at AT&T. Going tomorrow night and Thursday.
Did you catch my post about the Museum of Science in Boston and their baseball exhibit? Lots of stuff on loan from Cooperstown - incredible things for the baseball buff.
If you can get to it, there's a watercooler now, right down there on the bottom of the sidebar, down there below Blog for America. No, below Recommended Blogs Posts. No, lower, below Recent Blog Posts.
No, screw it, it's gone. Evidently Tim is playing around.
No, it's back.
- I met Maxine Waters when she was in Iowa way back in the eighties stumping for Jesse Jackson and she was the same then she never quits fighting
By Phil Specht on Jul 1, 2008 8:30 PM EDTyou don't have to change your values just because you enter politics
and she and I shared many values then and do now
the Republican party recruits on bigotry intolerance and hate and to the extent they have won the White House the last two cycles I hesitate to call it a failure
thanks again Edwin
remarking at DFAFEST 3 in San Diego that I was't way thrilled
with the Rep...
...but. I was mistaken.
I had a good time talking with her.. She's very direct and says it like she sees it.
hope to see some of you at Netroots..
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- my vote ( x ) : All of the above and I agree these values have failed.
By Edwin Rutsch on Jul 1, 2008 1:49 PM EDTIs Congresswoman Maxine Waters correct that conservatives value Blame, Hate & Lying?
( ) Only value blame and scapegoating. (please explain your choices)
( ) Only value hate.
( ) Only value lying.
( ) All of the above.
( x ) All of the above and I agree these values have failed.
( ) No, they don't value Blame, Hate or Lying.
( ) No, they don't value Blame, Hate or Lying but rather value Responsibility, Love and Honesty.
My take is that all conservatives do not hold these values, but when they don't stand up to them when they are expressed by Fox, Bush, Limbaugh, etc. etc, etc, and do not condemn these failed values, then they become conservative values by default.
The failure is obvious with the economic, social and military mess the county is in, as a result of these values.