No End To The Madness

Saurkraut left a good comment for my last post. She mentioned that it is silly to try to regulate TV because cable pretty much made regulation pointless.

Except there IS a point. The neo-consertive movement's wet dream is to control every aspect of all media outlets. There was serious talk of regulating cable television after the super boob incident. Really - there was. There was enough talk that cable and satellite television companies spent millions on ads reminding people that their TV has a "v-chip" that parents can use to block questionable content. Cable companies and TV satellite providers even went one step further, adding another set of v-chips to their equipment - in effect placing TWO condoms over your television.

And when satellite radio started to gain popularity - the focus jumped over to that media. Regular radio stations complained that it was unfair to regulate them and not XM or Sirius. The holy rolling wing of the neo-consertive movement (the core of the group by the way) tried to float the idea that the satellite stuff needed regulation as well.

You know, for my protection. I might not know that I want my music censored for my protection. The FCC should be able to step in and tell me what is good for my ears as a matter of public health.

The reason you do not hear anything about this now is because the public laughed at the idea. It was not very popular, except among those few individuals who would only like nothing but religous programming on the tv and radio. The idea FAILED. So they sat down and shut up. But they were not happy.

In Carter's new book, which I still have to read (I am lazy) he points out something that I already knew.

With the neo-consertive movement, there is NO GREY AREA. None. Everything is either right or wrong. In their world, everything is one of two colors - white or black. I will use the most famous of the neo-cons statements to illustrate this.

"You are either with us, or against us". Translated into english, this means that you are either in lock step with EVERYTHING we say or do or else you are the enemy. Do not disagree. Do not try to debate. Do not ask any questions. Do not think. Do not form your own opinions. We are ALWAYS right, and to not agree with this means YOU are always wrong. Black and white. No middle ground.

And I can take this beyond the war on terror as well. Take ANY issue. The neo-cons will have an absolute answer for it. Anyone who disagrees is simply wrong, they do not get it, or they are whiny liberals who hate America. Moderates are painted as wishy-washy spineless people who can never make a firm decision about issues.

Lets just look at the supreme court nominations. Did Bush even try to pick a person that would not polarize congress? Nope. He did the opposite. He picked people he KNEW would polarize congress, because he also knew he had the votes is everyone went down party lines.

As opposed to just picking a consertive judge who was more moderate and might gain some democrat votes. And of course he is going to pick a more consertive judge than a liberal judge - nobody in their right mind would expect otherwise. But to do this would also admit that the color grey is real, and this can just not happen.

Think for yourself for a bit. Can you come up with any issue where the neo-consertives admit that there might possibly be two sides to, and that it might be that neither side is totally correct? I can't. To them, any debate is pointless because they are right - end of story.

Now these are NOT traditional conservitive values by any means. Far from it. These are extreme right wing values and ideas. These are also very dangerous ideas, for in a free society there should be a lot of debate. In a free society very few - IF ANY - issues should be black or white.

But not now. Compromise is played off as being bad. Terrible. Horrible. How dare congress try to not do everything the president says!

A lot more than foul language on cable TV and satellite radio is at stake here. Really, I could care less about potty words on Sirius radio - I subscribed for the lack of commercials, not to hear words I already know.

There truly is no end to the madness, and it will not get better until mainstream moderate republicans take back their party by sheer force. The democrats also need to take their party back by force, and make it more towards the middle of the road - and this is happening to some point. Not fast enough for my taste, but at least the party is moving to the middle. The republicans, as I see it, are not moving anywhere.