Chamblee54

The dialog on bloggingheads today is between Charles Johnson and Conn Carroll. Mr. Johnson is Mr. “Little Green Footballs“, who recently had a post on why he is leaving the “right wing“. Mr. Carroll is connected to the Heritage Foundation, which is a conservative thingamajig. Mr. Carroll is fond of saying “fair enough”.
One of the tipping points in the past for Mr. Johnson was the memos in 2004 regarding the service of George Bush in the Alabama Air National Guard. When the memos came out, Mr. Johnson saw them, and immediately realized that they were fake. Dan Rather was fired, and George Bush won the election.
PG was puzzled by this controversy. Mr. Bush had served in the Air National Guard rather than go to Vietnam. His opponent, John Kerry, served in Vietnam. There was controversy about Mr. Kerry’s service. Nonetheless, no documents, real or faked, changed the basic facts…John Kerry went to Vietnam, and George Bush did not. People who are under 40 and reading this might not realize why this is an issue, but it is.
One of the issues that LGF has changed sides on is climate change. At first, LGF had doubts, but began to read a few reports, and changed his mind. Mr. Johnson made a connection between those who would deny the reality of climate change, and those who support the teaching of “creationism”. It seems as both sides make their judgment first, and then look for evidence to support their opinion. There was a controversy recently regarding climate change and doctored statistics, which was not mentioned in this discussion. PG suspects there is a comparison between “climategate” and the forged Bush memo.
The debate goes on for nearly an hour, until Mr. Carroll gets a call from his wife at the pediatrician. As the discussion goes on, Mr. Carroll says “fair enough” less, and plays rhetorical games more. A discussion about abortion morphed into one about doctor assisted suicide. Mr. Johnson is a cool debater, and does not fall for the gimmicks trotted out by Mr. Carroll.
PG has never been a conservative. The first time he heard the expression, a conservative was someone who was opposed to civil rights legislation. To PG, the terms liberal and conservative are meaningless labels, intended to divide and confuse. The so called conservatives were calling for smaller government, while supporting an expensive war on drugs… it just didn’t add up. When the small government crowd was calling on maintaining an army of 250k in two wars, eight time zones away, it got plain silly. Unlike Charles Johnson…actually a great deal like Mr. Johnson…PG was never a part of a “movement”. You can’t quit something you never joined.