Fragment of a Socratic dialogue between Republicanus and Amicus Candidus, after some recent events

[fpb]

REPUBLICANUS: But that is not my main objection to Liberalism, as it is in our country now.
AMICUS CANDIDUS: What do you mean?
REPUBLICANUS: The thing I hate most is their groupthink, and the way they enforce it on anyone. They all say the same things. There is no individuality. And they police each other. Any time anyone breaks ranks on any issue, they do not argue with him: they shout him down, attack his motives and his personality, slander him, treat him as if he were less than human.
AMICUS CANDIDUS: Well, if that is the case, that is dreadful.
REPUBLICANUS: That is how a lot of us became Republicans. As one of us said, it was not I who left the Democratic Party, it was the Democratic Party who left me.
AMICUS CANDIDUS: So you think the left are naturally persecution-minded?
REPUBLICANUS: Oh, well, I don't suppose that each one of them is, individually. But they are so indoctrinated. You start talking with one, and the first thing you have to do is break through the barrier of commonplace accusations - try and make that person understand that you are not actually out to shut him in a camp or make him wear an iron gag or whatever.
AMICUS CANDIDUS: They are indoctrinated. You aren't?
REPUBLICANUS: I do not think that we treat dissent among us the way they do.
AMICUS CANDIDUS: So, if you found that a man who disagrees with many of you, who likes to strike an independent path - is widely hated, and is said to be no better than any opponent, and people write foaming articles denouncing him as a traitor and a liar, and hideous rumours are circulated about him below the screen of national debate, on the Net, denying even his services to his country, and maintaining that he was a traitor in the pay of the Soviets - ?
REPUBLICANUS: That sounds absolutely appalling. I don't think any of us would do that to anyone.
AMICUS CANDIDUS: What about Senator John McCain?
REPUBLICANUS: [*Turns his back, looks away, starts whistling*]

Comments

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Please don't shoot the messenger. It's not I, but dozens of conservative columnists and radio hosts - beginning with that sterling spirit Rush Limbaugh - who are piling on John McCain in a rugger scrum. Ann Coulter went as far as to say that Hillary was less liberal than McCain. I never said that she had mentioned the traitor rumours, but that, as far as I am concerned, is more than disgusting enough. I am not a conservative myself, not in the American meaning of the term, and my main interest in the election is in the increasing likelihood that Wade vs.Roe might be reversed - a decision that would sound like thunder through the world, if it happened. If it turns out that fanatical conservatives in America have let through a Dem candidate who would indubitably return SCOTUS to its ultra-liberal past, I will personally feel like hanging Limbaugh, Coulter and all their legions with piano wire.

[mrmandias.livejournal.com]

"More of the same" is your phrase, not mine. The opposition of the Limbaughs might be as bad as you say but its nowhere in the same category as the manchurian candidate smear.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I did not mean to say that it was "the same" as the Manchurian smear. I meant it was "the same" as her previous and already inexcusable statement that McCain was more liberal than Hillary.

[mrmandias.livejournal.com]

Comprendo.