There are conservative pundits with class

d-ray657 · #1 08-01-2010, 08:58 PM

Kathleen Parker and I have different ideas about the priorities for government - for the most part anyway. She has, however, what might be considered a "liberal" attitude about accepting people for who they are. I enjoyed her column today.

Regards,

D-Ray

finnbow · #2 08-01-2010, 09:03 PM

I like her a lot. She's a far cry from what the current GOP labels as a conservative, however. She was pretty much excommunicated from the fold when she criticized McCain's selection of Palin. She's a very polished writer and justly deserved her Pulitzer last year.

merrylander · #3 08-02-2010, 07:23 AM

She is a 'real' conservative and I will have to catch her show as I will miss her column. I agree with her comment as well, I often wondered about things like 'small town values' or 'the heartland'. I grew up in a small town but I have seen the same concern for others in big cities, so what is the BFD.

d-ray657 · #4 08-02-2010, 07:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by merrylander

She is a 'real' conservative and I will have to catch her show as I will miss her column. I agree with her comment as well, I often wondered about things like 'small town values' or 'the heartland'. I grew up in a small town but I have seen the same concern for others in big cities, so what is the BFD.

The BFD is that "small town values" conjure up images of nice homogeneous neighborhoods, in contrast to the image of urban areas as places with a large concentration of minorities. It's not the small town values that they really champion, but the faces of the small towns that the GOP uses to appeal to its core constituency.

Regards,

D-Ray

noonereal · #5 08-02-2010, 09:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by d-ray657

"small town values" conjure up

"small town values" was something I always respected and brought my children up under.
Then in 2000 Bush started with his "family values" campaign and I was really at odds with the whole notion of traditional family values. He spoke one way but his family acted another. I kinda wrote that off as him just being to "entitled" to see himself clearly in the mirror.
This was followed in 08 with the lovely Sarah. She came to my living room with her brood proclaiming her moral and ethical superiority while functioning as an immature, overbearing, uneducated buffoon. This was the last straw for me. My embracement of small town values ended.
Today it is something I not only don't want to emulate any longer but it is now something I disdain.

finnbow · #6 08-02-2010, 09:26 AM

Over the years, I've enjoyed the benefits of both city and country living. As Parker makes clear in her piece, there are good people (and schmucks) in both locales. As for "small town values," "family values," "Christian values,"or any other "values," I too have had it with this buzzword.

It's perfectly OK in my book for different people to value different things differently. In truth, I don't want to be surrounded by only those people who act and think like me. It sounds more like a herd than a community.

BlueStreak · #7 08-02-2010, 11:48 AM

"Small town values"?

I grew up in a small town too, and somehow this conjures up images of xenophobic bullies who positively despise and distrust anything or anyone that exists outside their tidy little world.

No thanks.

I live in the city now, and love the diversity. Traveling the world in my Navy days has taught me that the folks back home really have nothing to brag about. Even the claims of low crime are BS. The only reason you don't hear about it so much, is because when you're a small town dope peddler, and your uncle Jim is the police chief, and half the cops (All six of them.) are your customers................well, you get the picture.

Dave

BlueStreak · #8 08-02-2010, 11:54 AM

Great article. Now a conservative pundit like that I can respect. But, in the small town I grew up in, Jack and Craig would most likely end up moving, (Or in the hospital.).

Dave

d-ray657 · #9 08-02-2010, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueStreak

Great article. Now a conservative pundit like that I can respect. But, in the small town I grew up in, Jack and Craig would most likely end up moving, (Or in the hospital.).

Dave

Her neighborhood was inside the urban sprawl of Washington, D.C., but the neighborhood was a true community, in which people looked out for each other, nurtured the children, COMMUNICATED - many of the values attributed, sometime incorrectly, to small town life.

Regards,

D-Ray