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 The only vice that can not be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy.  William Hazlitt
 

Several people I asked about the failure of conservative values mentioned hypocrisy.   Michelle, Owen and Steve  brought up areas of conservative hypocrisy in;  family values, education,  finance, the economy,  the occupation of Iraq and in human rights.  While we all may exhibit varying degrees of hypocrisy in our lives, it seems that the conservative movement has embraced and institutionalized this value.

 Failed Conservative Values: Michelle on Hypocrisy

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Religious factions will go on imposing their will on others unless the decent people connected to them recognize that religion has no place in public policy. They must learn to make their views known without trying to make their views the only alternatives.  Barry Goldwater

James Dobson is a major leader of the social conservatives. He is considered one of the more moderate of the 'Value Voters' leaders because he doesn't support spanking any child under the age of 18 months, while other conservative leaders do.

  
 I’m the conservative leader who can unite the party, John McCain

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Women cannot serve two masters at once who are urgently beaming antithetical orders.... Either we believe in patriarchy the rule of men over women -- or we believe in equality.  Sonia Johnson

Elaine Charkowski talked to me about how conservative values have failed. She says, Conservative Family Values is  about  patriarchy and fear of authority. It’s about not using your own mind and woman are to be subservient to the man. The type of power used is random punishment and reward, which studies show is the best way to drive animals crazy.

Failed Conservative Values: Elaine Charkowski on Patriarchy Family Values

My name is Elaine Charkowski.  I’m a feminist and an environmentalist, because I believe that both go hand-in-hand.  An issue that goes beneath politics are universal human rights.  Sure, family values, but they don’t go deeper. 

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George Lakoff is a linguistics professor at UC Berkeley and author of numerous books on metaphors, framing and politics.  Howard Dean has called him,  "one of the most influential political thinkers of the progressive movement."    George was at our local bookstore talking about his latest book, The Political Mind.  During the question and answer period,  I asked him if he personally feels that Conservative Values have Failed and if so, how have they failed?

Failed Conservative Values: George Lakoff on It's Not Working

George: Yes Ed.

Edwin: I'm doing some work on the Failure of Conservative Values and I was wondering if you personally feel  that conservative values have failed and if so, how have they failed?

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David Sirota came and talked about his new book, 'The Uprising' at the Oakland Democracy for America meet-up on June 11, 2008.  During the Q and A, I asked David how Conservative Values have Failed and he talked about the failure of Conservative Economic Darwinism. The full video of his 70 minute talk is now online.

Failed Conservative Values: David Sirota on Economic Darwinism

See David Sirota's the full 70 minute 'Uprising' presentation here, includes his slideshow as well!
http://progressivespirit.com/Projects/DFA-Meetup

 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2213022981422901231 

[courtesy of Blog for America]

 
If you think that you are where you are just because you worked hard, it is easy to become self-righteous and make classist moral judgments about others.  Charlotte Bunch

I interviewed Arun Akkineni about Failed Conservative Values. He felt that self-righteousness is a Failed Conservative Value and it's scary and dangerous. With self-righteousness, you see the world as black and white and don't see the nuances. You also don't incorporate other peoples ideas, which makes for poor decision making. He points to the current conservative administrations creation of the war and occupation of Iraq, as an example.

Failed Conservative Values: Arun Akkineni on Self-Righteousness

 I’m Arun, and I’m here to answer a few questions about progressive values.   I’m from Alameda, California.

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I interviewed Aris Harmon about the failure of conservative values.  He said conservatives can be very nice people but they try to maintain the status quo and are  afraid of change.  For this reason, their fear of change is easily manipulated by other conservatives, such as, Grover Norquists and Abramoff, whose sole value is power at any cost.   He also sees the failure of critical thinking as the reason conservatives are so easily manipulated.

Failed Conservative Values: Aris Harmon on Fear and Power

My name is Aris Harmon.  I live in East Palo Alto. 

There’s a real disconnect, I think, between the values of the people who vote for conservatives, who identify themselves as conservatives, and many of them are very nice people.  They are great neighbors.  They are people whom you want in your community association.