Ron Paul Is Right – He Just Didn’t Fully Describe Who’s at Fault.

RE: Ron Paul to Sunshine Patriots: Stop Your Demagogy About The NYC Mosque!,  

Representative Paul,

I think John Dean, former counsel for Richard Nixon’s White House, best described those inflicting this insult on the nation as “Conservatives WIthout Conscience” – also the title of one of his books.    These conservatives not only include the war mongering neocons you mentioned but also the evangelical social conservatives.  These conservatives exist mostly as Republicans, especially in our Senate, but some are Democrats, and a libertarian or two.   

Professor Robert Altemeyer, referenced extensively in John Dean’s book, has referred to them as “right-wing authoritarians” (RWA) and has developed a personality test to empirically identify the authoritarian personality.    His research is one in a long line of efforts since WWII to figure out what factors contributed to the evils perpetrated by some Germans and Italians on others.

Professor George Lakoff, has studied linguistics and how the brain works.   His research relates the RWA to the strict father family model, where severe punishment is used to teach ‘right’ from ‘wrong.’  Thus many RWAs are quite aggressive in expressing their opinions and public display of their favorite weapon.  They also believe “you are on your own” and there is no such thing as systemic causation.  They believe you deserve what you get, even if what you get was beyond your control.  They believe if you are not like me, you are wrong:  ‘You’re not Christian?  Well, you’re wrong and need to be tortured until you ‘believe’ my world view.’

Thank you for your intelligent comments on the NY Islamic civic center with prayer rooms and calling out the RWAs.  The law is what matters and public opinion, or a mob, does not make law.