Why are conservative arguments so often irrational?

I must wait at least two days before breaking my New Year's Resolution...

 

Your graph conveniently cuts off in 2006. This ignores the reality that 25% of our national debt has accrued during the last four years. The Democratic controlled Senate seemingly has no desire to stem that tide anytime soon.

 

In actuality, the United States has been through starker periods, and come out fine.



This sums it up really well though---

http://articles.marketwatch.com/201...2270_1_spending-federal-budget-drunken-sailor

 

The Republican controlled House, in it's "Plan B" that was 100% GOP-decided, could only come up with $200 billion in cuts over 10 years. That's far less spending than they added during their reign under President Bush.

The one person that has pushed the largest spending cuts is President Obama, who has, both in 2011 and this time around, called for $1 trillion in tax increases paired with $3 trillion in spending cuts (the "grand bargain"). The GOP has consistently rejected this direction in favor of much smaller spending cuts and no tax increases.

 

hey guys, I'm just asking good faith questions, no agenda here, but why are people I disagree with so dumb?

 

While I think this is a loaded question there is a fairly disturbing trend among conservatives thinking to become less based on reality and more on opinion. This was well on display during the election when many conservatives including several here believed that Romney was going to win in a landslide and even accused those who thought Obama was going to win or that it was even going to be a close election that they were the ones in denial. Even once Obama had won fairly comfortably many still continue to cling to the idea that Obama's victory was due to media manipulation, cover ups and corruption.

I don't think that it is inherently irrational to believe that government is too big and taxes are too high but the extremes to how that belief is argued and supported is often troubling.

 

Interesting to note that the two "starker periods" appear to have been during WWI and WWII. Further interesting to note that during those times, in addition to taxes much higher than we are talking about now, many people were buying war bonds and there was rationing to support the war effort.

 

World War I, the Great Depression, 1970s oil crisis stagflation, and World War II---in terms of economic impact, the Great Recession of 2008 was on par with all these.

You're right though, if people don't think spending is such a big issue, then it isn't---when there are wars, deficit spending is "permissible", and when wars have ended the debt is unwound smoothly. If people viewed financial disasters/recessions in the same lens, things might go better.

I understand though. Defeating the Nazis seems to be a lot more of a worthy endeavor than wiping away Goldman's mistakes.

 

Yeah, it is concerning when so much of the Republican party is out of touch with not the American people, but just reality. They can't trust non-partisan polls, so they create their own to tell them what they want to hear.

I think there are two Republicans. There are the sane conservatives, and then the insane conservatives.

The insane conservatives are holding the country back. They won't compromise on anything and essentially - even as a minority and whose party only controls the House - are saying they will never increase taxes.

I am for S.S. reform and Medicare reform, and think conservatives have a role to play here. I think we need to increase taxes again, but we also need to cut spending by a more significant margin.

If we can do this is a way that doesn't cause a recession, and doesn't hit the social fabric of society too hard, it will help our economy simply by giving people confidence again that the country will be financially strong.

Unfortunately you have this group of crazy republicans holding the entire country hostage. The Tea Party is the worst thing to ever happen to this country politically in our lifetimes.

 

they're bat**** crazy.

 

Most of Obama's 'profligate spending' came in the form of the stimulus and waiving the AMT for the middle class. That's around a trillion bucks designed to keep the economy afloat while the private sector's contribution to the economy went MIA

You know how pre-bubble our GDP was inflated like crazy? Apparently the government can't stop next year's spending on a dime while actual revenue for the government tanked.

Ezra Klein posted a few graphs on this. Made me feel little smarter. :snort:

 

Yeah, because there is no such thing as an irrational liberal.

I can post graphs, I AM GENIUS!



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Anyone can post graphs. Understanding it and knowing where the data comes from is the bigger point.

 

Some old links relevant to the topic:

Kind of back's up the "believe what I believe" theory

Study shows "trust in science" declining among conservatives

more related primarily to fox news conclusion (which I think is interesting):

 

A is A!

I am not surprised that conservatives tend to look at things in absolutes more than liberals. Conservatism is at it's heart about not changing which means that conservatives are going to be less likely to look at things relatively or with nuance.

 

As a conservative who believes a marriage is between a man and a woman I laugh at some of the high ranking conservatives who believe allowing same sex marriage will lead to marrying children or legal and public bestiality.


So while these crazies that you speak of share some of my views, I shake my head at them so often you might think I'm a bobble head....

 

I didn't think you were insulting me. I didn't think your post was in any way directed at me.

I just thought your OP followed by this post:

Spoiler

Seemed to set up the topic as "You think A, B, and C whereas I think X, Y, and Z. I think X, Y and Z because it is rational. Therefore A, B, and C are irrational. Why are you irrational?"

Politics aside, don't you think it's kinda BS to start a "debate" with the other side about why the other side is wrong?

So when I read your first few posts I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Maybe it's just me. My problem was more with your delivery than with your actual point, as I more or less agree with the point that conservatives seek to preserve the status-quo, both in present day and historically.