The Real Stupid Traitors

Friday on MSNBC's Scarborough Country the ever effervescent Ann Coulter stated, and the transcript isn't up yet, so I paraphrase:

Intelligent people who get involved in politics become conservative. (NOTE: the transcript is available now, full quote is: As soon as people know anything about politics, they become conservatives, which is why, it seems to me, [they'll] never have a liberal talk radio host succeed.)

In other words, Democrats and progressives and liberals aren't just pinko commie traitors, we're stupid pinko commie traitors. So, what's her excuse? She's little more than a walking, talking stream of invective that is meant to incite, not illuminate, and her smart mouth never translates into real smarts -- nor are she, or any of the members of Bush and the Cheney Gang, conservatives. The American Heritage dictionary defines it this way:

conservative: favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change; traditional or restrained in style; moderate; cautious

So what is conservative about the neo-cons? Beyond certain antiquated social views, well, nothing. Lord Randolph Churchill said:

If you wish to make a democracy conservative, you must give it something to conserve.

The Republicans in power make a mockery of the word. They might as well start calling themselves the Nationalist Party, and on that score, they have far more in common with Lenin and Mao than any Democrat I've ever known, so will the real traitors to the United States of America please stand up?

I want to conserve an America that respects freedom and individual liberties. I want to conserve an America that refuses to burden the next generation with mammoth debt and refuses to mortgage the future of the many to the benefit of the few. I want to conserve an America where our children have the best education on earth. I want to conserve an America that is respected in the world and treats our friends like allies and equals, not pesky annoyances. I want to conserve an America with a foreign policy based on multi-lateralism and millitary restraint.

I want to conserve an America where everyone who wants to be employed can find a job. I want to conserve an America that respects our natural resources and natural treasures and treats our environment with "shock and awe" rather than obstacles to be at best neglected and at worst paved over. I want to conserve an America that believes in an honest days pay and fair benefits for an honest days work. I want to conserve an America where labor is respected at least as much as up ticks in the Dow. I want to conserve an America that continues to seek healthcare for all. I want to conserve an America where everyone -- and I mean everyone -- gets a fair shot at the American Dream.

What's un-American about any of that? These neo-cons aren't conservatives, they are radical nationalists with an anti-American agenda. Worse, they are so blinded by their nationalist ideology and the insulated opinions of their oligarchy that they don't even see it. Anyone who says that they are a conservative and a supporter of George Bush should think long and hard before they have the unmitigated gall to say it with a straight face.

Crossposted at Points West and Daily Kos.

UPDATE: Dean National HarveyTheChainsaw makes this excellent observation in the comments: "I can't help but notice the disparity between two Republican statements. The first is that the Democrats are all 'liberal academics' and 'radical intellectuals' who don't understand what's really going on in America. The second is that intellectuals who enter politics become conservatives. This statement just goes to show that they simply make this shit up."

UPDATE TWO: Dana Blankenhorn sends this great link from the the conservative Rockford Institute's Chronicles Magazine. It's quite a read, purely by accident I was perhaps closer than I imagined: NEOCOSERVATISM, WHERE TROTSKY MEETS STALIN AND HITLER