Dangerous Ideas and Today's Conservative Agenda: A Video Analysis

[Roy Eidelson]

In light of the extensive press coverage given to last week's Conservative Political Action Conference (attended by Cheney, Giuliani, Romney, Brownback, Trancredo, Norquist, DeLay and Coulter, among others), I thought readers might be interested in my video entitled Dangerous Ideas: How Conservatives Exploit Our Five Core Concerns, available at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=844699642769511518. It presents a psychological analysis of how today’s right-wing leaders appeal to issues of vulnerability, injustice, distrust, superiority, and helplessness in an effort to promote a narrow agenda—one that benefits the very few while leaving most of us worse off. The video describes a set of ten key arguments used by many conservatives and provides brief illustrative clips for each one. The bottom line is that progressives can and must effectively counter these appeals when they are used for destructive purposes.