Dylan Ratigan: ''I consider myself a conservative''

[Tx4obama]

Run time: 00:31 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gefuAsDdaMs   Posted on YouTube: September 13, 2010 By YouTube Member: mlewiscampaign Views on YouTube: 302   Posted on DU: September 14, 2010 By DU Member: Tx4obama Views on DU: 1030

 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/14/dylan-ratigan-i-consider-_n_716296.html

[frazzled]

1. Well, I've always considered him one, too

Glad he confirmed

[indimuse]

2. yaaaaaaa

think?

[JDPriestly]

3. When it comes to business regulation and morality, I'm with Ratigan

whatever he is. I have no idea where he stands on other issues.

I like government to provide the basic infrastructure in which business can be done in an orderly way and in which contracts are free from misrepresentations but enforceable.

I wonder what Ratigan thinks about the social net. I am very much in favor of government acting to hold the funds of taxpayer contributors, funds which are dedicated to provide for the unemployed during times of economic transition, the temporarily and permanently disabled and the elderly. He may disagree with me on that.

Having lived in Europe, I also believe in a strong, single-payer health care system in which payment for health care comes out of the pay check, is processed by the government and the provision of health care may be private non-profit or government-managed. He may also disagree with me on that, but then, I lived in Europe a number of years and base my opinion on experience, while, if he disagrees with me, he is basing his most probably on hearsay opinion.

I am considered to be more liberal than most people on this board, but I tend to agree with Ratigan. What a strange political landscape we are traversing.

[Exultant Democracy]

4. Sorry Dylan, sanity is no longer on the right side of the political spectrum, you are a lib

if you like it or not right now. If things change and reality starts to play a role in our national discussion again I would be more then happy to have guys like you on the other side of the issues from me... till then you are going to have to dance with the one who brung ya.

[florida08]

yep saw this yesterday

Run time: 00:31 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gefuAsDdaMs   Posted on YouTube: September 13, 2010 By YouTube Member: mlewiscampaign Views on YouTube: 302   Posted on DU: September 14, 2010 By DU Member: florida08 Views on DU: 1030

 
just confirmed what I already thought. He always equates the dems with the reps. But on his behalf he does try to have on both sides
of the issue and he has given Cenk his shot on his show..but he definately leans right..maybe moderately.


How the hell did that get on there?

[no limit]

5. And yet I totally agree with him when it comes to regulations, banks, and other issues

and I'm hardcore liberal.

Is that okay with you?

[Ramulux]

6. Uhhhh no your not

What is with this? Does Ratigan not understand the political spectrum or how your beliefs are tied to your political ideology? I have heard this guy take many liberal stands on many different issues many different times and for him to just claim to be a conservative all of the sudden is just bizarre.

[Meldread]

7. That's because Republican's are not true conservatives - they're radicals.

The Republican Party hijacked the term conservative. The reality is that if we go back in time and view a "real conservative" we'd consider them to the LEFT of most elected Democrats. The truth is that in the United States (and in the UK as well) the two major parties are further to the right than they've ever been.

Conservatism at it's core is about promoting and maintaining a stable society. He believes the politics he advocates will lead to a more stable and more healthy economy. That's a very conservative stance. If the mainstream Republican Party's economic policies had to be defined, they'd most closely adhere to some type of laissez fare corporate socialist model. In such a model there is no regulation of the market, leading to market instability, lack of transparency, etc. In addition to that corporations are given government subsidies for a number of reasons.

Subsidies are generally disliked by true conservatives, believing that such things create market distortions which distort the market and lead to long term instability. A good example would be a true conservatives opposition to corn subsidies, and how corn products (as a result of their being unnaturally cheap) have infused themselves throughout the economy in numerous products - not just food. Imagine what would happen if the subsidies were to suddenly end, and the price of corn were to skyrocket as a result. That's the type of warning true conservatives give when it comes to economic interventionism, but at the same time the very thing both Republican's and Democrats love.

The reality is that the right, the left, and the middle have been distorted by the political parties. A good analogy is to envision a rope. On the right end are the Republican's and on the left end are the Democrats. If both sides start in the middle, then move outward they drift apart. What has happened is that the Republican's have drifted further and further to the right, toward radical extremism, and the Democrats have attempted to stake out "the middle" which keeps on moving toward the right due to the Republican's rightward shift.

As a result old time conservatives would seem to be more liberal today than virtually every elected Democrat.

[Cosmocat]

8. GOOD post ...

nice work ...

[DLine]

9. Good post!!!!!

[shireen]

10. +1