27.4.10

Political Smell Tests, Number 2

Just as sniffing a block of cheddar can give a hint as to whether or not it is to funky for ingestion, there are simple ways which one can discern where a politician's loyalties lie (e.g. with himself, his constituents, the constitution etc.).  These are political smell tests, and I am outlining some here to help discern whether or not a candidate is truly a conservative.

Political Smell Test #2: Get A Whiff Of Their Words
And by this I do not mean analyzing content necessarily, rather specific words off of which they tend to play.  For instance, when discussing illegal immigration, a liberal will use race-related words (e.g. civil rights, African American, Hispanic etc.).  This is not to say a conservative won't say such words, but they will not play a major part of his argument.

If you are listening to a candidate, and he is referring to Utopian concepts as attainable (concepts such as "fairness", "equality" (in terms of outcome) etc.), he is not at all likely to be a conservative.

And keep in mind, this is not because Utopia is undesirable, nor because the conservative seeks to deny Utopia from anyone; rather, it is because the conservative is honest with himself and with his audience that it is not attainable on Planet Earth.

No comments: