Editor,
There is literally nothing “conservative” about U.S. President Donald Trump, the UNM Young Republicans or Milo Yiannopoulos. American "conservatives" have devolved into a reactionary, and even though it’s not politically correct to say, a fascist political party!
Here is how Robert Paxton defines Fascism: “A form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal ethnic cleansing and external expansion.” Hmm…
Daily Lobo Reporter Nicole McKibben writes, “Conservatives care deeply about cutting governmental fat, and getting rid of waste. This is virtually what Milo’s speech revolved around. If the country chooses to spend less on resources that go to illegal immigrants, then we would have more money for education and our own citizens. It’s simple economics, and a valid argument.” No, this is a fallacious argument! Maybe McKibben should take UNM’s Philosophy 156?
McKibben writes, “I grew up in a conservative, hard-working family. My father works 12 hour days outside, and it does break my heart to see so much of his earnings go to taxes, when he could have used the money to support his own family’s needs.” With all due respect, lots of folks work hard — conservative, progressive, citizens, immigrants — and some don’t. The human condition is 50/50.
“Whether you agree with his message or not, you cannot deny Milo’s right to have a platform. It is our First Amendment right. We gave a platform to protesters so they could speak out against the man.” Doesn’t freedom come with responsibility? College Republicans and Young Libertarians despise entitlements, free handouts, welfare, so why did these same know-nothing Republicans feel Milo's was entitled to free security? Or are they just hypocrites?
McKibben writes, “As Milo said, people should be allowed to do and say what they want, whether it is calling someone out for wearing a hijab, or protesting the man doing it." What does McKibben mean by allowed to do what they want? Does that include ripping a hijab off an American Muslim woman? Do Muslims have religious freedom? U.S. President Trump isn’t so sure.
(On) 2/3/17 (NPR reported) “a Senior White House Aid, Sebastian Gorka, a former Breitbart national security editor who left his post as a Fox New contributor refused to confirm if U.S. President Trump believes Islam is a Religion." President Trump’s National Security Director, Mike Flynn, has referred to Islam as a cancer!
“Hitler stated quite frankly what he thought of the Jews. They were a cancerous growth consuming our national German organism. Obviously the best thing would be to exterminate the Jews, he continued, but that would not be possible. All that remained was the solution…of ‘deportation, mass expulsion" ("Was Hitler Ill: A Final Diagnosis, .p 12).
In "The Revolution Of Nihilism: Warning to the West" (1939) Hermann Rauschning writes, “The degeneration of conservatism — A conservative leadership of really outstanding quality, not merely one of tactical shrewdness, might have discovered the lines of a bold constructive polity. Men capable of such leadership were available, but they were viciously attacked and driven off as idealists and dreamers by the old crib biters of the party. From the earliest days of the Weimar Republic to the actual leadership of the German National Party had abandoned true constructive conservatism for a reactionary determination to carry out a coup d’etat as the only radically effective resource. The conservative leaders lacked the one thing that should characterize conservative policy, patience.”
Isn’t it amazing how human history repeats itself?
I would respectfully suggest New Mexico Republican Governor Susana Martinez and the rest of the know-nothing Republican Party visit the New Mexico Holocaust and Intolerance Museum. They might actually learn something about mass deportations, ethnic cleansing, human hatred and why the United States helps refugees of war, after we failed to do so during WWII.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
McKibben also writes, “We are so busy giving our own opinions and telling people that they are wrong that we forget we need to listen and be compassionate toward others.” This is P.C. nonsense.
“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” — Isaac Asimov
Brian Fejer
UNM alumnus
