For all of their principled moral restraint I’ve noticed that many of the conservatives I know have insanely radical beliefs and a dangerous lack of critical thinking.  When I hear their beliefs I begin to see why George Bush was elected twice and why they hate the Clinton’s so much.  Here are a few examples of my conservative co-workers and friends views.

Mr. P (the conservative racist/conspiracy theorist)

My 64 year old co-worker believes that Barack Obama is a Muslim Jihadist trying to infiltrate the executive branch to

Take out the US from the inside.  “It was their plan all along.”

What is the matter with this guy:  He’s a racist.  He once told me that he would go to turkey, only if he was allowed to take a gun so that he could shoot as many as possible.  He does not like Arabs, Muslims or anyone who even looks middle eastern and only refers to them as “Rag heads”.

Leon (conservative cynic)

Leon is a co-worker who continually sends me any divisive material he can find on Obama.  He is in agreement with Mr. P, but is not necessarily racist.  He just believes that all democrats are corrupt liars.

What is the matter this guy:  He is one sided and cynical.  Nothing that the Republicans do is wrong and everything the Bush administration has done is justified.

Dick (conservative Christian fundamentalist)

Dick is someone I consider a friend.  He has a moral disagreement with the Democratic stance on abortion, church and social issues.

What is the matter with this guy:  He has a literal translation of the Bible.  Like many other fundamentalists he believes that life begins at conception so condoms are bad and sex education in middle school definitely wrong.  They believe the Earth (universe?) was created in 6 days, 6000 years ago so dinosaurs and human beings were around about the same time.

Unfortunately, there are way more of these types of conservatives than there should be in 2008.  The problem is that they usually can not be reasoned with.  Their minds are made up.  Their beliefs have become indistinguishable from who they are.