The Danger of the Reality Challenged Right (or "Hey, Mitch" part 2).

As if having Donald Trump be president isn't enough to clue people in on that.

Anyway, this relates to the Britsh election and Theresa May's flirting with the Democratic Unionist Party, which is a quarantined version of the US religious/reality challenged right wing.  I thought about mentioning this article from the British satirical site the Daily Mash which makes it plain how far out the DUP happens to be: if the comparison of Iris Robinson to Michele Bachmann didn't.

The Guardian is reporting that Conservative MPs are objecting to this alliance, which is good.  I have found that non-US conservatives are reasonable people who one can have an intelligent conversation with even if you disagree (e.g., I staunchly believe in the EU and European Monetary Union, or Euro).

On the other hand, US "conservatives" have been willing to use hot button issues to short circuit the masses intellect for far too long.  Gun control is a prime example of this. 

I find it amusing that this public safety issue has been turned into a "battleground" for "left v. right" when there are loads of examples of true conservatives being staunchly "gun grabbing". Case in point being Richard Nixon is on record as saying:

"I don't know why any individual should have a right to have a revolver in his house. "The kids usually kill themselves with it and so forth." He asked why "can't we go after handguns, period?"

Nixon went on: "I know the rifle association will be against it, the gun makers will be against it." But "people should not have handguns." He laced his comments with obscenities, as was typical.[source]

And let's not forget Jim "Bear" Brady happened to be Ronald Reagan's press secretary (and some of the Goldwater republicans who ran the Brady Campaign).  But that is one of many toxic issues which the Republicans have glommed onto in a successful campaign to get people to vote against their self-interests.

On the other hand, I read this on the Guardian website:

The Observer has learned that the DUP was planning to dodge a row when negotiations began by avoiding the inclusion of any controversial social policies, such as opposition to gay marriage or abortion, in its so-called “shopping list” of demands to the Tories. Party sources said it would be seeking commitments from May that there would be no Irish unity referendum and no hard border imposed on the island of Ireland.

However, some Tories remained concerned that a pact would damage a brand they have spent years trying to detoxify.

The DUP is opposed to abortion and same-sex marriage. It has also appointed climate change sceptics to senior posts within the party. That is in contrast to the UK Conservative Party which at one time made climate change a plank in its platform, but it now seems to be missing from their website.

Another point, Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair’s secret negotiator with the IRA after the 1998 Good Friday agreement, said on Monday: “If Mrs May depends on the DUP– Ian Paisley’s party, not the old Official Unionists who used to work with the Tories – to form a government it will be impossible for it to be even-handed.”


David Cameron's ill fated gamble on Brexit may have just sentenced the Tories to a slow and lingering death.  Let's hope the same befalls the US religious/reality challenged right.  I know that some of the more reasonable right wingers have defected to the Dems already, which is why neoliberal Clinton as the nominee instead of Sanders.