Thursday, December 2, 2010

No Rebellion from the Right

As I was listening to Rush Limbaugh call Julian Assange (of Wikileaks) a sissy, I realized people who identify with conservatism really don't have an archetype for rebellion. I'm not particularly fond of Assange but if anyone is ever going to openly defy the United States government- well they just might have to do a little hiding here and there to avoid incarceration, and it just might be a good thing to do too.

But conservatives don't play this game particularly well, and Limbaugh's words, like all those displays of patriotism at the Tea Party rallies, display flawed thinking. These people, after all, would much prefer to be working, building, producing- when it comes time to do a little creative destruction, these folks are out of their element. The original tea partiers were, well, original. They got an idea and implemented it, dressed as indians, yes, but not Guy Fawkes masks or some homage similar to the one the Tea Partiers are making to them. They ran a serious risk of imprisonment, death, etc- and Assange is under serious risk while conservatives refuse to put themselves out there.

Given what happened to Tom Delay, conservatives should assume they are likely to be burnt anyway at any time and actually start taking real risks. Sadly, despite the left's scare stories to the contrary, conservatives are too used to playing by the rules to do anything surprising.

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