straightUp Loc: California

I've noticed a lot of right-wing opinions on this site that flat out deny any accusation that right-wing politics caters to racism. The first thing I want to make clear is that I am referring to the right-wing specifically, not conservatives per se. Over the years I have come to understand that bigotry is a functional feature of extreme right-wing politics and it's always a safe bet that if any political movement seeks equality between classes of people it's going to be on the Left.

Today, I read a story about the Afro-Bolivian community which has never been recognized by the Bolivian government. But the current president Evo Morales, the 80th president of Bolivia and the first with indigenous roots is pushing to change that by giving Afro-Bolivians representation for the first time ever. So I thought... "I bet this guy is a Lefty". Turns out he is. He's a democratic socialist. Now, I'm not saying that a leftist who seeks equality proves that the right-wing is racist, but so far, I have found almost every example of support for equality throughout the world to be on the Left and every example of bigotry to be on the Right. The only confusion I see on the matter is here in the U.S. where people commonly make the mistake of assuming all conservative views are on the Right or that all liberal ideas are on the Left.

So again... liberal = new values (good and bad), conservative = traditional values (good and bad), Left = equality for all, Right = me first, screw the rest.

I could be wrong here... this is just my personal observation (and the published opinion of many scholars and analysts), but for the sake of advancing my own education, I challenge anyone to identify a right-wing movement anywhere in the world that actually makes an effort to improve equality among classes of people.

straightUp Loc: California

Yep. (8 days later) Pretty much what I thought.

reconreb Loc: America / Inglis Fla.

O.K. I'll bite .. Bolivia ???? America first !!!! why is putting the welfare of Americans (LEGAL) first a bad thing . You want to push for equality around the worid , great .. then go there and change their minds .. I want equality for all also but before I can sujest my neighbor clean their house I must get my house in order ..

straightUp Loc: California

I had abandoned this thread thinking there was no interest (and of course no answers). 'Just happened to see your response while scanning.

I agree with your statement reconreb... We should clean our own house before trying to clean someone else's house, but clearly this isn't the rule being followed. It seems the right is divided on this issue, with isolationists lead by people like Newt Gingrich and Rand Paul believing we should stay out of foreign affairs and interventionists, like John McCain and even more so, the chicken-hawk neoconservatives like of Dick Cheney are all about global hegemony, a fancy PC-friendly word for imperialism.

But what all sides on the right have in common is the complete lack of interest in equality and THAT is the issue on which I based my challenge... to ask ANYONE on the right to identify at least one example of a right-wing movement to promote equality. So your "bite" was a tangent, not an answer.

I used Evo Morales, who is a leftist, as an example of promoting equality as this is a huge aspect of his policies in Bolivia. This example doesn't have anything to do with the U.S. The focus is on left-wing vs right-wing politics which is not limited to the U.S. So although I agree with your statement that we should worry about our own house first, it has no relation to the point I was making and it certainly does not answer the challenge.