I am an American of Jewish, Italian, and English extraction, born in Washington, DC, raised in Marlow Heights, MD. My parents were divorced when I was a child. I have three brothers, and am the eldest. One brother has cerebral palsy, and although of above average intelligence, is profoundly disabled. I live in Annapolis, MD, am married and have a child. Etc. etc. etc. I assure you, no one I know, with the exception of a couple of cultists, defines himself primarily in terms of group membership, either singular or several, but in terms of a whole background and life history. And, as I said, conservatives are not, in fact, a particularly homogeneous group, but are themselves a coalition that currently operates mostly through the Republican Party. There is no group think to speak of, there are too many arguments.
One is acting if one argues politics at the diner or on the thread; if one contributes to various persons and organizations; if one does any grass roots campaigning, even if sporadically; if one attends a meeting here or there; and in other, similar ways, including voting. Who do you think the "grassroots" are? When I was a teenager, I worked in a local campaign office for George McGovern, manning the phones, going door to door, and taking a table in the nearest shopping center. As an adult, I have contributed here and there, attended occasional meetings with politicians like my congressman, sent letters to various members of Congress, gone to meetings where I debated policy with people like Irving Kristol and Charles Murray, and published on the prospect of the breakup of the Eastern bloc or on the legacy of Ronald Reagan. I am not even a particularly active conservative, there are many who do more, in terms of participating in fundraising, distributing flyers, manning phone banks, belonging to particular organizations, and so on. In any event, granted that there is a pool of people whose participation is desultory or sporadic, it is false to say that there are not organized groups. Almost all who identify themselves as liberal or conservative have at a minimum contributed some money to a cause or candidate from time to time, and plenty have done more........ |
