Failed Conservative Values: Arun Akkineni on Self-Righteousness
I interviewed Arun Akkineni about Failed Conservative Values. He felt that self-righteousness is a Failed Conservative Value and it's scary and dangerous. With self-righteousness, you see the world as black and white and don't see the nuances. You also don't incorporate other peoples ideas, which makes for poor decision making. He points to the current conservative administrations creation of the war and occupation of Iraq, as an example.
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Failed Conservative Values: Aris Harmon on Fear and Power
I interviewed Aris Harmon about the failure of conservative values. He said conservatives can be very nice people but they try to maintain the status quo and are afraid of change. For this reason, their fear of change is easily manipulated by other conservatives such as, Grover Norquist and Abramoff, whose sole value is power at any cost. He also sees the failure of critical thinking as the reason conservatives are so easily manipulated.
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Failed Conservative Values: All about Greed
I interviewed people around the Democracy for America booth at the California Democratic Party Convention in San Jose. I asked people how have conservative values failed? It surprised me how many responded that the conservative value of greed was the biggest failure. Here are some of the comments.
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Failed Conservative Values: Jim Dean on Corruption 
I interviewed Jim Dean, Chair of Democracy for America (DFA) at the Democratic Party Convention in San Jose, California. I asked Jim how conservative values have failed. He says current conservativism is like a despotic dictator and is about corruption, power and the rewarding of friends.
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Failed Conservative Values: Norman Solomon on Dog Eat Dog Greed 
I interviewed Norman Solomon at the 2008 Democratic Party Convention in San Jose, California. Norman is a columnist and his book "War Made Easy" was recently made into a movie. He talked about how he sees 'dog eat dog greed' as a Failed Conservative Value.
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Failed Conservative Values: Jeeni Criscenzo on Scapegoating
I interviewed Jeeni Criscenzo in Sacramento, California. Jeeni brought up the prevalent use of scapegoating by conservatives. I find it curios how a Conservative Movement that preaches individual responsibility is so adept at finding scapegoats and not taking true responsibility. I think it has to do with the type of responsibility they preach. It is not the unqualified progressive sense of responsibility, where you feel responsible for yourself and the society around you, but rather conservatives always talk about a qualified 'individual responsibility' which actually is really no longer true responsibility, but rather a value of selfish self-centeredness. It's like taking the value of love or caring and saying we're for 'individual love' or 'individual caring'. The values lose their meaning and are turned into nothing but the Failed Conservative Value of individual selfishness and greed.
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Failed Conservative Values: Barack Obama on the Status Quo v Change
In his Pennsylvania primary speech, Barack Obama talked about change and how the Status Quo resists change. As I interview people about what are Progressive Values and about how Conservative Values have Failed, the interviewees repeatedly talk about the conservative fear of change and the promotion of the status quo. We start off with this exploration of the Failed Conservative Value of the Status Quo with Barack Obama's speech on change versus the status quo.
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Progressive Values Stories: Brianna Leavitt on Taking Back Family Values - Justice & Responsibility
I interviewed Brianna Leavitt at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley. She feels conservatives have taken over the term Values and Family Values, but she doesn't want to just give up the words to them. She goes on to talk about the Progressive Values she learned in her family. Her mother always reached out to the poor and homeless. Brianna was taught empathy, justice and responsibility by her parents and grandmother. These are in opposition to the Failed Conservative Family Values that exclude people.
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Progressive Values Stories: Peter Harvey on Community versus Intolerance 
I interviewed Peter Harvey at a Oakland, California Democracy for America meeting. Peter passionately talked about the progressive value of community and shared an early memory of the community reaching out to him. However, he thinks that conservatives have completely missed the mark of religious teachings by going off into intolerance.
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Failed Conservative Values: Violence and Brutality 
This article is a rather harsh critique of deeper Failed Conservative Values. In interviews, Richard Wagner told me he thinks thuggery is a failed conservative value and Herman Blackmon mentioned the lynch mob. I didn't think that either the lynch mob or thuggery were actually values. They seem more like manifestations of a value or perhaps of multiple values.
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Failed Conservative Values: Barbara, Carole, Nina on Dogmatism

I'm starting a new series of articles on how Conservative Values have Failed. It's obvious that conservative ideas and policies have failed, but the failures go even deeper to the very heart and essence of the conservative movement, to their Failed Conservative Values. In this series, we will pull back the mask of Conservative Family Values, Conservative Traditional Values, individual freedom, individual responsibility, individual liberty, Compassionate Conservativism, etc. to reveal the underlying Failed Conservative Values of fear, authoritarianism, secrecy, dogmatism, greed, indifference, self-righteousness, arrogance, hypocrisy, etc.
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And There are more stories to come:
James Dobson at Wikipedia,
James Dobson is an American evangelical Christian and chairman of the board of Focus on the Family, a nonprofit organization he founded in 1977.... As part of his role in the organization, he produces the daily radio program Focus on the Family, which is broadcast in more than a dozen languages and on over 7,000 stations worldwide, and heard daily by more than 220 million people in 164 countries, according to Focus on the Family's own statements. ..... He is an evangelical Christian with conservative views on theology and politics. He was recently named "The Most Influential Evangelical Leader in America" by Christianity Today magazine, and Slate has termed him the successor to evangelical leaders Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.
Some Questions for Discussion:
How have conservative values failed?
Ask your friends, what do they say?
Failed Conservative Values
Assist us in systematically building the arguments and telling the stories that reveal how Conservative Values have Failed. Join in our effort to create a documentary and book on the subject by contributing articles, posts, chapters for the book and video clips. Check our website for more information and a growing outline of tasks that need to be done on this project.
See more Progressive Values Stories:
Edwin Rutsch
What Are Progressive Values? Documentary Project
ProgressiveSpirit.com
and Study Group



