the travails of young conservatives

When I first began reading this thumb-sucking navel-gazer about how young "conservatives, libertarians, free-market/small-government types" drinking at a Capitol Hill bar were pitying themselves for having the misfortune of being young right-wingers in the early days of the non-right-wing Obama Administration, I was thinking snarky thoughts.

Then I decided not to snark because it wasn't that long ago that young liberals were bemoaning THEIR fate in a Washington dominated by the DeLay/Lott Congress and the de facto Bush White House.

Indeed, I could empathize slightly, although they make the typical young-person-in-a-Washington-bar mistake of assuming THEIR situation is somehow representative of the nation - it isn't, most young people drinking in bars outside of Capitol Hill aren't worrying about the ideology of the White House and Congress, and in any case it isn't like 98% of young Americans are liberals.

But then I read a quote by one Dustin Siggins which reminded me of how heartily I dislike a certain type of young conservative. Siggins said he was chatting up a young woman in a gym, when this young woman revealed her career ambitions: "But she wants to work for the ACLU, and I (Siggins) said, 'Oh, you're one of those.' "

And that's why I give a hearty "Screw You" to Siggins' ilk. Because he has internalized the divisive nature of right wing Republicanism in the early 21st century. He immediately labels her "one of those", which in modern Republicanism means "one of the enemy." You know, like being "that one". Hating America because you don't support workers rights for employees of the Department of Homeland Security. Hating America because you don't support tax breaks for the rich, or because you have the nerve to believe that the laws against torture should apply regardless of what party is in power.