Its amazing the ideological contradictions and contortions Conservatives are willing to accept just so they can devise yet another argument against the Democrats. If The Libs come out as anti-Russian, the Cons suddenly become pro-Russian. If the Libs want to fight a pandemic, suddenly the Cons claim there isn't one. I suspect that if the Democrats suddenly instituted an extreme anti-tax pro-capitalist national defense platform, the Republicans would suddenly convert to tax-and-spend Marxist-Leninist pacifism.

What could possibly motivate Conservatives to reflexively abandon their own long-held principles and programs just because their political opponents embrace them? I submit this is a purely emotional response, one not based on accepting or rejecting any specific policy, but simply a desire to do the opposite of what the other side is doing--whatever it is. Its a variant of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". It must be traceable to a single, emotional, probably historical and cultural issue buried so deep in the American psyche that even those controlled by it don't recognize it as a cause and motivation of their action and belief.

What could it be? What is its origin? What is the underlying factor, the shaper and mover of modern Conservative thought and behavior? It must be something that has existed since before the birth of the Republic, but that has only become associated with the political Right since the 1960s. Something that erupted in urgency and importance and desperation a half century later. What is it that the American Left now does or thinks that suddenly the American Right feels compelled to attack and reject. Why have the political poles in American society suddenly reversed? I'm old enough to have seen it happen, all during my lifetime. I know what it is.

Religious fundamentalism? Sexual insecurity? Social conformity? I don't think so, although all are intimately associated with, and contribute greatly, to this political phenomenon. But they are not the cause. Something else is at the core, the root, the obscured and hidden center of all this hatred. It is like a mental illness, those afflicted with it may not even realize they have it.

Think about it.