Hate crimes soar under conservative governments

The Bush regime - more specifically, its allies in the American media - is in effect the world's #1 exporter of right-wing violence.

The U.S. media, which has acted as a mouthpiece for the totalitarian Bush government, is surprisingly influential abroad. Even in South America, the Spanish-language versions of U.S. news outlets are widely seen.

How does the Bushist media export rightist violence? Their coverage of foreign elections is as biased towards conservative candidates as is that of American elections. This is the key reason a surprising number of the world's economically powerful nations have ushered in conservative governments just in the past few years.

And what happens under conservative governments? You know, there's a reason we call 'em conservative and not liberal (at least not by the American definition). Let's be honest: Conservatism stands for certain causes. I'm not saying all the foreign governments that lean to the right are extreme. But they do have views and policies, you see.

Part of their philosophy is that they view cultural matters a little differently from what we might. They're generally a bit more nationalistic and a little more suspicious of outsiders. They tend to be a little less mindful of pluralism, even in very diverse societies.

This is a bigger issue than it otherwise would be, because it attracts and emboldens those who take this view to extremes. Right-wing extremists feel sheltered and encouraged by a government that they see as more friendly. And why wouldn't they? Conservative regimes typically don't place a high priority on addressing concerns of all segments of society. That's simply the way it is.

Violent extremists have gotten a decisive foot in the door worldwide lately. Most conservative governments might not be fanatical on their own, but they do little to stop extremism from flourishing. Canada, for example, has the most conservative government it's had in years - and now a new report shows that anti-Semitic incidents reached an all-time high in Canada last year under this new conservative rule. These episodes increased a staggering 59.1% on college campuses.

Similar rises were reported for last year in Germany (which has a conservative leader), Australia (which had one at the time), and the United States (don't even ask). At the same time, these incidents decreased in most of western Europe, where a majority of governments were more moderate. An article in Israeli newspaper Haaretz said the increase in Germany, Australia, and the U.S. was "tied to the strengthening of the radical right" and linked to "right-wing extremist groups."

Gee, whose fault is that? Did "the liberals" strengthen right-wing extremists? Somehow I doubt it. If a party has too much appeal to extreme elements, these factions will inevitably pull its policies away from the center. We've already seen it happen in America with the Republicans.

This also shows how deeply the ideology of the Right is flawed. No matter how far you take the policies of the Left, it doesn't approach that level of raw, irrational bigotry.

A vote for conservatism is a vote for hate crimes.

(Source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/989445.html;
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/948267.html)