I 'think' I see a very different set of issues, values and, for want of a better term, "hot buttons" driving the basic conservative movement these days......not just different opinions on how to deal with many of the concerns facing us, but very different framing OF the issues.

That's a hard one to document, because when you ask people what their concerns, values and issues are, you get kinda standard slogans. (and often they will be similar from both the left and right). But when you take a number of statements, slogans, remarks, claims...etc...and analyze them and extract what they *seem* to be for, against and compare their reasons FOR their choices, there appears to be a not-so-explicitly stated, hidden agenda in many of the conservative voices I hear most often....and I mean from the top of the Republican & Libertarian parties right down through pundits on TV and would-be office seekers and all the way to Tea-party rallies and folks I talk to here on Mudcat.

(hmm..? ..Huh? what's Bill babbling about now?)

I said it was hard to explicate simply....it would take days to spell it out, but there are clues if you listen to some of the debates, speeches and interviews of members of Congress who supposedly represent this very frustrated and resentful conservative electorate these days. Karl Rove almost promised them he had it set up so they would essentially keep power forever....and BOOM!...it all went up in smoke as 'certain' foolish folks were just too obviously greedy and complacent, and the conservatives found themselves being guilty of some of the very sins they railed against.. (overspending, moral turpitude, etc...)

Now, they have a president who is not only a Democrat, but a well-spoken LEADER-type who is actually doing things. Conservatives can't really point at basic wrongness in Obama's approach, so they are dragging their feet in frustration, and trying to derail almost every bit of significant legislation! (They sure thought THEY had the right to pass stuff when THEY had a majority!)
Now we are seeing name calling, mudslinging, specious attacks and heavy-handed, frantic attempts to get someone...anyone...into office who will restore their majority...even if it includes a boat load of Rand Pauls who can't even hide their pettiness and clones of Michelle Bachmann and Jim DeMint and total idiots like James Inhofe who have NO concept of truth & accuracy, but just want to elevate extreme conservatism to power.

Adding to this sad situation, we have this internet/WWW phenomenon allowing every wing-nut in captivity to throw out the most extreme views in such quantity that it is hard to FIND sane voices representing moderate conservatism. Thus, when one of our Mudcat conservatives looks at sites he trusts, he is likely to find mostly slanted, colored, poorly vetted, Gerrymandered, pre-digested propaganda to even comment on.
   That story about the SEIU was all of the above, but that is what was available, and if that's all one sees, it can be made to 'appear' that Obama and his crew are using police to further political gains.
Could it BE that conservatives are not necessarily against the 'technique', but only against it being used by their opponents? <☺ nawwww...they're just desperate for ANY artifical wall to throw mud against.....

(remember...I said it would take days to flesh out all my suppositions here....and I realize that BB and ichMael and others will, if they bother at all, just pick out irrelevant details to dispute. *shrug*... but I wanted to see my own musings in print.)