Anti-

The reason current Conservatives still identify as conservative despite having turned their backs on virtually all conservative principle is that most Conservatives were never actually conservative to begin with. They were anti-liberal*.

The reason candy factory workers quickly lose their taste for candy is that they never actually loved candy. They were anti-deprivation**.


* - It's much easier to inculcate "anti-them" sentiment than "pro-issues" sentiment requiring education and placing intellect above emotion. Hence Fox News' business plan...and thus hence our national predicament.

This also explains why conservative politicians always reject their own policies when liberals try to implement them (e.g. Obamacare, which came straight from the conservative Heritage Foundation with a bank shot off of Mitt Romney's governorship). They are not particularly for the things they're for. Mostly, they're against what The Other's for.

And I can totally relate, having for years assumed I was some breed of liberal simply by virtue of my revulsion at the far right and in spite of my visceral queasiness with left-wing principles. The realization that I could eschew both Left and Right was liberating. In my case, I embraced conciliatory Centrism. Others unwinding from one spool or another understandably embrace the loudest, flashiest, most charismatic other option. They're actually more evolved than the conventional partisans who consider them dolts. They just didn't know where to go or what to do with their liberation, leaving them vulnerable to manipulation.

** - This holds through for all kinds of jadedness and falling favor...including slumped relationships. Many people seek relationships because they're anti-solo. Many married people get married because they want to be married people, not because they want to marry (yes, I'm riffing on my epigram about singers...see top entry here). 

Another exploration of "anti-" perspectives