There is something unethical at the core of conservative thought. I even saw it in myself when I was a libertarian. At that time, I really did not want a lot of people voting because I knew that they would not vote along with my Loony Tunes ideology.

This came to my mind this morning, reading Eric Alterman at The Nation on Show Us the Money. In the article, he talks about the Center to Protect Patient Rights.

The Center to Protect Patient Rights. That sounds really good. It sounds like they go into hospitals and make sure that the patients aren’t abused.

But that’s not what they do.

Instead, they do whatever they can to stop the 50 million people without healthcare from getting it in the future. In 2010, they spent $55 million getting right wing fanatics elected. Yeah! Another do-gooder nonprofit corporation!

I don’t bring this up because it is a big surprise. “I’m shocked—Shocked!—to find that gambling is going on in here!”[2] It is just that I don’t know of many liberal organizations who hide their purpose in their names. But it seems the vast majority of conservative organizations do. Admittedly, “The National Organization for Marriage” sounds a lot better than “The National Organization to Limit Marriage Rights.”

The problem, as I see it, is that when it comes to individual issues, people skew liberal. So conservatives have to hide their intentions. You can’t say “Lynch the blacks!” But you can say, “States’ Rights!”

In addition to hiding the hateful intentions of such groups, this practice makes the policy of correctly naming groups invalid. If you set up a group to make life easier for people in wheelchairs, you can name it “People in Favor of Making Life Easier for People in Wheelchairs.”

But who would believe you?

[2] Shocked!