Stupid is as stupid does

 “I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it.” — John Stuart Mill to John Pakington in Parliament 31 May 1866.

 “Some fellows get credit for being conservative when they are only stupid.” —  in Abe Martin of Brown County, a newspaper cartoon from 1904 to 1930, written by Frank McKinney “Kin” Hubbard *1868, 1930 †

“A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward.” — 26 October 1939. President Franklin Roosevelt

  Carlo M. Cipolla's Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

I.) Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.

II.) The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.

III.) A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.

IV.) Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.

V.) A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.
_______________________________
An hundred and fifty years ago there were radicals in the Republican party, an hundred years ago there were progressives in the Republican party, fifty years ago there were liberals in the Republican party, twenty-five years ago there were moderates in the Republican party, now Republicans fear if they are not considered conservative enough.

One ridiculous phrasing of a story has four 'conservatives' bounced by Boehner. How? They are all conservative. The press chooses wrongly not to call them extremists, or teabaggers. The press fears to use a word beyond 'conservative'. On an old chart the term was 'reactionary'; on another it is 'fascist'.