Conservatism has poisoned everything it's touched in my lifetime of 47 years; from the assassination of Martin Luther King and the election of Nixon and his escalation in Vietnam to Reagan's massive redistribution of wealth upward and accompanied deficits, to George W. Bush's resurrection of a type of reactionary trogdalytes educated people thought had gone away. The reactionary right has repeatedly torn apart and reversed progress each time it's been made. And the reason it's happened is not difficult to grasp: Conservatism, despite the implications of it's name, is a fundamentally destructive force, not a constructive force in society. It's rightly called reactionary because apart from it's reactions, it has no nature other than resist and to disassemble. It is innately, yet rightly paranoid. Conservatives are at least smart enough to understand that if they're not defensive in the extreme, they're always going to be overthrown by the people. Their paranoia then becomes an infliction on the rest of us who're also rightly paranoid of them. Conservatism is a breeding ground for national paranoia.
Grover Nordquist is unarguably the Father of the movement as it exists today, and the destructive nature of his movement was exemplified in his infamous "Make the government small enough to drown in a bath tub" quote. So conservatism argues for smaller government as it's central thesis. What a stupid f*cking thesis. Let me tell you what this really means, at least if you're someone who actually loves the country: This country is founded upon the concept that We The People are the government. That our government is government of the people, by the people, and for the people. If you do not believe this, you're not an American. Not a real one anyway. And if you think you do, yet call yourself a "conservative", how do you square that with wanting a smaller government? Here is what this actually computes to: You want a smaller people. There is no way around that. Remember, we are the government.
When we undertook to go to the moon in the early sixties, did we devise to build smaller, simpler rockets every year until the "goal" was reached? Of course not, that's idiotic. Yet this is the fundamental idiocy of the conservative movement; it seeks an ever smaller people, obligated to less and less, to accomplish more and more. Maintaining the peace and prosperity of a nation of 300 million people, and advancing the quality of their daily lives, is a monumental undertaking. Finally getting to the moon required the most complex, powerful rocket ever devised. Who in their right mind could look at an entire country, one which is touted to be the most powerful nation on earth no less, and conclude that we'll make progress by making "We The People", smaller; indeed "small enough to drown in a bath tub"? You just witnessed the obvious result of conservative philosophy in New Orleans; We The People, were drowned.
Those of us who reject this "smaller government" idiocy understand something else about conservatives; they're hypocrites. To a man. When they see a problem in government, they do not seek to fix the problem. They seek to eliminate the government itself: They seek to eliminate.....US. Those of us who understand them, understand that because their core ideology is reactive and exclusively critical to those who construct presumably useful societal structures, understand that when an inevitable failure takes place -for all complex under takings generate them-, these hypocrites are going to come forward not with a solution, but rather an attack on the government itself. You see, they actually hate "We The People"; all they understand is "Me the tax payer". They care absolutely nothing for the "general welfare", and in fact, they loath it. Remember, "to promote the general welfare" is the central mission statement of our Constitution. "Conservatives" actually hate America.
The conservative politicians are also hypocrites on an even baser level; they seek to become an intrinsic part of the government by election, for the purposes of eliminating the government. As a goal, I do not believe the word "treasonous" is actually too strong, for a traitor is one who's stated allegiances are acted against by their own hand. My message to conservatives: If you do not believe in government, STOP TRYING TO BECOME PART OF IT. Just stay away.
Conservatism offers no hope and never did. It is a fundamental rejection of real Americanism; the belief that as a people, we can work together to make this place better for everyone. They don't want it better for everyone. They want it better for themselves at the expense of "the general welfare".
Somewhere along the line, the conservatives co-opted "Patriotism" and the flag, and for some reason, the liberals and progressives have let them get away with it. Conservatives are the last people who should ever be allowed to claim they "Love America". They've fucked it up beyond recognition over the last 6 years. But let us all agree that despite protests to the contrary by them, the conservatives got everything they said they wanted and had full control of this country for the last 6 years, and look at the ruin they've left. This is nothing new: They've done it every time; from Vietnam, Reagan's massive debt, to the current Bush disaster, it's been cyclical and utterly predictable.
It is now up to so-called Liberals and other reasonable types to do something which goes against our basic nature as social creatures, and to realize that this can never be allowed to happen again. We must negate these people from the national dialog as adults negate children from business cocktail parties. We can not afford to compromise with them.
Conservatives destroy freedom. I believe in every freedom but for one: The right to actually attempt to destroy freedoms. The conservatives willfully destroyed our freedoms, they systematically sought to reduce the Bill of Rights to dust and had they not been stopped, there'd have been nothing left. It is time for people who actually care about this country as an idea set forth by the founders, to recognize our real domestic enemy. It's them. The conservatives understand nothing but naked authoritarian power, and like the cowards they really are, their boldness immediately subsides when confronted. They went unconfronted far too long. But they not only need to be confronted, but at this point, they should be shamed, beaten down, and as I said in an earlier op-ed, offered a steaming hot cup of "Shut the f*ck up".
I am not supporting Barack Obama. I'm not supporting him because what little he's already said, is utterly antithetical to fixing the problem as I've just identified it. I do not want national unity or compromise with these people; you can not compromise with a fundamentally destructive force without damaging the cause of progress. As we seek to solve big, often complex problems with equally big complex solutions, they can only impede us and are a demonstrated threat to our continuance as a nation if ever allowed to wield power. I want a meaningful, productive division in this country between those who would move it forward, and those who would take us back into Cambodia. I do not want these people appeased, but defeated with the kind of finality which finally leads them to reformulate their entire philosophy into a new one which might actually be a useful one. Making government smaller, is not one of them. Making it work, and making it work better for everyone, is. And this brings me to the final hypocrisy of conservatism; they never do actually make government smaller. They say they will, but they just make it bigger and then break it anyway. For anyone with a brain who seeks space travel, talk of smaller, simpler rockets is off the table. Let's just make the damned thing fly.
Grover Nordquist is unarguably the Father of the movement as it exists today, and the destructive nature of his movement was exemplified in his infamous "Make the government small enough to drown in a bath tub" quote. So conservatism argues for smaller government as it's central thesis. What a stupid f*cking thesis. Let me tell you what this really means, at least if you're someone who actually loves the country: This country is founded upon the concept that We The People are the government. That our government is government of the people, by the people, and for the people. If you do not believe this, you're not an American. Not a real one anyway. And if you think you do, yet call yourself a "conservative", how do you square that with wanting a smaller government? Here is what this actually computes to: You want a smaller people. There is no way around that. Remember, we are the government.
When we undertook to go to the moon in the early sixties, did we devise to build smaller, simpler rockets every year until the "goal" was reached? Of course not, that's idiotic. Yet this is the fundamental idiocy of the conservative movement; it seeks an ever smaller people, obligated to less and less, to accomplish more and more. Maintaining the peace and prosperity of a nation of 300 million people, and advancing the quality of their daily lives, is a monumental undertaking. Finally getting to the moon required the most complex, powerful rocket ever devised. Who in their right mind could look at an entire country, one which is touted to be the most powerful nation on earth no less, and conclude that we'll make progress by making "We The People", smaller; indeed "small enough to drown in a bath tub"? You just witnessed the obvious result of conservative philosophy in New Orleans; We The People, were drowned.
Those of us who reject this "smaller government" idiocy understand something else about conservatives; they're hypocrites. To a man. When they see a problem in government, they do not seek to fix the problem. They seek to eliminate the government itself: They seek to eliminate.....US. Those of us who understand them, understand that because their core ideology is reactive and exclusively critical to those who construct presumably useful societal structures, understand that when an inevitable failure takes place -for all complex under takings generate them-, these hypocrites are going to come forward not with a solution, but rather an attack on the government itself. You see, they actually hate "We The People"; all they understand is "Me the tax payer". They care absolutely nothing for the "general welfare", and in fact, they loath it. Remember, "to promote the general welfare" is the central mission statement of our Constitution. "Conservatives" actually hate America.
The conservative politicians are also hypocrites on an even baser level; they seek to become an intrinsic part of the government by election, for the purposes of eliminating the government. As a goal, I do not believe the word "treasonous" is actually too strong, for a traitor is one who's stated allegiances are acted against by their own hand. My message to conservatives: If you do not believe in government, STOP TRYING TO BECOME PART OF IT. Just stay away.
Conservatism offers no hope and never did. It is a fundamental rejection of real Americanism; the belief that as a people, we can work together to make this place better for everyone. They don't want it better for everyone. They want it better for themselves at the expense of "the general welfare".
Somewhere along the line, the conservatives co-opted "Patriotism" and the flag, and for some reason, the liberals and progressives have let them get away with it. Conservatives are the last people who should ever be allowed to claim they "Love America". They've fucked it up beyond recognition over the last 6 years. But let us all agree that despite protests to the contrary by them, the conservatives got everything they said they wanted and had full control of this country for the last 6 years, and look at the ruin they've left. This is nothing new: They've done it every time; from Vietnam, Reagan's massive debt, to the current Bush disaster, it's been cyclical and utterly predictable.
It is now up to so-called Liberals and other reasonable types to do something which goes against our basic nature as social creatures, and to realize that this can never be allowed to happen again. We must negate these people from the national dialog as adults negate children from business cocktail parties. We can not afford to compromise with them.
Conservatives destroy freedom. I believe in every freedom but for one: The right to actually attempt to destroy freedoms. The conservatives willfully destroyed our freedoms, they systematically sought to reduce the Bill of Rights to dust and had they not been stopped, there'd have been nothing left. It is time for people who actually care about this country as an idea set forth by the founders, to recognize our real domestic enemy. It's them. The conservatives understand nothing but naked authoritarian power, and like the cowards they really are, their boldness immediately subsides when confronted. They went unconfronted far too long. But they not only need to be confronted, but at this point, they should be shamed, beaten down, and as I said in an earlier op-ed, offered a steaming hot cup of "Shut the f*ck up".
I am not supporting Barack Obama. I'm not supporting him because what little he's already said, is utterly antithetical to fixing the problem as I've just identified it. I do not want national unity or compromise with these people; you can not compromise with a fundamentally destructive force without damaging the cause of progress. As we seek to solve big, often complex problems with equally big complex solutions, they can only impede us and are a demonstrated threat to our continuance as a nation if ever allowed to wield power. I want a meaningful, productive division in this country between those who would move it forward, and those who would take us back into Cambodia. I do not want these people appeased, but defeated with the kind of finality which finally leads them to reformulate their entire philosophy into a new one which might actually be a useful one. Making government smaller, is not one of them. Making it work, and making it work better for everyone, is. And this brings me to the final hypocrisy of conservatism; they never do actually make government smaller. They say they will, but they just make it bigger and then break it anyway. For anyone with a brain who seeks space travel, talk of smaller, simpler rockets is off the table. Let's just make the damned thing fly.
