February 1st, 2009
Don’t you just love it. The same people who had no problem with doling out hundreds of billions of dollars to the Lords of Wall Street with no strings attached have an issue with providing help to beekeepers. I guess those guys don’t read National Geographic. Without bees we won’t have crops to harvest, and a mysterious disease has been killing the bees. But I suppose it resonates nicely in a sound bite to call this small bit of assistance in the Economic Stimulus Plan pork.
Conservative ideology is sounding mighty mean-spirited these days. The Economic Stimulus Plan is not perfect, but it’s a far sight better than anything the Bush administration and Henry Paulson came up with. The Conservative message of cut, cut, cut has the feel of Marie Antoinette picking our pockets as she admonishes us to quit whining.
I just heard Mitch McConnell on CNN complain about spending $600 million for government-owned cars and say that’s not appropriate for this bill. What? That’s roughly 30,000 cars that would have to be built by someone. Sounds like job stimulus to me. And since the government doesn’t build cars, it sounds to me like that money will be going to big business. I really don’t understand their problem with it.
Conservatives consistently argue against bigger government. That’s their code for taking our taxpayer dollars and parcelling it out to their pals in the private sector to provide the services that government otherwise would. Which is fine, to a point. Some services are not suited to lumbering bureaucracies. But paying excessive sums to politically connected companies with little or no oversight is not. Halliburton’s Iraq contracts come to mind.
The Conservative argument isn’t about spending money; it’s about whose fingers it sticks to on the way past. For the last eight years there was a huge transfer of wealth to the richest Americans via tax cuts and decreased regulation. That was just peachy with Conservatives. But the Economic Stimulus Plan with its extending benefits to unemployed Americans who buy the goods that generate the profits for big business, not so much.
I don’t understand the logic, and if there isn’t any logic, it might mean it’s just plain old greed. Maybe those Barons of the Conservative movement and our Lords of Wall Street consider us peasants.
Not so long ago in England, a gentleman was someone who owned property. They were the gentry. Today very few of us actually ownproperty. It’s mortgaged, and that’s the biggest reason for our peasanthood. The way to free ourselves from this predicament is to get ourselves out of debt.
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Categories: Commentary, Economy, Government, Politics |
Tags: beekeepers, bees, conservative, economic stimulus, financial, first, ideology, plan, united | 2 Comments
December 19th, 2008
Conservative politics makes me sick. I could never have conceived of a philosophy or ideology that is so morally bankrupt as to manipulate and abuse just about everyone it encounters. But that is what Conservatives have become.
Lie about going into Iraq? To quote Vice President Cheney, “So?”
To show some small element of support and empathy for the immediate aftereffects of Hurricane Katrina? I know. I know. Don’t leave your ranch and only do a quick flyby several days later.
To blithely turn over $350 Billion to big banks and Wall Street firms with almost no oversight and with a nifty loophole to allow big bonuses for those who broke their companies? Just peachy.
The fact that all that money is doing absolutely nothing to free up credit and help homeowners in danger of losing their homes? Sound surprised but don’t make any fundamental changes.
How about playing a big role in the downfall of the American auto industry because of the lack of credit caused by the companies above and then laying the blame on the United Auto Workers? Yeah, of course. What’s the problem?
I’m reading an excellent book by Bob Moser entitled Blue Dixie: Awakening the South’s Democratic Majority. It took thirty years for Conservatives to get us to where we are now, and there are some who don’t think they’ve brought us far enough. Until I read this book I didn’t know anything about Dominionists, but there are Republicans out there who actually think we should become a Christian version of Iran.
D. James Kennedy was quoted as saying, “Our job is to reclaim America for Christ, whatever the cost. As the vice regents of God, we are to exercise godly dominion and influence over our neighborhoods, our schools, our government, our literature and arts, our sports arenas, our entertainment media, our news media, our scientific endeavors — in short, over every aspect and institution of human society.” Their goal is to “rewrite schoolbooks and curricula to reflect a history of America as a ‘Christian nation’; pack the courts with judges who follow Old Testament law; post the Ten Commandments in every courthouse; and make it a felony for gay men to have sex and women to have abortions under any circumstances.”
Does any part of this sound familiar? We’ve had fiscal Conservatism with it’s belief that companies and management come first and everyone else be damned. We’ve had social Conservatism with it’s belief that if you don’t follow their most unChristlike dogma, you are damned. Hmmm. Not too much room for most of us, is there?
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Categories: Commentary, Government, Politics |
Tags: bankrupt, conservatism, conservative, Dominionism, financial, first, ideology, Politics, united | No Comments
