For people who don’t like government—or at least big government—conservatives and the business interests that support them sure do know their way around Washington, especially the area around K Street.
A few days ago, Gail Collins wrote a piece about how the NRA practically wrote the “Stand Your Ground” laws that exist in 21 states and are being proposed in other states including ours. There is no great demand for these laws on a personal level but the article points out that the NRA needs to push these laws in order to stay in the game, to continue to be relevant if they are to continue to pull in donations and supporters.
In today’s paper we read about the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) role, not just in passing legislation but also in writing legislation geared to union busting (Because unions gave us a middle class?), undermining environmental protection (Because clean air and water take a bite out of profits?), and tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy (one word-greed).
This same group—with support from companies like AT&T, Coca-Cola and UPS—promote privatization and outsourcing as effective methods of limiting government costs. And when hasn’t privatization and outsourcing worked out well in the long run?
To answer that question one would only have to ask workers who no longer have retirement or health plans or living wages. Or you can wait to see what the Postal Service will be like if they ever privatize it and run it for a profit instead of as a service.
Who can forget (although many have) the role played by Goldman Sacks in the financial collapse of 2008 (or what they refer to as the end of the housing and economic boom of 2001-2007) or the role they have played for the last century in writing virtually every law regulating business (with as little regulation as possible)?
And there was the Iraq War that the Conservative signatories for the Project for a New American Century, many of whom wound up playing important roles in the Bush administration, desired in the late 1990s. Of course, they didn’t envision a decade-long war that added billions to the national debt but by biding their time they were eventually able to get the war they wanted.
They were determined to get us into Iraq by hook or by crook. WMD’s became the hook and there were plenty of crooks to go around.
When Conservatives say that people know better how to spend their money than the government they are obviously not talking about the vast number of Americans carrying personal credit card debt comparable to the debt the Treasury carries on a national level.
When Rick Perry, Conservative Governor of Texas, says states can best handle the health care needs of its citizens he is obviously not talking about states like his own, where one in four people have no insurance. This makes health care costs for all individuals in Texas more expensive than in every state except Mississippi. But on the plus side a lax policy towards health insurance plus low taxes has resulted in many businesses relocating to Texas.
And therein lies the main constituency of Conservatives—business and profits they generate. In a perfect Conservative world, business will do very well with little or no government regulation, the wealthy will do well with lower and less taxes and everyone else will have to fend for themselves.
The Iraq War, the housing collapse, deregulation, the right to unlimited gun sales and new and improved means to get around gun laws, the privatization of government agencies, and the increased tendency to favor the investor over the worker have rarely been good for the average American but have been very good for Conservatives and their constituents.
Voters would do well to refresh themselves on the definition of a wedge and then decide what side of that wedge they will ultimately wind up on. In almost every instance the average American has wound up on the losing end after supporting causes that sound good but rarely were designed with him in mind.
Being conservative in your personal life is one thing but hooking up with the conservative movement is quite another.
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