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SEPTEMBER 19, 2005
– It’s interesting if you listen. A decade of
propaganda has so misdefined things that even liberals – who are by
now so completely battered they are afraid to use the “liberal”
label and instead call themselves “progressives” – echo the
nonsensical lies.
“Fiscal conservatism,” says the lie, equals fiscally
responsible. “Socially conservative” equals socially responsible
and compassionate.
Even on “progressive” talk radio, when the policies of the Bush/Limbaughians
are assailed, these lies about what conservatism is and isn’t are
usually echoed. When the GOP’s reckless spending ways are pointed
out, the commentators often say, “I thought they were supposed to be
fiscal conservatives.” When Pat Robertson calls for an
assassination or when people who do amoral and illegal things in the
Bush administration are not held accountable, liberal commentators
and columnists ask, “I thought they were supposed to be good
conservatives who care about morals and the law.”
Again and again, as conservatism further and further erodes America
– economically, socially, and politically – commentators and
politicians on both sides of the aisle say that the problem is that
Bush/Limbaugh conservatives are just not being real conservatives,
that if they were being real conservatives, we would have a balanced
budget, a kind, compassionate government, and things would be
great and very American.
Nothing could be more inaccurate. In fact, this dishonest,
inaccurate line of thinking, bred by the endless
Bush/Limbaugh/Murdoch lie-and-spin propaganda machine, is the single
biggest threat to our nation at the moment.
Fiscal conservatism does not equal fiscally responsible; fiscal
conservatives are fiscally delusional and never have, and never
could, be capable of making a budget that functions usefully in the
real world.
Fiscal conservatism is Arnold Schwarzenegger saying he can eliminate
the $10 billion plus debt in California while cutting taxes, without
cutting necessary spending on things like education, just by
eliminating “unnecessary, wasteful spending” by “liberals,” only to
end up borrowing not ten but sixteen billion dollars due to the fact
everything he said was delusional and dishonest.
Fiscal conservatism is Tom Delay and the Washington Times, as seen
in
this article. With massive deficits on one side and massive
disasters due to underfunding basic needs on the other, Tom Delay is
calling the situation economic “victory” for conservatives.
To conservatives, there is no talk about fiscal responsibility or
balancing the budget or restoring funding to essential things like
protecting the homeland. Instead, the article offers a
glimpse into the true insanity and destructiveness of conservatism,
which is really nothing but irresponsible greed cloaked over with
sweet talk.
Look at this debate between the Bush/Limbaugh
conservative Tom Delay and others who are defending even purer
conservatism:
“Mr. DeLay was defending Republicans' choice to
borrow money and add to this year's expected $331 billion deficit
to pay for Hurricane Katrina relief. Some Republicans have said
Congress should make cuts in other areas, but Mr. DeLay said that
doesn't seem possible.”
To conservatives, the lesson of Katrina is not to acknowledge that we need to restore
some of the funding they cut from vital things that can prevent
disasters - like levee construction - but that, due to the disaster
caused by their spending cuts, we need to cut more.
Even DeLay, one of the most irresponsible cutters in
our nation’s history has a, ‘You got to be kidding,’ moment. From the
article:
“My answer to those that want to offset the
spending is sure, bring me the offsets, I'll be glad to do it. But
nobody has been able to come up with any yet," the Texas
Republican told reporters at his weekly briefing.
In other words, he is acknowledging what
Schwarzenegger had to acknowledge and what moderates and Democrats
have been saying all along: the claim that just cutting unnecessary
waste can cover the cost of tax cuts and necessary spending is bunk.
But conservative groups will have nothing to do with
reality. Not the lesson of Katrina, not DeLay’s breaking the
reality of the current deficits and added Katrina
costs. No, fiscal conservatives exist in a fictional realm where
taking more and more money for themselves is all that matters, and
their dishonest pretending that somehow balancing a budget is their
ultimate goal is shown to be the façade that it is.
The article continues:
“Congress has passed two hurricane relief bills
totaling $62.3 billion, all of which will be added to the deficit.
"Republican leaders have been under pressure from conservative
members and outside watchdog groups to find ways to pay for the
Katrina relief.”
Now that sounds nice, like the fiscal “conservatism”
you were sold as being equal to fiscal responsibility. But continue
on to the next sentence:
“Some Republicans wanted to offer an amendment,
including cuts, to pay for hurricane spending but were denied the
chance under procedural rules.
"This is hardly a well-oiled machine," said Rep.
Jeff Flake, Arizona Republican. "There's a lot of fat to trim. ...
"American Conservative Union Chairman David A. Keene said federal
spending already was "spiraling out of control" before Katrina,
and conservatives are "increasingly losing faith in the president
and the Republican leadership in Congress."
And just in case you try and put some sanity or
logic into their thinking, assuming that maybe they are just upset
about how much is being spent in Iraq or in the War on Terror, Mr.
Keane clears that up in the very next sentence:
"Excluding military and homeland security,
American taxpayers have witnessed the largest spending increase
under any preceding president and Congress since the Great
Depression," he said."
No, these are people who want to both
ignore the costs of the Iraq policies they supported and not acknowledge
how the underfunding of domestic priorities - like fixing levees -
created disasters while, incredibly, at the same time, claiming they are really just
trying to balance the budget, and that more cuts in domestic
spending are what is needed to do it.
Doesn’t matter that they can’t present things to
cut, or that their leader, Tom DeLay, is even telling them, “…bring
me the offsets, I'll be glad to do it. But nobody has been able to
come up with any yet.”
No, for fiscal conservatives, neither responsibility
nor reality are things they begin to grasp. Like Communism sought
to undermine society with delusional claims of equality for all
while promoting systems that ensured success for none, Conservatism
uses delusional claims of fiscal responsibility to promote
bankrupting policies that leave the nation broke and in tatters.
Social conservatism is as delusional as fiscal conservatism, nothing but a dishonest
philosophy that makes you a criminal for being an
ordinary citizen while pretending to be protecting you.
Prohibition, seatbelt laws, banning dancing, restricting sexuality,
permanent curfews for our young adults, 21-year old drinking ages
that leave even the President’s own daughters as criminals for
wanting margaritas with their Mexican food. They are standing up
for the good people – that only exist in dishonest, delusional-conservative-Fantasyland.
There was nothing wrong with the Bush daughters – who are of college age –
wanting a drink with their dinner; and even more importantly, they
displayed that this is something that good people regularly do.
Thanks to social conservatives, your son or daughter are made into
criminals for acting normally.
The general idea of social conservatism is to render everyone in the
nation a criminal for doing what they would ordinarily do. This
creates a setup where anyone can be arrested and given harsh
penalties at the whim and choice of the government. For example,
one of the biggest problems regularly cited by conservatives is the
horrible drug problem in poor, minority neighborhoods. Drug users,
drug dealers. Horrible.
That’s nice, except look at reality: both Al Gore and George W.
Bush used drugs. Because they were white people in rich
neighborhoods who used drugs, they got to go on to run for
President. In the meantime, a fifteen-year old who does the same in
a poor, black neighborhood is busted and run up with a criminal
record, his future ruined, his reputation assailed, and he is labeled but
another horrible part of the nation's poor minority drug problem.
And no, this is not some exceptional example. Central to
conservatism is intentionally dishonest hypocrisy. They let their
kids drink, they use drugs, they don’t abide by nor really agree
with the laws they pass, but they pass them anyway and then scream
bloody murder when others break them. It is more than lying. It is
a truly brainwashed delusionality in which they honestly convince themselves that condemning
actions by others that they actually practice themselves is not
insane nor dishonest. They can go on and on about those horrible
criminals, how they should be locked up, shot, how they are worse
then animals, all the while being delusionally disconnected from the
fact that they do the same things themselves. You don’t have to run down
the whole list of multi-divorced drug addicts like Rush Limbaugh
preaching on and on about family values and the need for harsher penalties
for those drug addicts, or the Bushes/Cheneys/etc. who ran from
serving their nation in combat who preach how doing so is
un-American.
The point is plain and easily observable, and it is a basic tenet
of conservatism.
And finally, political conservatism is such a juvenilely
small-minded view of diplomacy and the world that it can never have
useful application in the actual world. It is Pat Robertson
thinking we should just kill people who oppose us – but do it
covertly, and that will really fool people and free us from
consequences or guilt. It is Eisenhower deciding to undermine the
entire nation of Iran for the sake of keeping oil prices down and
thinking – honestly – that it is a good bargain in the long term;
and then his fellow conservatives refusing to make the connection to
the hostage crisis, the Iran/Iraq War which led us to fund and arm Saddam
Hussein, the arming and training of Osama bin Laden, the having to
put troops on Saudi soil to stop Saddam from using the arms we gave
him, the anger that instilled in the man we had armed and trained
named Osama, and the leading of all this to 9/11. Yes,
conservatives have a real, delusional belief that they are the
solution to Iraq and 9/11, refusing to accept the inescapable
reality that conservatism was directly responsible for the hostage
crisis, both Iraq Wars, and 9/11.
Communists once sought to undermine the American government,
bankrupting our coffers and values. Now, it is conservatives – the
communists of the modern era – that our government must defend
itself against.
Conservative philosophy is one that believes freedom is a threat to
a nation, that dictatorship is a better, “easier” form of government
– as both George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld have said – and
conservatism preaches that hate is to be put before facts, anger
before reason.
While the true ultimate goal of communism was a totalitarian state,
as witnessed everywhere communism flourished, the real ultimate goal
of conservatism is dictatorship, as witnessed everywhere
conservatism dominates, such as in the nations of the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, indeed, Iraq, are all conservative-dominated
nations.
The outcome of conservatism is always the same: forced religion
or creed,
lack of freedom, lack of democracy, and fiscal disaster for all but
a few.
The nonsense that conservatism stands for all things good, that
fiscal conservatism means fiscally responsible, that social
conservatism means socially responsible, that politically
conservative mean superior on foreign policy is all just the echoing
of lies fed to us again and again by the lying right-wing
propagandists that entirely dominate the American media
conversation.
The successful nations of the world all are – as America has been –
moderate nations. They are nations that keep leftists and rightists,
communists and conservatives, at bay, vocal minorities without much
actual power.
During the Cold War, America was under threat by communists, both
abroad and at home. Now, in the age of the War on Terror, we are
under attack by conservatives, both abroad and at home.
Except so far we have only defended ourselves against them abroad.
With two-thirds of our nation now aware that what is going on at
home is not good for America, it is time for all of us to join
together to begin to fend off the attack on America by the insidious,
destructive, reckless, violent, delusional propagandizing and
assault on our government by the evil that is conservatism.
And in case you don’t really want to believe it, look at who is
ensuring that FOX News continues to operate as the propaganda outlet
it is. From
CNN via Netscape News:
“Saudi Arabian billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said
Tuesday he now holds a 5.5% voting stake in Rupert Murdoch's News
Corp. (the parent company of FOX News) and is ready to raise his stake, especially if it is
necessary to shield Murdoch from any potential hostile takeover
attempts by the likes of John Malone's Liberty Media.
"Investment vehicles controlled by the prince's Kingdom Holding Co.
have converted what was last reported to be a 3% non-voting stake
in the entertainment conglomerate into the new voting holding.
"In an interview on CNBC Tuesday, Alwaleed said he has communicated
his strategy to Murdoch and was "mobilized and ready" to further
boost his voting stake "if we feel that the strategy of Mr.
Murdoch and his son and his family is being threatened by any
outsider." He added: "Clearly, this is something we will not
accept, because we are very happy as shareholders with what Mr.
Murdoch is doing."
"A News Corp. spokesman Tuesday declined to comment on the news,
but company sources said the Saudi prince has long been regarded
by Murdoch as an ally in his showdown with Malone.”
A billionaire Saudi Prince "will not accept" someone changing FOX
News from the conservative propaganda station that it is. He
"has long been regarded by (FOX News owner Rupert) Murdoch as an
ally..."
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