They say that you can tell a great deal about a society by how it treats their children and the elderly. We can also learn a lot about a society by how it treats women, the poor, the ill and their troops as they return home from war. How will today’s conservative view of society be judged in its treatment of their fellow citizens?
Conservative’s support cutting funds for pre-school and k-12 education and are against providing government loans to students who are attempting to go to college and graduate school. They are also against funding for children’s mental health services and aid to dependant children.
For the elderly, conservatives want to repeal Roosevelt ’s safety net that was enacted after the Great Depression. They want to block grant money to the states for health care. They want to eliminate unions. They want the elimination of fixed retirement programs for workers. The question that needs to be asked, in such a world, how will our parents and grandparents be able to support themselves?
While conservatives do not want regulations on Wall Street, they do want regulations on a woman’s choice to become a mother, or not. They are also against government programs that provide contraception to young women and the poor.
Conservatives refer to the poor and jobless as moochers wanting government handouts. They cast the poor in the light of being irresponsible, unmotivated and laying around feeling like victims. Conservatives want to cut back on food stamps and believe that unemployment insurance lessens a person’s incentive to find a job.
And, who are the poor and jobless? They are those who have lost their jobs do to no fault of their own, who can’t find work or an adequately paying job because of the job market, whose mortgages are underwater, who are going bankrupt due to the fiscal policies that were in place during Bush’s administration, whose children are going to bed hungry, who are clinging to unemployment checks that might not be renewed, and who might already be living on the street.
Then we have the ill. Obama’s Affordable Health Care Act, a comprehensive medical care bill that provides coverage for more than 30 million people who were otherwise not covered, will be repealed if Romney is elected. Health care will be thrown open to the forces of “free markets.” People with a history of preexisting conditions, the poor and elderly will be at the mercy of for profit, free market health providers.
Next, we have our service personnel who are returning home from war. How will the conservative’s obsession with reducing the deficit without raising revenue impact programs providing for the life time needs of those who have been wounded physically and emotionally while serving our country? What provisions will they make to ensure that those who have defended our country will be guaranteed employment?
Today’s conservatives, whose vocabulary does not include the word compromise, sound like those of the past who supported “Jim Crow” laws, who were against women voting, who were for the internment of Japanese American’s during World War II, who were against inter racial marriages, who were against civil and gay rights. Their dogma views people as a means to an end and fellow citizens as so much collateral damage. When will conservatives turn the page, look into the eyes of another and know that “but by the Grace of God, there go I?”
The painful answer to this question is that they never will. Why? Because the likes of Karl Rove view the world through the lens of the ends justify the means. If lying wins elections, they will lie. If not revealing the details of a position will win the election, they withhold the details of a position. If changing positions depending on what audience is being addressed is what wins elections, they will change positions. How does the person who votes for Romney know which Romney he is voting for?
The tragedy of the conservative “ethic” is that once the cop, truck driver, food clerk or “Joe the Plummer” votes for Romney, they will be thrown under the bus. They and their votes are only needed to win the election. Once that is accomplished, those who steer the conservative agenda will do what is in their best interest. Why? Because money speaks and if you don’t have money, you have no voice.
Thanks for stopping by…
Namaste,
Jim Farwell
