The Gadfly

Just What Is A Conservative?

I don’t know how to define conservatives anymore. German Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck and English Prime Minster Winston Churchill were two conservatives who championed universal health care for all of their citizens. They both thought it was absolutely essential to have a healthy population to be competitive in world economic battles–and they expressed a keen interest in good health as part of the “common good.” Over 300 years ago the French Enlightenment writer Denis Diderot passionately endorsed the liberal idea that the individual had the “sacred” right to determine the course of his or life.  Some conservatives also want to determine the course of their lives, but many also want to determine the course of their neighbor’s life at the same time.

So here I was sitting in a pew with Corky Sunday morning in Cormorant Lutheran Church thinking of walleyes in Pelican Lake when suddenly my mind was captured by the first reading of Amos 6:1a, 4-7 about the great wealth of Israel and the fact that God’s people seem to have forgotten how to share their wealth with the poor. The text reads: “Alas for those who are at ease in Zion, and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria, Alas, for those who lie on beds of ivory, and lounge on their coaches, and eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the stall; who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp, and like David improvise on instruments of music; who drink wine from bowls, and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph! Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away.”  However, judgment will come in exile.

Were The Early Samaritans On SNAP?

My first paradoxical thought was to wonder if God’s people in Zion were on government food stamps 3,000 years ago. We often hear Tea Party conservatives today wanting to cut $40 billion from SNAP because the lazy recipients driving their new black Cadillacs pick up their  $135 a month, spend it on candy, cigarettes, fast food, booze, and other frivolous food items, and eat in their condo lounging on leather sofas watching their 52-inch flat screen TV. The second reading from 1 Timothy 6:6-19 chastises the rich also: “But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.”

I really don’t mind conservatives who want to be rich because a few of them are willing to share their riches for the common good. The conservatives who really bug me are the ones who preach against liberal ideals and policies until a family member has an illness or a handicap or a sexual “deviancy” which is not accepted by the general run of conservative supporters.

Former Vice-President Dick Cheney, who has always been seriously handicapped by a malfunctioning heart or the lack of one, even after his heart attacks and eventual transplant, never voted for Head Start projects or funding in his entire elected political career. This tells you a great deal about the character of the man. Cheney stridently opposed any acceptance of the Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transsexual (LGBT) community until he discovered one of his own daughters was gay. He suddenly had a change of heart, so to speak. Now he supports same-sex marriage. Cheney, who has been wrong about everything, particularly the results in Iraq, for ten years, was recently invited to speak to a convention in Toronto. Treating him for the war criminal he is, Canadian protesters kept him prisoner in a private club for seven hours. They should have turned him over to the Geneva war criminal court as a leader who endorsed torture.   What a hypocrite.

Ronald and Nancy Reagan vigorously supported the Republican Party’s platform which opposed stem-cell research--until Ronnie was labeled an Alzheimer’s patient. Suddenly the disease was personal. Another pair of hypocrites. What would President George W. Bush have done if both his daughters had been in the military and assigned to Iraq?  The great environmentalist-scientist-humanitarian Rush Limbaugh, better known in my circles as Trash Limbo, used to cuss out drug users and addicts daily—until he was caught by Oxycontin and turned. Suddenly this conservative turns into a fake liberal by making excuses for his addiction.  Remember Idaho Republican Senator Larry Craig who opposed any legislation regarding the recognition of the LGBT community—until he was caught soliciting a man in a Minneapolis airport bathroom?

What Is Liberalism?  What Is Conservatism?

   The definitions of political philosophy need to be changed to keep up with our dangerous times.  A return to commonsense would help. Our democracy may be at stake. Liberalism is defined as a philosophy that believes in individual liberty, equality of opportunity, freedom of expression, universal education, social and economic safety nets, social security, and that all of society is responsible to care for the unfortunate who are victims of bad luck, genetics, accidents, illness, diseases, and just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Liberals support the financing of all infrastructure for the common good. The world “common” implies that everyone can use the “common” area. The present Democratic Party, at one time the flag-bearer and spearchucker for liberalism, is all screwed up today. It has become a right-center organization.
   Fifty years ago both Republicans and Democrats dominated the center of American politics. Conservatism is a political philosophy that wishes to maintain existing institutions and  opposes progress and change. Conservative Republicans opposed  overtime laws, the 40-hour week, Medicare, Social Security, unemployment insurance, and  other labor legislation protecting the worker. But many moderate and liberal Republicans supported these reforms and helped Democrats pass this legislation.
 
But now a new aggressive political philosophy under the black umbrella of fascism where racism is a prominent factor has invaded the political arena. It’s called the Tea Party, with members strolling in public with AR-15s on shoulders or Glocks in pockets, calling the president a black foreign-born Kenya witch doctor, shouting down political opponents at town halls, and accepting torture as a legal investigative technique. With the backing of fascist billionaires such as the Koch brothers and extremists such as Associate Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, this conservative wing of the Republican Party has intimidated moderate Republicans right out of the Party.

What The Fascists On The Supreme Court Have Done To Democracy

The current crop of fascists on the Supreme Court gave us George W. Bush, two wars, $8 trillion added to the national debt, and the current recession. They also gave billionaires through the Citizen’s United decision a huge slave auction where they could buy local, state, and federal officials and U.S. senators and representatives. They also gave us several presidential candidates in 2012 bought on the free market by casino billionaires and others  that would have failed any LNCB standardized test. Can you imagine Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, “9-9-9” Herman Cain, Rick Perry, and Rick Santorum on a county commission? The court also made it possible for states to duck their Medicaid responsibility, thus keeping 8.2 million poor from any aspect of health care. They also decided that all racial discrimination has faded away in Philadelphia, Mississippi and Rosewood, Florida by dropping sections of Voting Rights legislation.

The Tea Party and its candidates and representatives need to hit the history books and all the Biblical gospels. They want to get rid of the Environmental Projection Agency, the Energy Department, the Education department, and any other agency which attempts to regulate physical, social, and economic behavior. These areas of government all have letters such as OSHA, FDA, FCC....the list goes on.

Are Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Jerry Ford, Ronald Reagan, And Mitt Romney “Real” Conservatives?

   Dwight Eisenhower insisted that the interstate highway system be built and maintained. Now we have right-wing politicians insisting that the system be privatized to save money! Eisenhower warned us about the growing political power of the military-industrial complex. Now the Pentagon and congressional supporters in 47 states (where F-35 parts are manufactured) are attempting to build an all-purpose fighter plane while it is flying and falling out of the skies. We have spent billions on a plane that should be named the Albatross instead of the strike fighter.

Remember when Tricky Dick Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency? Now Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry wants to eliminate it. Fifty years ago the Potomac River, the Great Lakes, and thousands of others were so polluted if you went swimming in them your private parts would whither and die. Robert Kennedy described the Hudson River in New York this way: “You don’t drown in it; you instantly decay.” In many states if you wanted to have a weeni roast and picnic by a river or lake you didn’t have to bring firewood or charcoal–you just lit the river with a match. Forty-four years ago Ohio’s Cuyahoga River burst into flames and burned for days.

In the 1970’s so much farm fertilizer polluted rivers huge dead zones were created at their mouths. Chesapeake Bay was so polluted fish, clams, and oysters couldn’t live in it.   A large area of the Gulf of Mexico is still dead from 100 years of neglect. The Clean Water Act stopped cities and towns from dumping human waste into rivers.

When Jerry Ford was in Congress he was known for being able to work across the aisle. Now if you work across the aisle you are dead meat and thrown over the side. Ronald Reagan agreed to changes in Social Security. Mitt Romney brought RomneyCare to Massachusetts. Now 95 percent of the citizens are covered by health insurance. All of these ex-presidents are considered to be RHINOS by “real” conservatives-–Republican-in-name- only.

Stand Your Ground But Transfer Your Priests

A conservative pope and a liberal pope will be canonized Roman Catholic saints by Pope Francis in the spring. At least that’s how they are described. Pope John XXIII brought a “Catholic Spring” to the church with the Second Vatican Council several decades ago which aroused the old guard in the Vatican to take to the mattresses. Enough of that liberal nonsense. Pope Francis is making a point by this resurrection. Of course, he is forced to promote the conservative Pope John Paul II to sainthood because Pope Benedict XVI started the premature process.  Actually, John Paul should have served time in jail for failure to report the sexual abuse of thousands of children by priests and bishops to secular authorities around the world. Both John Paul and Ratzinger-Benedict were co-conspirators in hiding and transferring abusing priests from parish to parish and country to country. A saint?!!

The gun lobby led by Saint Wayne LaPierre has captured the Republican Party and some so-called conservative Democrats and teaches and preaches the gospel of the Second Amendment after each and every mass killing. One might think that “conservatives” would be very concerned about the fact we spend $175 billion each year covering lost work time, medical care, insurance, court and prison costs, and other associated costs because of firearms. While Great Britain has 18 gun homicides a year, we average 87 firearm deaths and 183 wounded per day with the 316 million guns readily available to children as young as two. We own more guns than cars–and by 2015 we will kill more people with guns than we will in auto crashes. That’s insane. That’s conservative thought.