OpEdNews
Original Content at
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_jay_esbe_070122__22conservatism_22__3d_we_.htm--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 27, 2007
"Conservatism" = We The People "Drowned in a bath tub".
By Esbe
Conservatism has poisoned everything it's touched in my lifetime of 47 years; from the assassination of Martin Luther King and the election of Nixon and his escalation in Vietnam to Reagan's massive redistribution of wealth upward and accompanied deficits, to George W. Bush's resurrection of a type of reactionary trogdalytes educated people thought had gone away. The reactionary right has repeatedly torn apart and reversed progress each time it's been made. And the reason it's happened is not difficult to grasp: Conservatism, despite the implications of it's name, is a fundamentally destructive force, not a constructive force in society. It's rightly called reactionary because apart from it's reactions, it has no nature other than resist and to disassemble. It is innately, yet rightly paranoid. Conservatives are at least smart enough to understand that if they're not defensive in the extreme, they're always going to be overthrown by the people. Their paranoia then becomes an infliction on the rest of us who're also rightly paranoid of them. Conservatism is a breeding ground for national paranoia.
Grover Nordquist is unarguably the Father of the movement as it exists today, and the destructive nature of his movement was exemplified in his infamous "Make the government small enough to drown in a bath tub" quote. So conservatism argues for smaller government as it's central thesis. What a stupid fucking thesis. Let me tell you what this really means, at least if you're someone who actually loves the country: This country is founded upon the concept that We The People are the government. That our government is government of the people, by the people, and for the people. If you do not believe this, you're not an American. Not a real one anyway. And if you think you do, yet call yourself a "conservative", how do you square that with wanting a smaller government? Here is what this actually computes to: You want a smaller people. There is no way around that. Remember, we are the government.
When we undertook to go to the moon in the early sixties, did we devise to build smaller, simpler rockets every year until the "goal" was reached? Of course not, that's idiotic. Yet this is the fundamental idiocy of the conservative movement; it seeks an ever smaller people, obligated to less and less, to accomplish more and more. Maintaining the peace and prosperity of a nation of 300 million people, and advancing the quality of their daily lives, is a monumental undertaking. Finally getting to the moon required the most complex, powerful rocket ever devised. Who in their right mind could look at an entire country, one which is touted to be the most powerful nation on earth no less, and conclude that we'll make progress by making "We The People", smaller; indeed "small enough to drown in a bath tub"? You just witnessed the obvious result of conservative philosophy in New Orleans; We The People, were drowned.....
Those of us who reject this "smaller government" idiocy understand something else about conservatives; they're hypocrites. To a man. When they see a problem in government, they do not seek to fix the problem. They seek to eliminate the government itself: They seek to eliminate.....US. Those of us who understand them, understand that because their core ideology is reactive and exclusively critical to those who construct presumably useful societal structures, understand that when an inevitable failure takes place –for all complex under takings generate them-, these hypocrites are going to come forward not with a solution, but rather an attack on the government itself. You see, they actually hate "We The People"; all they understand is "Me the tax payer". They care absolutely nothing for the "general welfare", and in fact, they loath it. Remember, "to promote the general welfare" is the central mission statement of our Constitution. "Conservatives" actually hate America.....
Conservatism offers no hope and never did. It is a fundamental rejection of real Americanism; the belief that as a people, we can work together to make this place better for everyone. They don't want it better for everyone. They want it better for themselves at the expense of "the general welfare".....
Conservatives destroy freedom. I believe in every freedom but for one: The right to actually attempt to destroy freedoms. The conservatives willfully destroyed our freedoms, they systematically sought to reduce the Bill of Rights to dust and had they not been stopped, there'd have been nothing left. It is time for people who actually care about this country as an idea set forth by the founders, to recognize our real domestic enemy. It's them. The conservatives understand nothing but naked authoritarian power, and like the cowards they really are, their boldness immediately subsides when confronted. They went unconfronted far too long. But they not only need to be confronted, but at this point, they should be shamed, beaten down, and as I said in an earlier op-ed, offered a steaming hot cup of "Shut the fuck up".
Authors Bio: Jay Esbe is a writer with a background in cultural anthropology and comparative religion and lives in Seattle Washington.
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