Part VI

Having talked at some length now, about the various things I find myself at odds with regarding Conservative ideology, and there are many, from the presence and strength of our social safety net, to taxing the rich, to regulating big business, not using the rule of law to dictate morality and/or religion, their position on torture, proper uses of the military (ie – “The Bush Doctrine”), Intelligent Design, their anti-choice stance…the list goes on.  But despite that, there are two areas of common ground we share.

Defense

All countries, throughout history, have required a strong defense in order to remain viable.  If you cannot protect oneself from your enemies, you’re not likely to remain a country for long (although the nation of Hungary provides some evidence to the contrary here – they have lost most of the wars they’ve been in, and they are presently a free nation, though they have had long periods of subjugation, but that’s another debate entirely).

It’s also a matter of some debate what the “proper” level of military spending is, but given the total size of our budget, that comes down to splitting hairs.

I suspect the differences begin to crop up when determining when and how to use our armed forces (I am NOT a supporter of, nor a believer in the so-called “Bush Doctrine,” stressing our role as school yard bully, with pre-emptive strikes, nor do I buy into the logic used to justify the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (“on 9/11, there we weren’t fighting there, and look what happened!” – if you look at the history of our nation as a whole, we’ve not been “not fighting there” for the better part of two centuries, so this is a beyond weak justification for remaining).  Nonetheless, on the basic matter of strong defense, I’m singing from the same hymnal.

Fiscal Matters

I am a fiscal conservative.

I believe we can and should balance the budget as soon as the we are sufficiently on the road to economic recovery to support that move (this section written in May, 2010).  From that point forward, we should balance the budget.

This will mean cutting entitlement programs, and I am all for that, HOWEVER…before we cut welfare and Medicaid dollars, I would start by eliminating all corporate welfare.  No more farm subsidies.  No more subsidies for big oil.  No more corporate giveaways, period.

IF we give tax breaks and/or free construction, roads, utilities to companies, we should contractually obligate them to be good corporate citizens, since it is obvious that they will not do so on their own.  Contractually obligate them to stay in a given area for X years after their tax free ride ends, so that the municipalities who made the deals in good faith, and as an investment in the futures of their communities, will actually get some benefit from those arrangements.

Let’s do that for starters and see where that puts us.

If we still need help, let’s try to trim a little fat from the military budget, and let’s not get involved in too many “overseas adventures.” (and no, I am not advocating gutting the military, but we’ve got 13 Carrier Groups, any one of which has more firepower than the combined army, navy, and air force of most nations, and THAT’S before we even mention our own army and air force…I suspect we have at least a little “fat” that could be trimmed).

Once we do that, let’s go through the government and eliminate stupid programs and control waste (ie – do we need to pay government workers to measure ketchup flow rates?  We are!).

Then, and only then, let’s turn our attention to social programs and making up the difference there.

It might require raising a few taxes, but before I would sanction more taxes on citizens, I’d close the loopholes that have made it possible for 75% of large caps that operate inside the US exempt from income taxes, and investigate a possible tax on the Federal Reserve (they charge us interest…why shouldn’t we tax them!?).  I have no idea if it would work, but it ought to at least be studied.

Then I’d look at other possibilities and options for raising money.  Why couldn’t we rent NASA out to other nations, if they wanted some rocket launching expertise?  Why couldn’t we rent spare satellite capacity out?

We could.

We should.

Let’s do it.  Start retiring all the debt we’ve built up, so that the next time we need to spend on something big, we don’t have to sell our souls to do it.

I think that the Conservatives are right to be suspicious of big government.  Historically, oppression has come at the hand of governments, and even when it has come at the hand of corporations (ie – The East India Company, for example), it has always been at the behest of governments.

The problem is that they are so profoundly terrified by their (often irrational – our government has a remarkably robust system of checks and balances that prevents any individual from gaining too much power, and the system would be greatly strengthened by the addition of a third and possibly even a fourth political party) fear of the government, that they are absolutely blind to the possibility that a much more insidious takeover is already well under way.

As I’ve said before, Corporate Structure takes its cues from a Feudal society.

Far too many of us spend most of our waking lives working in and for these monolithic agencies (although small companies represent the greatest engine of job creation in recent years, taken as a whole, big business still employs the largest portion of the population in raw numbers…over the course of years, if the trend continues, this may well change), so although we say we live in a democratic society, we spend the greater bulk of our lives absolutely beholden to corporate masters, who are constantly trying to put more cost, expense, and responsibility on us, give us less pay, fewer benefits, and even control our after hours activities (monitoring facebook accounts, and dictating what is and is not appropriate after-work behavior and activities as a “representative of the firm.”).

Does that sound particularly democratic to you?

Is that not worthy of some concern and consideration, at least on par with concern about our government, which has actually got a pretty good record (contrasted with the downright awful record of the corporations)?

Is it not disturbing that big business essentially buys influence with our politicians?

That corporations are considered individuals?

That money is considered a form of speech?

That these things, taken together, make corporations unstoppable titans in terms of the power they wield and how much control they can influence over the government?

I agree that we should be on our guard against tyranny.

I just think the Conservatives are looking in the wrong direction, and I view this as unsurprising, given that the real abuses are being foisted upon us by their “base.”

Thus, the root of my philosophical differences, and the purpose for creating this website.

My hope is to foster lively (but civilized) discussion about the issues we face today, and I still believe that’s possible.

I think today’s powerbrokers know that by hyping up the divisiveness, they can grab even more power, so this is very much in line with their goals, and they have willing mouthpieces…the ones from the right are most vocal and most notable (Limbaugh, Beck, and Coulter, as examples), but the left has their share too (Olbermann and Maddow, for example).

The problem isn’t government, it’s big business.  To the extent that big business controls government these days, yes, the problem is government, but at the root, it’s still big business, and the Republicans are the precisely wrong party to tackle that problem, because they won’t attack their base.

Unfortunately, the Democrats aren’t all that well positioned to get the job done either, because, having bought and paid for the Republicans, they’re working on the Democrats.

It presents…a challenge.

Probably the greatest one we have ever faced.

We ignore it at our peril.