Snow Storm Alert
Blizzard of Snowflakes!
My wife caught this meme floating around Facebook.
Then I came across this.
When I was a very young man, I considered myself a “Conservative”. I believed in a strong defense against Russian aggression, individual rights (keep the government out of my private life), fiscal responsibility and a free enterprise system based on competition. There was always to be a solid wall between church and state. Some of you may remember how worried Republicans were that JFK would be taking his marching orders from the Pope.
I became disillusioned with the “right wing” as Vietnam unfolded as a war on a faulty assumption (also shared by JFK). Vietnam was not a “domino” to fall in the world wide expansion of Communism. The Vietnamese considered China just as big a threat as they did France and the United States. Today we are friends. They make our T-Shirts and phones. That trading could have started in the 70’s.
And then “Conservatives” began to blend with bible thumping bigots. (FYI, I believe there are many people who find the goodness in the Bible.) The party of individual rights wanted to invade our bedrooms and tell us who to sleep with. They wanted to keep Mom pregnant even if she had no plans or ability to raise another child. Dangerous abortions were the norm for the poor.
Fiscal responsibility? Since 1981, federal budget deficits have increased under Republican presidents Reagan, both Bushes and Trump, while deficits have declined under Democratic presidents Clinton and Obama. The economy ran surpluses during Clinton's last four fiscal years, the first surpluses since 1969. The deficit was projected to decline sharply in Joe Biden's first fiscal year. WIKI
Competition? The party of small business has been transformed into a puppet show for several oligarchies. They control everything from internet service to the food on our tables. Small farmers are going the way of dinosaurs. And those oligarchs place judges on our courts and buy our elections. More on that in a future letter.
And then there is the biggest betrayal that has been the conversion of “Conservatism”. We now have as Speaker of the House (second in line to the presidency) a man who has stated clearly that America should be based on “Christian values” (his values) - essentially establishing a national religion - a violation of our United States Constitution.
That, my friends, is the abbreviated version of how a word that has been used for centuries to represent “traditional values and incremental change” was bastardized into a pejorative. “Conservative” is now just a stepping stone to fascism.
BTW, how about that SOTU speech? I’d give it overall a 10. And maybe an 11 on the “crushing the heckling” scale.
I can’t escape the irony that the danger to democracy is now coming from the south.
What a treat, following your journey. Here’s to hoping many others are following in your footsteps. These aren’t your dad’s Republicans.
You're right about the massive shift in the GOP and conservative thought. I'd like to think the extremism is recent, but Gingrich, Regan, and Stone were pioneering hypocrites. Goldwater's warning about republican's linking up with the SBC played out, and here we are.