As someone born with a genetically predisposed tendency to express a personality with a liberal sensibility, I've always found myself at odds with the conservative point of view.
Growing up in the 60's and 70's, the prevailing conservative tendency to be close minded, intolerant, backward thinking and bigoted towards those not like themselves was very unappealing to me. At their worst conservatives could be quite pig headed and stupid. But over the decades conservatives' views have "evolved" to the point where the majority of them have rejected those antiquated ways of thinking, especially regarding topics like race and sex roles. For this I give them a lot of credit because these tendencies are very ingrained in our psyche by Evolution and not easily overcome. And in a relatively short amount of time, today we can even see a much more tolerant view by many conservatives toward gay people.
On the other hand, traits that have always been admirable among conservatives, like moderation, self restraint, common sense, loyalty and a duty towards their fellow citizens are being replaced with a twisted mentality that rejects all of these qualities. A new type of conservative has emerged who finds these qualities antithetical to their goal of crushing the left (and many of the things that the majority of Americans strongly support) and forcing their radical right-wing ideology down our throats.
Ideas, notions and beliefs that not long ago would have been considered off the charts and even lunatic are being unabashedly and enthusiastically expressed to rabid right wing audiences by mainstream Republican politicians.
The left has its lunatics, too, but they're out on the fringe. There is no left wing equivalent of the Tea Party type Republican in the Democratic Party.
Ronald Reagan would have to change every one of his moderate positions if he were to have a chance of winning a Republican primary in today's world.
Could today's Republican Party possibly tolerate a candidate who insisted that millionaires pay the same tax rate as a bus driver? Or who called for a world free of nuclear weapons?
Besides the beliefs that Evolution and Global Warming theories are undeniable frauds and hoaxes with absolutely no scientific basis to support them, that there is no economic problem that cannot be solved by permanent tax cuts for the rich and that God will protect us no matter what we do to the planet or the poor (as long as we all behave as ultra conservative Christians), there is yet another troubling trend among today's conservatives.
One is the notion that democracy is actually a bad thing. And that's because it gives power to the losers. You know, average people, like most of us, who would like nothing better than to steal the hard earned money from the wealthy so that we can lay on the couch all day long collecting government checks instead of working.
These modern day conservatives want to take "the Government" out of the equation because that would then free the wealthiest among us (the proven successes) to make all of the decisions that affect our lives.
The other is the notion that taxing the wealthy is as heinous as child rape.
The notion that a multi-millionaire hedge fund manager should be "punished" by having to pay the same tax rate as a small business owner with a taxable income of $150,000 fills them with outrage and disgust. How dare you punish these productive "job creators" with your notions of "fairness!"
By the way, what exactly is it that hedge fund managers produce?
And why have the "job creators" been eliminating more jobs than they've been "creating" for the past 10 years despite all of those super-duper Bush tax cuts?
Says the Republican politician: "This politics of envy is so unbecoming. Don't listen to these Democrats. They are engaging in class warfare! Class warfare I tell you! Class warfare is bad! Those dirty rotten Dems and their class warfare!
Vote for us so that we can permanently cut and eliminate taxes on the wealthy, raise your taxes (so that you 'have more skin in the game' and you can pay off the debt that we created with the Reagan and Bush tax cuts that failed to 'trickle down') while we take away your government services and force you to pay more for less health insurance. We hate class warfare!"
A selfish greedy sociopathic Ayn Rand-like philosophy now dominates the right, which measures a person's worth by the amount of money he/she can accumulate.
As WILLIAM DERESIEWICZ put it in a brilliant article that my friend Chris W. alerted me to:
Fables of Wealth - NYTimes.com
"The poor are lazy, stupid and evil. The rich are brilliant, courageous and good. They shower their beneficence upon the rest of us."
This philosophy regards the efforts of the wealthy as being solely responsible for the creation of jobs and wealth. The rest of us count for nothing. (Do you think I'm exaggerating? Just listen to their rhetoric!)
Rather than "punish" those non-creating "job creators" by taxing them we should just be grateful for all that wealth "they" are producing for themselves without any of it trickling down.
(We are mostly responsible for the production of that wealth, read Deresiewicz's article.
Worker productivity has increased dramatically, wealth at the top has grown exponentially, but wages are stagnant.)
In the modern conservative/libertarian world view, the only thing that deserves more adulation than a wealthy person is an obscenely wealthy one who can get away without paying Uncle Sam any taxes.
That's because we all know that taxing the wealthy is 'punishment' because it is taking away from the "producers" and giving it to the "moochers." That's all and everything that taxes are.
So... that would include those parasitic military personnel who are fighting, dying and coming home crippled for the honor and privilege of protecting the assets of the wealthy.
That's why conservative's New American Heroes are those tax dodging Facebook pricks Zuckerberg and Saverin.
Now these are a couple of pricks who truly deserve our admiration and adulation.
Do you think Facebook was genius?
Just wait till you see how creative their lobbyists are in bribing Republican politicians into giving them more ways to pay even less than the measly 15% they would have had to pay now.
I heard Zuckerberg has already figured out ways how to get out of that.
Saverin is renouncing his citizenship after we took him in, educated him and gave him this ridiculous opportunity to be a multi billionaire.
No. Thank you Eduardo!
Bravo, Facebook pricks! Way to keep the Government from cheating you out of that hard earned money that your Facebook users made for you.
No I'm kidding, you earned every penny of the 16 to 19 billion dollars "you" made the first day of your IPO. And don't worry about that huge monstrous debt that your Republican buddies rang up with their "Starve the Beast" strategy and that you are adding to by not paying your taxes.
Your Facebook users will cover that when the Republicans increase their taxes.
Zuckerberg wants us to think that "his product" is worth over 100 billion dollars. Boy has he got balls. Or "chutz-pa" as Michele Bachmann likes to say.
Hey that's only 108 times what Facebook earned!
If Zuckerberg pulls off this scam -- I mean "brilliant plan -- he might become the richest person in the world!
Hooray! I'm rooting for you Zuck face!
Wow. What exactly did Zuck face do to deserve all this wealth? Cure cancer? End Poverty? Triple crop yields?
Well not exactly. He came up with a ridiculously simple idea that happened to turn into a stupid fucking fad.
The reason I put the words "his product" in parenthesis in the paragraph above is because I question whether Facebook is really Zuckerberg's product.
All he did, after all, was use the things that society created for him.
Like computers and the Internet and computer software and all the industries in which his Facebook users grind out their 40 plus hours a week in order to create the economy that made him rich.
All he did was present a platform, that was already provided to him, thanks to society, and let his Facebook users create the product.
Nice scam -- I mean plan.
You do all the work and Zuck face collects all the profits!
And like all stupid fads, this one has a very good chance of dying down. Which would make many Facebook investors lose money.
But don't worry, I'm sure Zuck face will cash out before that happens.
And he'll be laughing all the way to the bank, tax free!
My hero!
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