The con in conservatism is hidden in plain sight. They are con artists.
a person adept at lying, cajolery, or glib self-serving talk.
a person adept at swindling by means of confidence games; swindler.
“There are few genuine conservatives within the U.S. political system, and it is a sign of the intellectual corruption of the age that the honorable term ‘conservatism’ can be appropriated to disguise the advocacy of a powerful, lawless, aggressive and violent state, a welfare state for the rich dedicated to a lunatic form of Keynesian economic intervention that enhances state and private power while mortgaging the country’s future.”
― Noam Chomsky, The Culture of Terrorism
a: the principles and policies of a Conservative party
b: the Conservative party
2a: disposition in politics to preserve what is established
b: a political philosophy based on tradition and social stability, stressing established institutions, and preferring gradual development to abrupt changespecifically: such a philosophy calling for lower taxes, limited government regulation of business and investing, a strong national defense, and individual financial responsibility for personal needs (such as retirement income or health-care coverage)
3: the tendency to prefer an existing or traditional situation to change
The only constant in the American con job called “Conservatism,” is their continual search for ever more ways to cut the taxes of the 1% & to rob the 99% who must pay whatever tax the con artists set for the rest of us or face prison. Here is my overview of the bleak present & the nightmarish future if we continue to allow these thieves to thrive.
Let’s begin with “The Great Depression,” which caused unemployment to rise to 25% of the work force & forced millions of fathers & husbands to leave their families in search of work & a run on banks. We can thank the elite of Wall St. for it as well as the 2008 Crash that brought the entire planet’s economic system to the brink of the abyss. Isn’t deregulation grand?
For a moment at the height of the 2008 Crash, Wall St. was really scared & thought they were going to prison, but Obama quickly reassured them that once again, Uncle Sam would protect his greedy & self-destructive children from the consequences of their insatiable greed.
Yep! America’s captive citizens i.e., the 99% would be forced to bail-out their masters & overlords again & the Wolves of Wall St. could go right back to deregulating every law that slowed-down or got in the way of their raping of the American public & their theft of the U.S. Treasury.
Well, as you can imagine, the public finally had enough of the raping, pillaging, & plundering done to them by the rich & raised so much Hell that F.D.R. woke-up & passed the “New Deal.” Of course, the rich were very upset about this dividing up of the national economic pie that helped the poor. As far as the con-artists are concerned, the government exists to protect the rich, not the poor. And the con party i.e., the Republicans have been very busy little cockroaches ever since the New Deal was struck in their efforts to turn back the clock to the good old days of little to no regulations.
The Powell Memo (AKA the Powell Manifesto)
The Powell Memo was first published August 23, 1971
Introduction
“In 1971, Lewis Powell, then a corporate lawyer and member of the boards of 11 corporations, wrote a memo to his friend Eugene Sydnor, Jr., the Director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The memorandum was dated August 23, 1971, two months prior to Powell’s nomination by President Nixon to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Powell Memo did not become available to the public until long after his confirmation to the Court. It was leaked to Jack Anderson, a liberal syndicated columnist, who stirred interest in the document when he cited it as reason to doubt Powell’s legal objectivity. Anderson cautioned that Powell, “Might use his position on the Supreme Court to put his ideas into practice… in behalf of business interests.”
Though Powell’s memo was not the sole influence, the Chamber and corporate activists took his advice to heart and began building a powerful array of institutions designed to shift public attitudes and beliefs over the course of years and decades. The memo influenced the creation of the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, the Cato Institute, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Accuracy in Academe, and other powerful organizations. Their long-term focus began paying off handsomely in the 1980s, in coordination with the Reagan Administration’s “hands-off business” philosophy.” ”
Talk about understatement? Reagan went far beyond a “hands-off business” philosophy & basically opened the vault door to the Federal Treasury declaring to the corporate cockroaches, Step right up friends, gorge yourselves to your heart’s delight! And he signaled this change with his first act as president, the firing of the air-traffic controllers for life for daring to go on strike against the extremely dangerous conditions of our overcrowded skies.
Reagan went even further in his grand con dubbed, “Trickle-down.” A “theory,” that if the government lowered the tax rate of the corporations & their obscenely wealthy owners & CEOs, they would expand their businesses & either hire more workers or rehire the ones they’d laid off.
Naturally, the con artist class didn’t do this but instead just increased their closing down of factories in America & moving overseas where they could pay workers a couple of bucks per day & not be bothered with environmental regulations, employee rights, etc.
But like that T.V. ad for the “Energizer bunny,” they never stop in proclaiming the success & genius of their Trickle-down rationale. And 40 years later, they cling to their pack of lies (trickle-down economics) as fervently as those televangelist preachers on T.V. who fleece their sheep so they can live the jet-set lifestyles they’ve grown accustomed to.
Furthermore, ever since I can remember, the Democratic party has been dubbed, “The tax & spend party.” Once again, it’d be funny were it not for its deadly effects on all of us not born with the proverbial “silver spoon in our mouths.” You see, what the cons fail to disclose is that they too are the tax & spend political party except they continually shift the tax burdens to the poor, the working class, & the middle class. By cutting taxes on the uber rich & spending trillions on the perpetual wars initiated by themselves via the Pentagon “budget.”
And because the vulture class owns the “Defense industry,” they de facto are legally stealing from the 99% & moving the money from their bank accounts, in the form of taxes, into the off-shore accounts of the filthy rich.
Admittedly, I can’t point to a smoking gun that proves my accusations so this may come across as “conspiracy thinking,” but if you step back & look at the big picture, it sure is strange how things just seem to fall into place for the status quo or the power elite—see C. Wright Mills 1956 book.
Undeniably, the introduction of “Fox news,” to our national airwaves was/is a tremendous boon to the insane ideology of the con artists. Personally, I could not believe that Fox was even allowed to pretend to be a news program?
Demonstratively, Fox “news,” has served as a stenographer to the con artist ideology since its inception in 1996. And it became so obvious that when the Coward from Crawford became president, his president of Vice, Dickhead Cheney, would call the sexual predator, Roger Ailes, the chairman & CEO of Fox with his daily “talking points,” which Ailes would disguise as “news.”
Consequently, America invaded Iraq (along with help from The New York Times & its star reporter, Judith Miller) and I don’t feel it’s necessary to point out the tragic consequences of that little mishap, or do I?
Moving along memory lane, another noble endeavor in the agenda of the con artists is to privatize absolutely every resource in the world. Yep! And that goes for the very water we need to live. Too far-fetched you say? Case in point, the sweet corporation, Nestle.
“Last week, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality did the unthinkable; they ruled in favor of Nestle in their controversial bid to double the amount of water they pump for next to nothing and sell back to us. Make no mistake, the amount of water that Nestle will now be taking qualifies as a harmful water withdrawal according to MDEQ’s own flawed water withdrawal assessment tool. For years, Clean Water Action and our members and allies have been fighting against water privatization, and this is a giant step back in that fight as well.
The arguments around this are simple, and a resounding 99% of the comments that MDEQ received on Nestle’s permit application agree: the waters of the Great Lakes are public trust waters. That means they are there for the use and enjoyment of the people of Michigan. Not for the greedy hands of corporate profiteers and their multi-billion dollar foreign companies like Nestle. It is frustrating to see the agency that has been entrusted to protect our most precious resource neglect their duty and become a doormat for private corporations. Frustrating, but not entirely surprising. One of the biggest problems here is the fact that in a rational world, DEQ allowing this would be surprising. Instead, we have a DEQ headed up by someone whose career was in public relations for the oil and gas industry, who made a name for herself spinning news for BP after they destroyed the Gulf of Mexico, and someone who has zero interest in, or understanding of the importance of, protecting 20% of the world’s fresh water.” https://cleanwateraction.org/2018/04/09/nestle-wins-and-our-great-lakes-lose
Oh, by-the-way, you may recall the trivial story about Flint, Michigan & how the con artists cut-off the once healthy water supply from Lake Huron via the Detroit water supply. So, the people of Flint were forced to drink water from the toxic dump known as the Flint river. The powers that be reasoned that because the majority of Flint’s residents are Black, they could get away with their crimes against humanity. And fortunately, Obama, the darling of the Democratic party helped out in the charade/façade by holding a press conference in Michigan & pretending to take a drink of water supposedly from the Flint water supply.
Yep! Sorry if I burst your ideological bubble, but the democrats are in many respects, just slightly less guilty than the con artist party in their naked exploitation & screwing of the American public.
Another example in the never-ending sea of corruption, death, dread, & despair caused by the bottomless pit of human greed under the heading of “privatization,” is the Internet.
Yep! Step right up suckers! Witness yet another one of the wonders of the free market. The research that spanned decades in the development of the Internet was funded by us, the coerced taxpayers, via the Pentagon’s “budget” (there’s an oxymoron for you). And a good chunk of that research was done at M.I.T. but when they discovered that they could make a fortune by selling advertising on the Internet, sorry citizens, it’s time to privatize the Internet & nope, you, the public, don’t get a share of the profits & in fact, we’re going to double-fuck you by charging you ever greater rates to connect to the Internet you already paid for.
Pursuing this further, the propagandists, better known as the P.R. industry (Public Relations) realized that they needed to come up with a new, catchy con-phrase & chose, “Neo liberalism,” as their new camouflage. Moreover, this had the added benefit of confusing the public by using the word, “liberal,” which would undoubtedly help dupe the yokels into thinking it would benefit them.
I should also add another prime example of how “privatization” is sounding the death knell of unions in America. The U.S. Postal Service is one of only a handful of unions left & the evil geniuses of the con artist class warfare assault, claimed that the postal service is going bankrupt because they don’t have enough funding to pay their employees for 75 years into the future.
You see, it’s fine that the banks, hedge fund companies, giant insurance corporations like A.I.G. were leveraged to such extremes that one downturn in their financial cycles could not only bankrupt the corporations involved, it could cause the collapse of our entire financial system.
But being the concerned & conscientious class they are, they were determined to save our federal system of delivering mail for the public. Could it be that their true agenda is to force the public to pay whatever UPS & other corporations want for the delivery of their mail?
However, every now & then there are glitches in the otherwise sound ideology of the “Conservative” worldview. But we’re asked to overlook these minor setbacks. My intellectual & moral hero, guide, and friend, Noam Chomsky points out that these are the times the bankrupt ideology of these moral midgets begs the “Nanny State,” i.e., the federal government, to rescue them.
Remember, whenever the federal government helps the poor, the working & the middle class, it’s Socialism or even Communism but not when it helps the Con-servatives. Noam succinctly calls it, Socialism for the Wealthy & Capitalism for the rest of us.
Speaking of Socialism, the con artists hope you never read about & definitely not visit the Scandinavian countries like Norway, Finland, Sweden, & Denmark because in just about every standard of living or quality of life measure, life in these countries is head & shoulders above & beyond that of life in America.
By-the-way, I have visited Denmark & Sweden and I was blown away by their standard of living. Their citizens, no matter what their economic status, enjoy clean, well maintained apts. & houses, nutritious food, free education up through & including a doctorate from university, best health care systems in the world, low crime rates, etc. etc. etc.
And as I have been arguing ever since my first trip to Europe in 1976, I wouldn’t mind paying what appears to be an outrageous percentage of their wages in taxes because all their needs are well taken care of so what money you have left is like pocket money you can spend on whatever luxury items you want.
Of course, the con artists can only repeat their mantra of, their citizens are taxed to death. Just ignore the facts like if you or a loved one gets a serious disease in the U.S., Americans often end-up losing their homes, their pensions, their savings, & find themselves kicked to the curb i.e., homeless.
Another example of the contradictions & hypocrisies of the heartless reptilians that they hope you never reflect on is the fact that no, they aren’t self-made millionaires. As usual, we, the taxpayer slaves pay for America’s infrastructure, not those cowardly corporate cockroaches who act like their shit doesn’t stink.
Highways, streets, bridges, ports, airports, etc. are all paid for by the 99% while the wealthiest pay little to none in taxes & many of them actually receive tax rebates in the millions, if not billions. Answer this, how would these crime lords deliver their products, receive the raw materials or parts necessary for their businesses, protect their businesses from violent criminals, etc. if it weren’t for the “Nanny State,” paying for the very infrastructure necessary for them to stay in business?
I know, just another one of those annoying facts that the con artists dismiss so glibly whenever it suits their line of “reasoning.” Remember Kellyanne Conway’s “alternate facts?”
Speaking of Kellyanne, Trump’s spokeswoman, when you get right down to it, Trump is really little more than a used car salesman with even less scruples, morals, or ethics than the average used car salesman, politician, or lawyer.
Do you know that before Trump would sign the contract to play the big cheese on “The Apprentice,” he demanded that it be written into his contract that every time his name was mentioned/spoken on the series, they had to say, Trump, the Billionaire? What does that tell you about his self-confidence? Note the term, “confidence man,” when talking about the myriad cons that con artists pull on their victims.
Conversely, I feel it’d be constructive to point out some of the things that those Satanic Socialists have infested our holy land of the free with at this stage of my essay;
(this is only a partial list)
The military & defense establishment
Public libraries
The police
The fire dept
Student loans & grants
Garbage collection
War
Farm subsidies
The C.I.A.
The F.B.I.
Congressional Health Care
Polio vaccine
EPA
Social Security
Museums
Public Schools
Jail & Prison system
Corporate & Business SUBSIDIES!
Veteran’s (VA) Health Care
Public parks
All elected government officials
Food stamps
Sewer system
Medicare
Court system
G.I. bill
Hoover dam
State & City Zoos
IRS
Free lunch program
The Pentagon
Medicaid
FDA
Health Care for 9/11 Rescue Workers
Swine Flu vaccine
Disability Insurance (SSDI)
Town/State run beaches
Corporate bailouts/welfare
State construction (fixing potholes, erecting buildings, etc.)
Unemployment Insurance
City/Metro buses
WIC (assistance for women & children—food, health, education
State Snow Removal
PBS
CDC (Center for Disease Control)
Welfare
Public Street Lighting
FEMA
Public Defenders
Amtrak
NPR
The Dept. of Homeland Security
OSHA
State & National Monuments
U.S. Dept of Agriculture (USDA)
Government Scholarships
Dept of Health & Human services
Census Bureau
Dept of Energy
Customs & Border Protection
Dept of Education
Secret Service
Peace Corps
Dept of Justice
National Weather Service
The White House
Government
Law
All of these institutions, programs, policies, etc. have one thing in common & that is Socialism. They are paid for collectively by those of us who pay our taxes. In brief, if you use, like, or rely on any of these, you aren’t totally opposed to socialism & perhaps you’d care to discuss the ideas a bit before dismissing it without even reading a simple list like this one?
You see, the con artists want us to believe that they i.e., the rich, the successful, the celebrities, etc. did it all on their own & never had any help from anyone.
This is clearly one of the most significant “Big Lies,” & Trump was overqualified in this area. So was his Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. Now, I have to admit that it’s sometimes fun to follow a conspiracy thread for a bit but as my mentor, Noam Chomsky reminds us, the powers that be are happy when we’re chasing our tails with these conspiracy theories because, it distracts us from the serious shit they’re doing in the present tense. (my colorful choice of a few adjectives)
I’ve been an avid reader & learner since kindergarten, and I’ve been a student & educator of one kind or another for most of my life, so I take education very seriously.
I can’t prove it, but I’ve been looking long & hard and have to rely on my gut & intuition. Whether the 1% have devised an amazingly successful method & program to purposely “dumb us down,” is true or not, the critical lesson we all need to learn is to trust ourselves more & become more suspicious of “authorities.”
Betsy de Vos was the appropriate Stepford Wife to play the role of Secretary of Education. Her family’s wealth came from the legal pyramid scheme known as Amway & some other “business.” And she was good at pretending to be a devout Christian.
This, in my opinion, is why De Vos pushed Charter Schools. In Charter Schools Christianity—or their interpretation of it—is the core of their “curriculum.” And what is at the core of the conservative Christian community?
Authoritarianism!
God is the top boss, then the preacher, priest, minister, rabbi, etc. who tell “their” people what God said, wants, believes, feels, etc. So, girls & women are here to serve men, shut-up, stay barefoot & pregnant in the kitchen!
You may notice a similarity here between authoritarians & dictators? Does that sound like Democracy, Freedom, Equality to you? If you review history briefly, I believe that ever since Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, the Church & the State have fought over “control” of the people.
Whether the authoritarians claim God as their foundation or “to serve the public,” we must be on guard against their “common sense,” or “everybody knows,” pearls of wisdom. If you dig beneath the surface a little, you’ll usually find the corporate cockroach’s slime-trails in short order.
No, I don’t search for an idyllic utopia where everything & everyone is perfect. That’d be boring anyway. I simply dream of what Bucky Fuller proclaimed was reasonable & within reach. And that rascal, that traitor to his class, F.D.R. had the audacity to read out loud to the American public:
The Second Bill of Rights was proposed by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt during his State of the Union Address on Tuesday, January 11, 1944.[1] In his address, Roosevelt suggested that the nation had come to recognise and should now implement, a second “bill of rights“. Roosevelt argued that the “political rights” guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights had “proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness“. His remedy was to declare an “economic bill of rights” to guarantee these specific rights:
- Employment(right to work[notes 1]), food, clothing and leisure with enough income to support them
- Farmers’ rights to a fair income
- Freedom from unfair competitionand monopolies
- Housing
- Medical care
- Social security
- Education</li>
All in all, the so-called Conservatives have nearly destroyed our economy twice & caused so much physical, mental, & emotional pain that many Americans have resorted to suicide. Are humiliation, degradation, & despair to be our constant companions in this life we are told is the highest standard of living in the world?
Of course, it’d be wonderful if I could sum it all up for you in a nice & neat little package with a bow on it, but you know how little people value things that are free & they didn’t have to work for them.
We all have to pay our dues in terms of educating ourselves. Nobody else can do it for us. Many argue that experience is the best teacher. Unfortunately, we don’t have that luxury when it comes to global warming or nuclear annihilation.
The con artist corporate cockroaches can only look forward as far as the next accounting cycle & that myopic perspective poses a very real threat to our survival as a species. So, my friend, you can bury your head in the sand but just because you deny the facts, they don’t cease to exist.
Trump has perfected the art of denial & lives in his bubble of Big Macs & big breasted blondes who speak only when spoken to. And the fact that a third of the American public is so stupid that many of them are now drinking horse & cattle deworming chemicals shows us how far we’ve fallen down that rabbit hole of absolute lunacy.
The pandemic we are living through or existing in has shown me that we, especially in the U.S., had better dam well become Socialists at least in the sense of caring about one another’s welfare. Because if we don’t, this mutation of the COVID virus, nuclear conflagration, or global warming could very well be humanity’s last hurrah!
Persevere!
P.S. And fuck you who call yourselves Christians & love Trump. Jesus was a Socialist!
