The Myth of Conservatism

WTF? BP has created the worst environmental disaster in this country's history and yet there are still morons (oooops), politicians who are still defending them. Why would any sane person support a felon company (convicted of felony 2008) who has clearly put profit before people? Oh yeah, they're Republicans. So to shed some light on this mental illness, let's examine the roots of the Republican party. The "Conservative" movement has been with us since the founding of our country, you remember, the ones who wanted to keep slavery and only allow rich white men to vote. They were known as the Federalists, a group of wealthy land owners and businessmen who demanded that the USA maintain it's slave trade to protect their profits or they wouldn't join the union. They made a lot of other demands as well but luckily for us the other founders resisted. They wanted much the same thing as the conservatives do today, weak central government, states rights, voting only for the elite. Many of these ideas came from that other place, England, where the ruling class controlled all the wealth and the rest of the people struggled under oppression. Remember this was to be a country "By the people, for the people and of the people". The Federalist platform proved to be very unpopular and the party disappeared in 1820, there were dozens of political parties in those days but the conservatives reemerged as the Whig Party in 1833, but died again in 1854 due to the same unpopular views on how the country should be run. The Democratic-Republican Party founder in 1782 dropped the "Republican" from it's name in 1824 and the conservatives picked it up like trash and that's where we are today. Their basic beliefs are still the same, weak government, low taxes for the wealthy, no responsibility for corporations that might say dump a million gallons of oil into the place that produces much of the sea food for our country and employs many of the people in the south. If it isn't clear who the "conservatives" stand for just look at what they chose for their symbol, an elephant. Why? Because the elephant was the symbol of royalty while the Democrats symbol is the donkey, the symbol of the working class. Now don't get me wrong, I like money like the next guy, but when big business cuts corners to save money and forces the burden of clean up on the citizen tax payers that's just wrong. Big business has been dumping on the American people for decades, it's called "internalizing profits while externalizing costs". Witch brings me back to the beginning, the Cons' learned that it was cheaper to buy politicians than to clean up their act. This is largely a Republican issue but money corrupts both sides equally and the "conservative" Supreme Court ensured corporate dominance over politics with the over-reaching Citizens United case. If we don't find a solution soon we're fu*ked. I'm going out to buy something made in America, if I can find something. More on the Myth of Conservatives later. Until then, be good citizens.