By Bill Mefford
This week I am addressing the lies that make up the decrepit and crumbling foundations of conservative ideology. As I started with yesterday’s post, it is important to look at what conservatism has brought us in the first twenty years of this century where they have had the overwhelming political power. This is what has resulted from conservatives in power:
The biggest terrorist attack on the US in history, which could have been prevented had Bush read his daily briefing (something he shares with the current Idiot-in-Chief)
Two complete financial meltdowns
Record deficits joined with tax cuts for the wealthy joined with increased funding for military contractors
Privatization of government services like education, prisons, costs associated with the courts, social services, etc. which have all resulted in lessened quality of the services rendered and massive corruption
Torture
State-sponsored terror against immigrants
Increased legitimacy of hate groups and homegrown terror groups
Lessening of the stature and leadership of the United States in the world
Rise of nationalism
Climate change on the brink of passing the line of no return
This is just SOME of what has resulted from conservative control in Congress, the White House and the Judiciary.
While yesterday I looked at the lie of conservatives being pro-life (they aren’t), today I am looking at their promise to keep you safe (they won’t). One important part of conservatism that is being especially pushed hard by the buffoons who brought you the first night of the Republican National Convention is that conservative Republicans will protect us and strongly believe in public safety. Besides the outright racism that pervades their assertions that the suburbs should be frightened by people of color from the inner cities and that we all should be frightened by an influx of “migrant caravans” from the global South, this is a flat out lie.
We need look no further than that we are all facing: a pandemic that has decimated this country and has shown the utter incompetence of this administration. The pandemic also has revealed something far darker: their cruelty. When the pandemic first hit the United States it was relegated to the coasts, particularly Washington state, New York, and then California. Jared Kushner and donald trump were slow to act and tried to downplay it’s impact because it didn’t effect “their voters.” They are cool with groups associated with Democrats being sick and dying and they only created their supposed COVID task force when it became clear that this was going to hit all areas of the country. And of course by then it was too late. A mixture of cruelty and incompetence best characterizes not only this administration, but conservatism as a whole.
The conservative lie that they care about public safety has been routinely used as a weapon against liberals even though they have failed on every measurable aspect of protecting people.
Think about gun violence. Conservatives have sold their souls to the NRA devils by maintaining that more guns save lives, which is a tired old talking point so beyond the level of stupidity that no one of any intellectual value on either side really takes it seriously. The only time conservatives were concerned about gun violence was when an undocumented immigrant mistakenly shot a woman in San Francisco in 2015. Of course, they took the senseless and tragic gun death and instead of addressing the epidemic of gun violence they talked instead about dangerous hordes of immigrants who will kill you and take away your dreams. So, under conservative control we have seen absolutely nothing done to stop continuing gun violence and even when they acknowledge the presence of gun violence it is used as a club to bludgeon non-white, non-middle class people.
This is further seen in this administration’s anemic response to Russian interference in the 2016 and 2020 elections and the reports that Putin is paying Taliban fighters in Afghanistan to kill US soldiers. trump and his sycophantic conservative lackeys have done nothing to respond to these and other actions. by dictators around the world. Extrajudicial killings in the Philippines, political and LGBTQ repression in Russia, continued religious persecution in China, and the President of Belarus looking and sounding quite trumpian in his refusal to be held accountable to his people have all gone without any address from this administration. Yes, conservatives LOVE to talk about their love for the military, but in the Bush administration they routinely refused to raise the pay for soldiers and neither administration has done much to address the significant mental health challenges returning soldiers face. Their love for the military should therefore be seen as love for military contractors and lobbyists for these are the people who benefit the most from conservative rule and this is who bankrolls their campaigns. It’s a match made in hell.
The truth is that conservatism does not care about public safety unless property is being assaulted. This administration never even mentions the words, “human rights,” without which there is no promise of public safety for anyone. Instead, public disturbances are means by which conservatives use to demonize and marginalize people. The first night’s speakers of the RNC only confirms this.
Public safety is not achieved through force, but rather, through collective engagement and buy-in to a vision of a society where all are valued and given dignity. Things like defunding the police are not attacks on societal order - they are calls to a more perfect union and a more just order where local communities find in themselves the answers to problems they are facing rather than being ruled by a force weaponized by the military. Conservatives have one tool in their toolbox to address societal conflict and when that one tool is a hammer then everything looks like a nail.
But this is not how public safety is accomplished. 250 years of valuing property over human life, 250 years of maintaining a social and racial caste system over the creation of the beloved community, and 250 years of enforcing peace through repression and oppression, has all shown us that conservatism is an abject failure of an ideology. They do not care about public safety. They care about maintaining order with themselves on the top looking down on everyone else. Conservatives do not care about public safety. They care about safety for themselves.