Or what? Yes, indeed. If someone calls you a libtard, what
does that mean? Well the definition would include these elements:
·
First, this is an insult. Conservatives often
use this term to deride the liberal ideology, and accuse such people as being
mentally retarded, or else how could they conclude liberal ideology is superior
to conservative?
·
Most often a libtard is viewed as someone who
thinks government regulations are necessary and worthwhile; conservatives don’t
believe this; they think government should be as small and unnoticeable as
possible. They believe ‘markets’ are free and regulations reduce freedoms; in
short they feel government rules interfere with freedom of citizens and free
markets
·
Conservatives feel the smallest or least
government is the best; anyone suspected of disagreeing on this is a ‘libtard’,
which is close to socialist, communist… you get the picture!
That’s good for starters. There are some inconsistencies
contained in the conservative rant, however. Among them are these:
·
Free markets are rare in any society. Government
regulations are needed to restrict rampant greed among those who see themselves
as holding monopoly power over a market. The 2007 recession was in response to
failing real estate markets (bubbles of prices and demand), failure of the
mortgage markets (internationally exported by America to the world banking
system); near failure of the US banking system requiring a central government
bailout of nearly $1 trillion. Many banks benefitted from the bailout; although their executives and
lending managers were responsible for the debacle, no one in the banking
community went to prison for their felonies.
·
In 1999 Congress and then President Clinton
removed the Glass-Steagall Act; this had been enacted in response to the Great
Depression in the 1930’s. It prohibited bankers owning real estate businesses,
or investment firms; it prohibited investment firms from owning banks or real
estate firms; and it banned real estate firms from owning investment firms or
banks. Shortly after dissolving this Act, the banking/investment/mortgage/real
estate industries went nuts and bought up each other. The recession resulted
from that greed. And now republicans under trump are looking to do the very
same thing – remove most banking restrictions and regulations (they just past a rollback of the 2009 regs this week).
·
Greed is the number one sin of mankind. In
business this sin is the number primary reason for failure of businesses.
Regulations keep people honest, or attempt to do so. Keep regulations intact, please!
·
Government involvement in our lives is valuable
and important. Not just in the business arena. Also in public safety and
law enforcement arenas, too!
·
And government is essential in international
relations and diplomacy; these efforts build a peaceful global community and
build cooperative powers to offset the threat of war. Mr. trump has been
colossally unsuccessful in these matter so far. He has angered the global
community and made peace less possible
·
Conservatives appear to be against most
education unless it is vocational. However, liberal arts education is the core
of all logic and academic disciplines. This is where math, engineering, science
and most other technical disciplines come from. It is also the basis of law,
governance, history, sociology, psychology and all the rest. Being against
education is the first step for being FOR ignorance
More can be said here but I will close with this thought.
Government ‘of, by and for the people’ is the form of democracy we have in
America. It requires all of us to be involved and use our heads in deciding
important matters. It does not work if masses of people withdraw from
government involvement. In fact, citizen involvement is what makes the government
accountable to the people. What
is it with this simple logic that conservatives don’t understand?
I’m a peaceful person in search of meaning and peace in the
world community. I care about other people. I hope they care about me whether
they know me or not. That’s what every religion teaches from day one. Another
simple matter? Evidently not!
Help! We need to reach out and help each other, not fight
one another. As Ellen says, ‘be kind to everyone.’
May 25, 2018
No comments:
Post a Comment