2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Hillary WILL NOT Lobby Against The TPP [View all]LiberalLovinLug
(14,154 posts)A Dem Con is a unique breed on DU and probably needed as a balance to the more anarchist lefties in the party. I was quite insulting to you. I appreciate that you bit your tongue and replied in a respectful manner.
I just don' t traditionally give quarter to anyone proud to be called "conservative". This is based on the usual boorish, entitled, and lets face it, clownish behaviour of others that crow about being conservatives, from Republicans to Faux News pundits. But more than that its the political philosophy of the more libertarian bent; dog eat dog, I'm all right Jack mentality. That today's Capitalist society works great if you have money, because then you have the power to influence politicians to enact tax cuts and deregulation to make you even more money. You can own news media corps to further your message. And prevent stories from airing. (Like publicity for Bernie Sanders who is a threat) Meanwhile you can lobby those politicians to make up that money by cutting back on food stamps or SS.
It boils down in simple terms to either believing in the trickle down theory, where like feudal times, you hand all the money, including tax money from the poor and middle class, to the very wealthy in the form of tax cuts, who don't need it, in hopes they will re-invest in factories and industry to employ those poor shmucks that are desparate for work now that all the support programs have been cut.
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You still encourage entrepreneurship. Its still a capitalist world after all. But, like in the 50's, society is healthier, happier, and overall wealthier if wealth is more evenly distributed. That, like in Scandinavian countries, most industry is capitalist private, but things that are fundamental like healthcare are seen as a right for citizens rather than a privilege. And also that things like single payer is cheaper because money is pooled together to reduce costs. Where, because of taxes going not to the wealthy on a hope and a prayer, it goes into things that benefit the most people, like healthcare, education, home ownership rebates, SS, job training, etc.. That when you create a society where there is hope...for the poor to have enough social support to lift them up to tax paying middle class, and the middle class have more real money spend because they don't have to worry about healthcare, education, etc., where more people are contributing in society, you have a stronger nation overall.
Basically I feel it works better to think more in community terms, lending a hand to your neighbour to lift up everyone, rather than bowing down to the ultra rich .1% in perpetual hopes for handouts. That they will not simply stash this extra money that you've given them through your taxes in off-shore havens, and actually give you a job.
Its interesting that in some ways both spectrums want the same thing. Personal freedom. The left views that as paying a bit more tax in order to pool citizens money to get the cheapest healthcare, education, and also for things like having a national oversight for food safety, or financial regulation, weather disasters, and defense. And that once those necessities are taken care of in this more inexpensive way overall, a family can have less worry, and concentrate on investing in things that will make them happy.
Conservatives seem to think personal freedom is "leave me alone!". That works great if you already have money. But overall as the trend continues of the rich getting richer, and the poor poorer, society becomes unbalanced, with more social problems. Its just not a healthy trend.
And that over the last 40 years the pendulum has swung so far to the right that if one agreed there should be a balanced approach to governance, the left needs to catch up greatly and need all the help they can get. They have almost zero influence on policy. Look at Obama's appointments. Everything is stacked in favor of the conservative wealthy class. And even though the left are most often right (Iraq war, deregulation of Wall Street, NSA overreach), they are ignored by the conservative MSM, to further conservative influence.