says Tony Brasunas in this article from "Garlic and Grass", a "grassroots journal of America's political soul" . . . rather Green-friendly and critical of the Democratic Party, but makes some good points . . . http://www.garlicandgrass.org/issue5/Tony_Brasunas.shtmlAll large groups defy generalization, and the Republicans are a diverse group. But if we consider their actions, few of them, and none who are actually in elective office, qualify as truly conservative. While speaking at great length about 'traditional values,' they generally act from a root urge that has little to do with preserving existing situations or protecting the way things are or recently were. Instead, over the past 30 years, Republicans have focused primarily on increasing corporate power.
Republicans talk about freedom, responsibility, and family values, but consistently support corporate consolidation and deregulation of industries from media to meatpacking and from drinking water to depleted uranium weaponry. Republicans also consistently back enlarging the huge American military, though there clearly are no enemies out there demanding the 47% of our federal budget that they now devote to it. 15% would probably do. But Republicans push the American corporate agenda over all other concerns. Essentially, they continuously enlarge the military budget because the military both purchases from, and protects the interests of, large corporations. Republicans talk about small government but create instead a vast corporate government that is half military and half private companies who take public tax money. This root urge to increase corporate power is further apparent when one sees that the Republican agenda also seeks to weaken the primary forces countervailing corporate power -- labor unions, antitrust regulations, and environmental protections.
Thus it's remarkable to see large numbers of common folk, who consider themselves traditionalists and small government conservatives, voting for Republicans. These voters seem unaware they're empowering corporations to control all aspects of their private lives. Enriching and empowering corporations comes at a huge cost to small farms, small businesses, and all aspects of traditional small town life. Corporations seek to homogenize small town culture and encourage cultural conformity, because sales are more profitable and more efficient when all towns are the same.
(snip)
Ultimately, by recasting our view of the American political landscape to account for the ascendant Republican agenda and absent Democratic agenda, it becomes apparent that the Democrats are, and have been, this nation's conservative party. They push for...nothing. This has opened the space -- indeed the necessity -- for another party to carry forward the banner of progressive change, and the Green Party is picking it up. The bitter vehemence with which Democrats attack Greens seems to reveal their fear of facing these facts; few Democrats wish to face the reality that they are in a conservative party. But as more and more progressives vote Green, the Democrats will be forced to look in the mirror.
http://www.garlicandgrass.org/issue5/Tony_Brasunas.shtml
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