"Every man for himself" vs. "advancing the common good"

[maui9002]

Every once in awhile each of us comes across an article that distills our thoughts so well we just have to share it with others. I found an article this morning in the online version of The American Prospect by Greg Anrig, "The Problem with Conservatism is Conservatism" that I thought perfectly summed up why conservative policies have been failing and why progressive policies should replace them. IMHO, just a very good read on the difference between what conservative Republicans have stood for vs. what Democratic progressives are all about.

<http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_problem_with_conservatism_is_conservatism_>

Since the Reagan administration, we have seen time and again that curtailing the government's role to unleash market forces doesn't solve much of anything and in some cases makes things worse. In practice, virtually the only beneficiaries of conservative policies have been the same wealthy families and corporate executives who bankrolled the Republican Party and the conservative movement's elaborate anti-government network. Throughout a period of soaring economic inequality, stagnating wages, the deterioration of the medical-insurance system, the sub-prime mortgage crisis, the Katrina debacle, global warming, and so on, the government sat on its hands while hewing to the mantra that free markets work best. In each case, the problems festered and worsened. Those real-world failures, combined with the right's deeply entrenched hostility toward regulations, civil servants, and even successful government programs, now leaves them without an agenda that will plausibly deliver greater economic security, better health care, a cleaner environment, improved schools, and lower public-health and safety risks.

[Hydra]

1. This is actually what the conservatives want

They want rich assholes who screw the entire country up for their benefit...because they want to BE one of those rich assholes, and they've bought the lie about that class being accessible to them.

Amazing how many people are willing to speak and vote against their interests.

[maui9002]

3. I think some of those who bought the lie

are just beginning to realize they aren't and will never will be one of the rich assholes. When your job is in jeopardy or lost altogether, when businesses start failing in large numbers, when the dollar won't buy much overseas, when you are paying $4 a gallon to fill up your SUV you can longer trade in, when you're maxed out on your credit line and can't pay your bills, when week after week goes by and scores of American servicemen and women and Iraqi civilians are still being killed with no progress in sight, when your low rate mortgage resets to a much higher rate and you can't resell your home without losing a significant portion of your equity (assuming you still have equity in your home), then lower taxes, bashing immigrants and gays, allowing guns in schools and bars, making sure you don't take the "Christ" out of Christmas, reduced government regulation, endless war and mindless patriotism, and "everyman for himself" policies no longer hold as much attraction as they once did.

[Hydra]

5. :D

"It's Al-Qaeda's fault! It's the environmentalists' fault! It's the subprimer's fault!"

You see, the reason they make excuses is for one simple reason- they were at fault for supporting an entirely self-serving and dangerous philosophy...and they are "never wrong."

Bush loves these people. All he has to do is point, and they attack on command and give him a pass for wrecking their lives.

:disgusted:

[guitar man]

9. exactly

I had a RW friend going on about this the other day. When I mentioned that the aristocratic billionaire class had fucked the country up, he responded with the party line that anyone could become a member of that class.

So I asked him if that was indeed true, why, in a nation of 300 million people have we only been able to produce about 800 billionaires. I went on to ask him why he hadn't become a member of the billionaire class. Dead silence and him shuffling around looking at his shoes was the response I got.

[Hydra]

16. Haha!

"You didn't try hard enough if you didn't get to be one of them!"

I love what George Carlin said about that- "It's a big club...and you aren't in it! You and I are NOT in it!"

[Bigmack]

2. Kinda like Scotty, huh?....

Finally noticing things are fucked up.

The Repubs have been raping this country since 1980, and NOW some conservatives wake up and smell the cyanide in the Kool-Aid.

How do the Dems get this message out without actually saying.... "You dumbshits have been used by the super-rich and have been voting against your own self-interest (and the interests of the survival of the country) for 25 years!" The Repubs would just bleat that the Dems are elitists, and the "Reagan Democrats" would go right back in line.

Two turning points in the history of the world.... elections of 1980 and 2000. If there historians in the future, they'll probably note that in their books... if there are books in the Second Dark Age.

I'm feeling especially hopeful and positive this morning. :sarcasm:

[Breeze54]

4. Rethugs vs Progressives

(Rethug mantra) "Every man for himself" vs. (Progressive Democrats mantra) "advancing the common good"

[Wizard777]

6. More like Liberty vs. Communism

I'm going with liberty. We have no Constitutional obligation to provide for the common good. Only the general welfare. There is a difference. General welfare is where the government says it's generally a good idea not to smoke but you have the liberty to smoke if you so desire. But the "common good" tend to convert general welfare to absolute welfare. Smoking is not good for you and now for the common good it's illegal. Communism and liberty never have gotten along with each other very well.

[Breeze54]

7. Smoking is not illegal and "Government is instituted for the common good"

:eyes:

Bill of Rights

Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, PT. 1

http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/bill_of_rightss6.html

snip-->

VII.--Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity and happiness of the people; and not for the profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men; Therefore the people alone have an incontestible, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity and happiness require it.

[Wizard777]

11. They have the right to change the government. Not We The People.

That's not really how the common good is used. It's used to force changes in our lifestyles upon us by an inflexible government.

[Breeze54]

13. MA is a "commonwealth" state and it is "WE" the people here, as it should be.

[maui9002]

10. Not sure I follow your point clearly, but

what the article pointed out, and a theme with which I agree, is that most Republican policies adopted since 1980 have relied on reducing government's role and allowing the marketplace to reward "winners" and penalize "losers"; in short, most conservatives believe it's best for all to allow certain members to fail (which is why Republicans would eliminate social security (if they could do so politically) and block all manner of proposals for a national health care system). And I think where we are today is testimony that these policies do not work as well as Republicans thought they would.

[Firespirit]

14. Smoking is not illegal

Smoking in public spaces is illegal in many areas.

As an asthma sufferer, I fully support that.

You (or whoever) have the right to smoke, but I have a right not to unwillingly partake of someone else's bad habit.

[Wizard777]

15. I understand smoking is not illegal (yet.) I was just using that as an example.

That is the claim they make when doing something of this nature. It's for teh common good. When it's not for the children.

[earth mom]

8. Yet people here on DU want to elect Obama, who stated he loved the Reagan era.

Face it ya'll-the true left has lost because no one gives a shit about anyone but themselves! :grr:

[Breeze54]

12. He meant that as the way Raygun had organized his campaign, I believe Not applauding raygun's policy