Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Of the people, by the people, for the people

Grandtots,

Barack won again.  But it doesn't really matter.  The key problem still remains.  I was listening to a Utah Republican representative on CNN.  He said that where there is talk of returning taxation levels to Clinton-era rates, that he could only support that proposal if government spending returned to those levels as well.  And herein lies a fundamental flaw of the Conservative pseudo-intellectualism.  Do Republicans feel as though they have less need of government now than the did in 1996?  Isn't their country growing, aren't their needs to administer this growing, aging population become greater not less?  They seem to see government spending increases as some sort of anomalous occurrence of their nation - a vice that is completely attributable to lack of foresight, lack of discipline and restraint.  The hunger of the moochers siphoning life from the makers, as Ms. Rand might say.  Why don't they see that it is the arbitrariness of decreased taxation that is completely at odds with the natural growth and increasing complexity of their country?

The population is getting bigger.  Would they argue that they have less need now for social security, healthcare, national defense, agricultural subsidies, the DEA, the Department of Homeland Security, or all those other things that the government spends money on that Americans can absolutely do without?  Their collective needs are growing.  How can they so easily and seriously argue that the government is some sort of enemy to the people that they service?

Listening to Republicans, highly refined Republicans, elected to the highest offices in the land, an observer might be tempted to think that they airlift the bureaucratic and elected officials of the United States in from Iran, who oversee who gets what and spend money like its going out of style.  The 'Government' is them.  They are the government - the Republicans who complain about government, the spineless Democrats who suffer their hypocrisy, the veteran on Social Security, the student receiving a grant or loan, the family that eats cheap food due to a subsidy.  The government is made up of their neighbours, their friends and family.  Theirs is a government of the People.  By the People and for the People.

So if Government is the Problem and Government is to blame...and every American is their government...then it follows that each and every American is the Problem.  Each and every American is to blame.

But that logic is a little like math, and Conservatism doesn't believe in that, either.