Conservatives And The Destruction Of The Public Good

I am fascinated, watched the ascendency of right wing policies in these United States. One of the most destructive ideas that underlies much of conservative and republican-party thought is that the private sector is more effective and successful in providing a good life for americans than any public activity driven by an elected government. Strange, though, that evidence is conspicuously lacking and even more puzzling is that people buy that claptrap despite the evidence of their lying eyes.

The economics of private ownership and free enterprise is amoral. The private sector makes decisions bsed on profit and loss only and the benefit that accrues to any of us is economic and based solely upon the utility we have as workers and purchasers of goods and services. The consequence of this, as we in America are experiencing, is a grotesque race-to-the-bottom where public good is held hostage to cheap, animalistic, labor, whether brought in through unsecured borders or through the use of foreign manufacturing. This being so wildly successful in generating obscene profit that any idea of public responsibility or creating a good life for citizens through public action is disturbing to the very rich.

Consequently the public discourse of the conservative right is aimed at creating negative, anti-public sentiment. How else to explain the insane hatred of all those programs, like social security, that are designed to promote social good? Franklin D. Roosevelt created the middle class in less than one tem in office but republicans have been trying to destroy those programs for sixty years. If succesful we will continue into a mean future, the only industrialized nation without a national health program, basic protection for its workers, and held hostage to the whims of a right wing that seeks to destroy societal cohesion.