by G. Alfred Kennedy
The Republican strain of conservatism as a governing philosophy is another name for calamity. Since 2016, that governing philosophy is synonymous with extortion and corruption. I feel we are too fragile as a society to sustain the current onslaught of conservative policies advocated by the current Senate Majority leader and practiced by the Trump administration. We are floundering in uncharted waters, and without a unified effort by the rest of us, we will be at sea – or worse.
In the breast of each American of voting age lives a complex of emotions including a mixture of trepidation, hope, and expectation regarding the 2020 elections. Depending on political or ideological persuasion, you hope your candidate wins because you think (s)he relates to your concerns; you fear the likely Republican candidate for just the opposite reason; and, your vote will be all about your expectations should your candidate ascend to the presidency. Your expectations these days are where you live on a daily basis. It is why you can’t sit this one out, why you engage in the political process. We know what the outcome will be if the GOP retains the White House and maintains its grip on the Senate.
We as a society cannot afford more conservatism because, for all of the professed devotion to the notion of the power of the individual in American society, the glue that binds us is an unconscious reliance on an institution enshrined in American life: government. Conservatives – Republicans – are publicly pathological about shrinking the size of government at all levels, most notably the federal government. Their zeal to do so stems not from a desire to manage deficits or find revenue to fund entitlements built into the structure of federal legislation. Their zeal, writes noted author Alan Wolfe, has its genesis in a libertarian conviction that the money government collects to carry out its business properly belongs to the people themselves. Recall the infamous Trump tax cut and its principal beneficiaries. The “people” as beneficiaries were not the rest of us, it was the wealthy, those who needed it the least.
Conservatives would govern without accountability to society thus delegitimizing requests from voters for government support to improve life. The inherent conflict is between conservatives’ fealty to extremist ideology and their management of government entities whose mandates they deem illegitimate. Is there not a contradiction? They are thus unable to shrink government but unwilling to improve government. So, they split the difference: expand government for political gain, but always in ways that validate their disregard for the very thing they are expanding. The end result is what we experience: a bigger more incompetent government. Has this not been the enduring legacy of every Republican administration since Ronald Reagan?
Conservatives believe in consolidating and exercising power. Let’s look further at outcomes: a well-funded and organized effort to disenfranchise millions, with millions more economically enslaved to retain the current occupant in the White House in 2020. If they are successful, there will be consequences: no expanded middle-class opportunities; widening income inequality; more unemployment; defunding and emasculation of regulatory agencies – especially enforcement; reduction in quality of public schools through reduced funding and staffing; de-emphasis on financial reforms with Wall Street assuming more risk to earn bonuses.
Other likely consequences include a sustained effort to abolish – and privatize – Social Security (not that it is a drain on the budget, but because its very success in anathema to conservative values); turn back Roe-v-Wade at the federal level; rising healthcare costs without reform; enact more restrictive measures to disenfranchise those who vote Democrat despite a lack of evidence to prove voter fraud; continued massive increases in the Defense budget; more tax increases on the middle class; restrictions on civil liberties; defund government-sponsored programs that lift the poor, the elderly, low-income women, and populations of color – those who vote Democrat; selective debt reduction measures while expanding government to provide more security and benefits for the wealthy.
If all of this sounds familiar, it should. It’s the status quo, but will be enforced with a vengeance should conservatives maintain their grip on power. They are ruthless and creative when protecting their interests.
Many Americans became disenchanted, disillusioned, disappointed, even angry with the Obama administration and sought change. But, did you get the change you believed you would? Has the purveyor of that change earned your vote, your support for a second term?
Examine carefully the alternative before you choose to remain at home on election day in 2020. I’m suggesting issues and probable outcomes should direct your decision in 2020, not personality. Should the current President win re-election in November 2020 and the status quo reigns with a vengeance, what will you view as salvation for the country? And, what will you be willing to do to hold him accountable? Can the country afford four more years of conservative rule?
