One State, Two State, Red State, Blue State

February 24, 2005

I'm a conservative. Really! I believe in as limited a government as possible, as much reliance on personal responsibility as America can stand. I don't believe in government-funded living for those too lazy to work, but I don't think a run of hard luck should starve anyone in America either. I think taxes should be applied equally and used only rarely as a regulatory nudge, not as a tax-and-spend bludgeon. I believe that the more governmental regulations there are directing my behavior, the less free I am. I am against big government.

George W. Bush is not a conservative. He belongs to the wealthy and unscrupulous class of Neo-Conservatives who took helm of the Republican party when Bob Dole tanked. Bush's government is reading your e-mail. Bush is proposing a Social Security reform that will pretty much wipe out free public benefits. Bush uses taxes as a political tool, to hand out favors to lobbyists and curry votes from middle-class people who could actually really use a $300 refund RIGHT NOW, regardless of what it does to the deficit. Bush thinks that the more regulations there are directing your behavior, the safer America is. Bush has presided over the greatest increase in government, both in terms of the perceived duties of government and in terms of sheer organizational scope, since the Departments of War and the Navy were combined into the Department of Defense in 1947. Bush IS big government.

Every week I sit down at this computer and I generate a rant, usually a character assassination piece regarding one of Bush's many minions. Usually it goes something like "John Negroponte was America's ambassador to Honduras during the Iran-Contra scandal and TO THIS DAY disavows all knowledge of the political death squads documented by his Carter-appointed predecessor and exposed to the world in scandal. Bush appointed him ambassador to the United Nations in his first term when we wanted to ignore them, and now he's serving as the American intelligence czar. Expect to hear even less about the ongoing American human rights abuses being videotaped in Guantanamo Bay and around the world."

Some weeks I'll take a policy shot and point out that "Bush's social security plan completely annihilates the 'social' part of Social Security, replacing it instead with a system of government-mandated personal retirement plans. Social Security was conceived and implemented as a way to ensure no one went hungry once they were too old to work, not as a universal retirement plan that would cover expensive prescription drugs and visits to see the grandkids. If Bush truly wanted the people to have control over that money and could give it to us without decreasing benefits, he'd just cut taxes and declare himself a working-class hero. Again." And all of that is true.

This looks like a couple of pretty straightforward attacks on the opposing party when you're trapped in the modern two-party mentality. When someone tells you things you don't want to hear about "your guy," your first tendency is to get defensive because he plays for your team. I want to remind all the real conservatives out there that the Neo-Conservatives are not your team.

The red-state/blue-state mentality is a function of the propaganda machines cranking out conflict to generate ratings, trying to tie your salary, your shopping habits, and what kind of car you drive to your voting habits. (And the Republicans are in fact tracking all those facts with their Voter Vault software, called Bush's secret re-election weapon and revealed to be now in use by the Conservative Party in England also.)

Let this serve as a reminder that Bush is not the face of conservative ideals. He does not speak about overblown government or the importance of a free market. He expands the scope of the government's duties and uses the government to funnel public money back into the private sector, thus imposing Uncle Sam as an unnecessary and expensive intermediary on behalf of citizens presumed too dumb to invest their own money wisely.

Even if you hate John Kerry and Howard Dean and Barbara Boxer and all the other commie liberals, remember that they are the opposition to the anti-freedom legislation the Neo-Conservatives in charge of the Republican Party are trying to get through.

E-mail SauceFiller@hotmail.com if you have something to say.

You can also mail me comments you'd like read and discussed on 91.7 FM KNWD Friday mornings from 8:00 to 10:00. I-55.com/~Q for sources on surveillance, Negroponte, and Voter Vault.