October 26, 2009

America is no longer what it was when the colonies were formed and a Constitution written. This is good but conservatives think otherwise. As a country we learn and grow and unfortunately they see political and societal stagnation as virtues.

After hearing them whine and argue, it seems they want a return to the slave economy. This is not an America we need to return to. It was not pure and simple as they suggest.

For more than two hundred years our government has adapted to meet citizen needs and has done it within the Constitutional framework through checks and balances. This is not socialism but necessary political evolution. It is called Democracy.

It is simplistic and lazy to call changes you don’t like socialism. It is not socialism to have government scrutinize our food and drugs, to provide health care for the old and provide for a common defense. Government is necessary.

Because of conservatives, we have a defense system so huge and out of control that it drives a significant portion of our economy and they like this because there is money in war and preparations for war. The latest example was when conservatives pushed us to war in Iraq with a high cost in lives and money. It's all okay with them that defense contractors made billions because it somehow benefits all Americans.

Up until the 1960's, corporations paid their share of federal tax but now they don’t. About 60 percent pay no taxes and what they don’t pay, the average citizen must. More corporate welfare.

Conservative allegiance to big business was explosively apparent after the 2008 economic collapse when the Bush Administration gave almost a trillion dollars to the very companies that gambled and lost. Now citizens have to pay even more corporate welfare.

The marriage of government with corporations is the cornerstone of Conservationism, that is, what is good for corporations is good for America. Not so.

The Constitution was designed to preserve individual liberties and not those of corporations. Now, corporations are individuals with protections that exceed the individual person.

This is not an America our “Founding Fathers” would have envisioned. Let's keep evolving like they intended.