All Rights Reserved © 2005 Thomas W. Day
Ok, I admit it. This rant was inspired by conservative propaganda that begins or ends with statements like "why [Michael Moore/Liberals/The Liberal Media] hate(s) America." But at the core, I believe that conservatives, especially the radical (is there any other kind?) religious right, hate the United States and the representative democracy that it represents. I don't mean "dislike," "mistrust," or have a reasonable disagreement among patriots and well-meaning, honest men and women. I mean hate.
First, our current herd of neo-conservatives are stupid. The "America" that they imagine liberals hate doesn't exist. It never existed. "America" is a pair of continents; not a country, system of government, or a collection of ideals. We have North America, of which the United States of America is a part and we have South America where US corporations have a lot of financial interests but no honestly held rights or morally earned privileges. The bulk of the folks who claim to love "America" don't even know where the United States ends and where America becomes other countries, cultures, and economic systems.
Even more to the point, I doubt there is anyone living on this continent who hates the soil and the continental shelf upon which they live, liberal or conservative. "America" is a pair of continents (with an often-contested sub-continent, Central America, connecting the two larger land bodies); not a culture, social or economic system, or a flag-symbolized nationalistic god-fearing corporate prison camp.
Hell, most of the nationalist right-wing "Americans" don't know much about the United States geographically, historically, politically, or in any other critical specific. They chant about "America, the Christian Nation" and babble their foolish notions of capitalism, taxation, and defending the homeland in exactly the same words (other than the actual language) as did their idealistic predecessors, in Nazi Germany. When it comes time for them to demonstrate their understanding of the foundations of the nation, the principles of economics or democracy, or their legitimate rights and responsibilities, they are often and usually found to be missing in action.
In modern history, these radicals, misnamed "conservatives" have been on the morally wrong side of every national crisis since before 1776. Conservatives opposed the Revolutionary War and the concept of representational democracy. The first conservatives to pollute the New World's political thinking fantasized that Kings and Queens and inherited wealth and power was vested by the gods and mere mortals were incapable of divining the gods' will in matters as complicated as creating a civil and just society. Dumb-asses, all of them. Our first conservatives were known, by the country's patriot forefathers, as "Tories." If you are interested in finding yourself on the morally right side of practically any disagreement in the history of humanity, determine which side the current breed of conservatives has selected and join the opposition.
Following the footsteps of the country's first conservative dolts were slave owners. They were the second American wave of god-fearing conservative big thinkers and they fantasized that their ability to terrorize other people, initially including other white folks, somehow illuminated their moral superiority. This pack of inbred hillbillies were willing and nearly able to disassemble the Union in favor of an economically degenerate system based on slaves and serfs with a collective government that mostly resembled Jolly old England from the previous unenlightened centuries commonly known as "The Dark Ages." Fortunately for us, them, and the rest of the world, the liberals of the 1860's decided that living next to a pack of moral decadents was unacceptable and we had a Civil War that put to the test upon which side the gods actually stood. Again, conservatives turned out to be on the down-slope of cultural and human evolution and they had their asses kicked by bleeding heart liberals and the power and creativity that is commonly found only in liberal cultures.
The gods weren't on their side, either. If gods exist, it's hard to imagine their preference being for evil, selfish, vicious, and simple-minded humans. I could more easily imagine a god only interested in cats than one who would pick Karl Rove or G.W. Bush as an eternal neighbor.
However, if conservatives can't do anything else they can breed like vermin and they kept reproducing their progeny, misinformation, and ignorance all over the country, especially in the south and the hillbilly segments of the Midwest and west also known as "the Bible Belt." Even after having their asses kicked and their ill-founded faith in their gods' will proven to be false, they continued to imagine that white people had some inherent superiority over other cultures. Shortly after the end of the Civil War, economic and social discrimination against everyone but rich white people became the southern standard.
The sludge at the bottom of the intellectual pool, dumb poor whites, somehow managed to become convinced that they had some interests in common with dumb rich white people. Dumb whites dedicated themselves to protecting rich folks from non-white poor folks. This misdirection resulted in the Civil Rights Movement and we wasted nearly one hundred years in making our national intention semi-coherent. In the meantime, we have had Civil Rights Acts passed and ignored in 1886, 1957, 1964, and 1991. All the while, conservatives still battled to preserve discrimination, segregation, and outright hostility toward people of varying races, religions, and political beliefs. Just another example of how much conservatives hate the democratic intentions of the United States of America.
World wide conservatives did their best to allow their fellow true believers in Nazi Germany to complete the extermination of Jews and other "undesirables" deemed to be imperfect non-Aryans in the 1930s. Eventually, liberals became irritated enough at this vicious and inhuman activity and, once again, conservatives had their asses kicked. A fair number of conservatives are so disturbed by this ass-whipping that they deny the existence of the entire period of history, commonly known as World War II. Many of these inbred morons wear swastikas on their clothing and body art and claim to be "Americans" while hating the government of the United States of America and doing everything within their limited mental capacity to undermine the process of democracy. More examples of conservatives hating the USA.
Conservatives drug the nation into Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, and Iraq, twice. Not in the interest of spreading democracy, but in the interests of the military-industrial complex that desperately needs wars to sell it's products. Of course, the bonus was international corporate access to Iraq's oil resources. Hardly a moral issue.
Every issue with an attached real moral value is, and has been, opposed by American conservatives. From women's rights to ecological conservation to racial equality to public education to the social safety net, conservatives have consistently come down on the side of international corporations and the interests of the ruling class. Conservatives, without fail, have fought against progress, justice, freedom, peace, and common sense since the founding of this country. Most likely, conservatives have argued against all of those things since the first group of cave people decided to band together.
The great migration of southern whites to the Republican Party, which became blatant during the Carter Administration and resulted in white backlash and Reagan's election and the current radical Republican domination of the federal government, was all about racism and the long, ignorant history of poor white trash whose irritation is easily misdirected by international corporations and idle rich white trash. You can't fool "all of the people all of the time," but you can fool these dumb fucks without putting up much of a show.
The "values" represented by the Red States are limited to gun ownership, anti-feminism (thinly disguised as the "life" issue), the establishment of a national religion, and white power. Not one of these issues could be described as central to the founding of the United States of America.
Conservatives protect the status quo, by definition. Conservatives do not invent, improve, or initiate anything for the betterment of the country or the world. They inhibit, repress, and regress at every junction of human, and especially the United States', history. The reason they hate the United States of America is that this union of citizens, under the banner and protection of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, is liberal by its foundation and nature. Liberals are progressive, conservatives are regressive. The United States of America was a progressive, innovative, liberal idea.
England was conservative in 1776 and still is, today. The Soviet Union and Germany's National Socialist (Nazi) Party were conservative. Iran's Assembly of Experts is conservative and so was Iraq's Arab Baath Socialist Party and Hussein's Revolutionary Command Council. These government systems were "loved" by the local conservatives and hated by the same countries' liberals.
In this nation, when the government is obeying the law and serving the interests of the majority of its citizens, conservatives hate their government and want it changed by any method possible. When the government is trampling personal rights and representing international corporate interests, conservatives are happy as hogs overdosing on PCP. American conservatives have never loved the concept of the United States of America. From the cocaine fields of Columbia to the Aryan Nation's compounds in the Pacific Northwest, conservative Americans have found things to hate about the United States of America. The ideals they hate are what all intelligent citizens should all love about this country. Freedom is a liberal goal. Justice is a liberal ideal. Equality and prosperity is the result of a liberal culture. Those are the things conservatives hate all over the world and those are the things liberals must fight to protect.
August 2005
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