Pig at the barrel, West Palm Beach, FL
“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith
The one-word definition of conservatism is “selfishness.” How else to explain conservatives’ (and most Republicans’) opposition to the Affordable Care Act, which will allow millions more Americans to obtain health insurance? How else to explain the Republicans’ opposition to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP“), which feeds millions of poor children in America? Or to raising the federal minimum wage, which now sits at just half the poverty level? How else to explain Republican opposition to the extension of long-term unemployment benefits, or the GOPs zeal to cut benefits for Social Security and Medicare, which keep millions of seniors barely out of poverty? How else to explain the Repubilcans’ love affair with the draconian sequestration cuts, except when it comes to military spending?
This holiday season, as many privileged Republicans gorge themselves on a bounty of food, tax cuts and high-flying stock market investments, and many of their followers inexplicably back them up, ask them why they support such selfish conservative policies.
It’s simple as this: when conservatives say “freedom”, what they’re really saying is “freedom for me, not for thee”. The real issue isn’t so much selfishness as it is pure 100% greed. Remember: the fight against the ACA is really a fight against tax increases. The meager 0.9% increase on people making over $200k a year is what really gets their panties in a bunch. If these clowns were serious about fiscal responsibility (hahaha), they cut defense spending and lean on the Pentagon to be audit ready the day after yesterday. But they won’t. Because they’re all about the greed.