Scott Trimingham for BuzzFlash: Republicans Are Not Conservative (Stop Calling Them That)

September 3, 2020

Gaslight (waltarrrrr)

By Scott Trimingham

Words matter. 

How we label is important, because it frames in our minds what something truly represents. You wouldn’t want to call salt “pepper” and you wouldn’t want to call gasoline “water”. 

But some people hide in plain sight by bestowing a name upon themselves that isn’t true. They do this to conceal their real identity and intent. They do it deliberately to confuse us, and to get by our defenses. 

Sometimes it’s “the Big Lie”. Like Republicans calling themselves “conservative”. This simply isn’t true. They are, in reality, the polar opposite of conservative. 

They’re gas-lighting us, again.

For the purposes of this essay we’ll use the definitions of “conservative” taken from several dictionaries: “To save, to protect, to prevent injury, decay and waste. To keep in a safe and sound state.” 

Let’s take a few issues one by one. 

The Environment

Would you call it conservative to deny the reality of climate change, to pass regulations that encourage pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and to dismantle the EPA? Climate collapse is the biggest threat to human life on this planet, and our attempt to mitigate it is literally the most conservative cause of all. 

Republican “conservatives” have taken us out of the Paris Climate Agreement and fight tooth and nail to keep the miles per gallon in our cars as low as possible. Think about it. That means a higher cost for us to drive, more airborne pollution to breathe and the acceleration of climate change. That’s not conservative, that’s suicidal and serves the interests of polluters while destroying our planet and causing the virtual extinction of humankind. This is the existential issue of our times. 

The Military

Is it conservative to spend money like a drunken sailor (apologies to my uncle) on the largest military in the world, endless and unnecessary wars and weapon sales to other countries so they can battle us and each other? Remember the Iraq War? It was all done on a “credit card”, that we’re still paying for today and will be into the future. That’s neither conservative in terms of managing our nation’s finances nor was it conservative in terms of our best national security interests. And it certainly didn’t conserve the lives of our men and women in uniform. Endless and unnecessary wars are not conservative. 

Health Care

Is it conservative to deny sane and cost-efficient medical services (Medicare for All) to Americans, to deny them coverage for pre-existing conditions and to expose them to “junk” plans that, in reality, offer little coverage but have a tempting low monthly fee? These Republican positions do not act to conserve the lives of Americans, they do the opposite. It’s not conservative, it’s life threatening. You could argue it’s homicidal. 

The Economy

It is no accident that the most severe depressions and recessions follow multi-term Republican presidents. The Great Depression followed three consecutive Republican presidential terms (Harding, Coolidge, Hoover) and the Great Recession followed a two-term Republican president (Bush Jr.). Is it conservative to blow up our national debt with arms races (Reagan) or unfunded tax cuts (Bush and Trump)? Is it conservative to inflict the farce of supply side, “trickle down” economics on Americans who are struggling to survive? (https://buzzflash.com/articles/the-cruel-hoax-of-trickle-down-economics) These “boom and bust” fiscal policies have severely weathered all of us who are not insulated from financial insecurity. But the wealthy can weather and even prosper from the storms. When it comes to finances and our national economy the last thing you can call Republicans is conservative.

International Diplomacy

Is it conservative to treat long-time allies like Canada, Mexico, Great Britain, Germany and France with disrespect while cozying up to dictators and strongmen like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jung Un, Jair Bolsonaro, Viktor Orban and Rodrigo Duterte? Is it conservative to taunt nuclear armed North Korea with name calling and tweeted threats? Is it conservative to start a trade war with China? It’s not conservative, it’s dangerous and disruptive. 

Domestic Peace

In the sense of literally preserving the peace, is it conservative to continuously whipsaw Americans with messages of fear and hate? “The caravan is coming”, we’re on the brink of trading nuclear warheads with North Korea and the press is “the enemy of the people”. These days Mr. Trump is intentionally prompting violence in our cities by sending in unmarked and untrained goons to harass protesters and provoke violence. In many ways he appears to be trying to start a race war in this country. This provocative behavior isn’t conservative, it’s inflammatory and reckless. 

Guns

So-called conservative Republicans encourage the sale of military assault rifles to the general public. You heard that right. They also encourage devious ways to evade safety laws, like using bump stocks that turn regular rifles into machine guns and which raise body counts in massacres. A true conservative would take immediate action to reduce the carnage of our citizenry with reasonable measures like limiting assault weapons to the military and prohibiting machine gun-type weapons.   

Nationalism

This may appear to be extremely conservative on the surface but, in reality, it’s just . . . extreme.

Trump, by declaring himself a nationalist, by saying that white supremacists are somehow equivalent to those who oppose them and surrounding himself with white nationalists is not conservative, it’s divisive, disgraceful and alarming. It’s not conservative, it’s racist.

 No, the last thing we should call Republicans is conservative. By allowing them to hide behind this self-chosen name we allow them to conceal their true actions and intentions, and their true identity.

But what do we call them?

I believe that we should call them neo-cons, as in neo-confederates. Because that is what they truly are. They are the robust vestige of the Confederacy. Instead of plantation owners they

represent corporations, industries and the wealthiest of the wealthy who can afford to purchase a course for our Nation that enriches them, and only them. Republicans are the self-serving, regressive and divisive servants of their wealthy corporate patrons. Today, instead of slaves there is an even bigger labor pool for the modern plantation owners to draw from; you and I, the 99% of us who have steadily been losing income – while working multiple jobs, earning less in real dollars and while shouldering soul and dream-crushing student debt – only to see the wealth of our country shift dramatically to the top at our, and our children’s expense.

The Democrats have their own problems, but they pale in comparison to what the Republican Party has become. Republicans were once the Party of Lincoln, who conserved the union. Now they are the Party of Trump, who is on the brink of destroying it. 

That’s not conservative. They’re not conservatives. It’s a big lie.

They’re only “conserving” their control over us. That doesn’t make them conservative, it makes them narcissists.

Scott Trimingham writes about the environment and politics

Send your ideas to prevent climate collapse to : evergreentea2000@yahoo.com

“We didn’t inherit this Earth from our parents, we’re borrowing it from our children.”