Scary, Scary

Here is a hint for people who (often wrongly) describe themselves as conservatives. Socialism may be the bogeyman under your bed, but it is not the bogeyman under my bed. It does not matter how much dread or fear you are able express, shrieking the word “socialism” will not send a chill down my spine. I think most people would agree that the interstate highway system and the transcontinental railway are good things. Telephones, running water, gas, and electricity are also good things. We would not have the interstate highway system, the transcontinental railway, or the utilities we now take for granted if the government had not played an active role in providing them. Public education, Social Security, Medicare and Unemployment Insurance are also socialistic, but the last time I looked there was still more than enough capitalism and free enterprise to go around. Therein lies the absurdity of what the fear mongers do and the knee jerk reaction they get when they invoke the name of their favorite bogeyman, socialism.

Although right wingers can see colors, shades of colors are lost on them; for the so called conservatives everything has to be all this or all that. They view every government regulation or service as toxic socialism that imperils the free enterprise system; is that anything like the monopolies destroying the free market by eliminating competition? Trust Bustng, anyone? The conservatives would answer that question with a hell no that clearly demonstrates just how oblivious they are to the contradictions built into their paradigm. There are some things, such as building the interstate highway system or making other improvements to our infrastructure, that the government must do because no one else can or will do them. Believe it or not, there are also some things the government does better than free enterprise does.

Although the Republicans who are trying to destroy public education may be doing it because middle class people with college educations are less likely to vote for Republicans, I think money is the stronger motivation for those destructive demagogues! There are a lot of people who will make a ton of money if we replace our public schools with private schools. Think about that for a moment. This is a for profit venture! If you believe that privatizing our schools will provide your kids with a better education at a lower price you are mistaken! Ask yourself a very simple question: Who can charge less, the guy who has to make a profit or the guy who does not have to make a profit?

Making money is every private company's raison d'etra. The insurance companies provide us with a good example of what this means. They do not have an incentive to provide you with the best medical care because the medical care they pay for is called overhead, and like all businesses they want to maximize their profits. The incentive, therefore, is to deny coverage whenever possible and pay out as little as possible! This is why we desperately needed medical care reform, and it is why we must not let the Republicans destroy the Affordable Care Act (aka the ACA). And yes, I do see their efforts to repeal the ACA as an all or nothing proposition because they have not come up with any desirable replacement for the ACA. Right now they seem to be trying to convince us that repealing the ACA will please the God of free enterprise so much that he will zap us with a cure for the profit motive that caused the insurance companies to hose us all those years. News flash for the Republicans: no one who can talk and think at the same time is going to buy that fairy tale!