The Hollywood Liberal

Conservatives and Government

A couple of days ago, one of my commenters correctly mentioned that conservatives want a smaller government and that conservatives have no desire to eliminate government. I can agree with both of these statements. The problem is that conservatives have no desire for government to look out for the people, whereas I believe that liberals see government as a counterbalance to the excesses of business.

The good news is that we can follow conservative philosophy for nearly 100 years. Conservatives like to write. The 1935 book, Our Enemy, the State, written by Albert Nock, is an excellent example of conservatism at its best. The things he writes seem almost exactly like Ronald Reagan. “Wherever the state is, there is a felony.” This is right out of Reagan-speak. He wailed against the New Deal as a “coup d’etat.” He talked about the people ripping off the hard-working few — rich businessmen.

We can even go back to the 1880s and 1890s to see an example of conservatism at its best. Look at the combination of the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Federal Trade Commission. (The trend may have started earlier, but I cannot find any specific documentation of this.) Richard Olney was a staunch conservative and railroad lawyer who was appointed to be Attorney General. He made his name by attacking the Sherman Antitrust Act. Now he’s been placed in a position where he can actually appoint people either to enforce or not enforce the law. He chose the latter. The essence of conservatism, as I see it, is summed up in the famous letter he wrote to his old railroad boss.

“The Commission, as it functions have now been limited by the courts, is, or can be made, of great use to the railroads. It satisfies the popular clamor for government supervision of the railroads, at the same time that that supervision is almost merely nominal. Further, the older such a commission gets to be, the more inclined it will be found to take the business and railroad view of things. It does becomes a sort of barrier between the railroad corporations and the people and the sort of protection against nasty and crude legislation hostile to railroad interests… the part of wisdom is not to destroy the Commission, but to utilize it.” – From Thomas Frank’s The Wrecking Crew

Therefore, over the last 30 years, we’ve seen examples of this throughout Republican administrations. James Watt was an attorney who made his living attacking environmental protections and touting the EPA as being unconstitutional. Reagan appointed him Secretary of the Interior (the EPA is under the Department of the Interior). Although James Watt was the most egregious example, there are literally hundreds of examples throughout the Reagan and Bush administrations. The Securities and Exchange Commission was headed by somebody who did not believe in regulating Wall Street. The agency was packed with like-minded individuals. The Justice Department filled the Civil Rights division with lawyers who did not believe the 1964 Civil Rights Act was constitutional. The Justice Department actually decreased the funding to this department while Bush was in office.

The examples of conservatives using the government as a tool for business and de-funding agencies which would not align with the conservative vision of the function of government are simply too numerous to name. The one thing that modern conservatives like Grover Norquist have done is make government work for them, make government work for business. The quickest way to become a millionaire during the Bush administration (2001-2008), besides winning the lottery, was winning a government contract. Privatization was the way to go. The brilliance of this conservative strategy was to sell privatization to the American people. The sales pitch was that government was inherently inefficient and that business was efficient. Therefore, if we could get the government to work more like a private business then everything would be great. The only thing that would be better would be to privatize portions of the government. This is what happened during the Bush administration.

So, in conclusion, my commenter was 100% right when he said that conservatives do not want to eliminate government totally. Conservatives simply want government to work for big business who is happy to reward compliant politicians with large campaign donations.

Right Wing Hate Radio Host Mark Levin Attacks ?Phony Populist Idiot? Bill O?Reilly

Rep. Joe Barton’s (R-TX) unwitting apology to BP last week revealed a philosophical divide among conservatives. While many in the Republican Party were quick to distance themselves from Barton, other conservative pundits leaped to defend the Texas congressman.

On Thursday night, Bill O’Reilly said, “Obama was correct in bringing pressure on the company to pony up the money,” adding, “I’m happy there’s $20 billion in play and more to come.” The next evening, in an interview with Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), O’Reilly said the fund was “the best thing” Obama has accomplished, and emphasized that he doesn’t agree with “words like shakedown and extortion.”

O’Reilly’s approval of Obama’s work on behalf of Gulf Coast victims was simply too much for right-wing radio host Mark Levin. On Friday, Levin took aim at O’Reilly, who he calls the “8pm’er” (for his 8 pm show on Fox News), while defending Barton:

I’m sick and tired of this idiot on cable. I’m just sick and tired of this phony populist idiot, the 8pm’er on cable. … Congratulate Obama for getting this $20 billion fund to ‘help the folks, to help the little people.’ Really? … Let me explain something to you, Mr. Cable TV. British Petroleum was in the back pocket of the Democrat Party. […]

Somehow, Joe Barton — who speaks the truth — has become the issue. As I said, he may have been inarticulate about it. There was no need to apologize to BP, I got that. But if you have an IQ over 12, you understand his point. And his point is we cannot have a President with the power to decide when a company has to cough up tens of billions of dollars without authorizing legislation. […]

This is not an acceptable position for somebody who poses for the folks as a populist, as a journalist. … To keep pandering and pretending, ‘I stand with the little people against the big company.’ No, you’re screwing the little people! … I’m so sick and tired of the cowardice and the ignorance. I’m so sick and tired of the play to the little guy.

Listen to Levin’s rant (audio courtesy of The Right Sccop):

Levin — who serves as an inspiration for Michele Bachmann and is the author of a New York Times best-seller — has taken aim at other Fox pundits. Earlier this year, he ripped Glenn Beck for being “mindless,” “incoherent,” and “pathetic.”

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Mistakes at Arlington Demand Accountability

Obama’s Hubris Now Looks Delusional
Linda Chavez, DC Examiner
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