August 25, 2011 by David K. Sutton
Decay at Morals and Main
The conservative decries the decline of morals. The conservative bemoans the loss of the mom and pop store on Main Street. What the conservative doesn’t understand is that it is their beloved free market and their blind support for the bought Republican politicians that are responsible for – and what the conservative calls – a decay of morals and Main Street.
Capitalism, unrestrained, is a dog eat dog system of consumption, greed and ultimately unsustainable growth. The free market does not own a conscience. It has no regard for the messages your child sees on TV. It has no concern for the mom and pop grocery store and its 50 employees. Capitalism run amuck has left us with – too big to fail – corporate behemoths that gobble up everything in their path. Nothing is off-limits. The result is a growing homogenization across our country of strip mall after strip mall with the same giant corporate chains. We are led to believe, by all Republicans and most Democrats, that this is a good thing. It’s the free market. It’s freedom. But the free market is not freedom. The free market doesn’t give you your free speech. The free market doesn’t give you the right to vote. The free market has little regard for the democratic process at all.
Conservatives like to point the finger at Hollywood elites and the liberal media as the source of the decline of morals and society. What is moral to one is not to another. Is it a decline of society or a society with fewer secrets? Whether or not the decline of morals and society is real or perceived is for another discussion. What is pertinent to this discussion is that big business – the free market – is what controls Hollywood and the media. The big corporations that make up the free market – that conservatives preach as gospel – own the very entities that are offered by conservatives as the explanation for the decline of society.
It is through conservative politics that we see deregulation and less government as the solutions to make America stronger. But this is in direct conflict with the picture painted above. It is through this weakening of government that businesses are able to control the dialog in Washington. There are only a few elected officials in congress left that are not beholden to big business. The few that do remain are Democrats or Independents like Independent U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The virus of unrestrained free market capitalism has infected the entire Republican Party and nearly the rest of congress. This does not bode well for the average citizen and will only fuel the decline of small town Main Streets all across the country.
Until more citizens vote with their conscience and not with their party we are condemned to repeat the same mistakes.
