The Most Intrusive Government Of All

Goldwater for President - Barry Goldwater - photo by Cliffords PhotographyConservatives are for big government. Yes, you read that correctly. There is, however, a caveat. Conservatives are about keeping government out of their lives while simultaneously advocating more government intrusion into the lives of others. Conservatives are much more concerned with how government affects them than they are about how government affects you.

I guess that was just a bit provocative. I’ll reel it in just a tad by saying I don’t know if my statements above represent most conservatives or just a group of conservatives. But even if it’s just a group, it’s a vocal group that has managed to drag the rest of the conservative party – otherwise called the Republican Party – further and further to the right. I’m astonished that level-headed, moderate Republicans are able to listen to the increasingly fundamentalist conservative rhetoric and not say, enough is enough.

These ultra-conservative — Actually, I’m not sure conservative is the appropriate word because some of their ideas are quite radical. Let me re-phrase. — These authoritarian, right-wing extremists – is that better? – lead a movement defined by a radical agenda born out of a narrow worldview.

The modern conservative movement started around the time of  Barry Goldwater and gained momentum in the 1970s and 80s with Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority. The movement continues today through lobbyists, astroturf groups, religious figures, talk show hosts and conservative advocacy groups like Citizens United, Freedom Works and the Family Research Council.

Their goals are to legislate morality, re-write history and repeal the 20th century.

They want:

  • to legislate their idea of morality; to dictate how people should live their lives and who they should marry
  • to have us believe the United States was founded as a Christian nation
  • to tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her body
  • to roll back the clock to a time before Social Security, Medicare and other government programs responsible for lifting – not only millions, but – generations of Americans out of poverty
  • to disenfranchise the already disenfranchised by making it more difficult to exercise the most basic of rights: the right to vote

Big Government?

That my friends is the most intrusive government of all.

Government

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