Posted on 08/19/2002 8:43:50 PM PDT by StopGlobalWhining
Back in the late 1990s when Hillary Rodham Clinton claimed the existence of a "vast, right-wing conspiracy," she was scoffed at by the Republicans, the press and anyone sore at the Clintons for whatever infraction, real or imagined, they might have committed.
The country got a good laugh, and the expression has become almost as much a part of our political lexicon as "What did you know and when did you know it," "I am not a crook" and "Read my lips: No new taxes."
However, while Hillary's naysayers were chortling and guffawing, those "thinkers" at the Cato Institute may have been shifting a little uncomfortably in their leather armchairs. She may have been onto something.
Ever since the mid-1970s, and especially during the Reagan administration, conservative "think tanks" rose to the forefront in forming public opinion. The war on welfare began, and the right was extremely successful in pushing its agenda on the rest of the country.
It became fashionable to sneer when we said the word "welfare" and begrudge hungry, poor children their daily bread. Their mothers were, after all, robbing us of our tax dollars while lying around and collecting $400 a month. The well-heeled Heritage Foundation repeated it often enough and we began to believe it.
Fast-forward to the present days of crooked accounting firms, financial fairy tales and CEOs who make 500 times that of their income-tax paying employees and there is no comparison to the alleged "welfare cheats."
Even the worst welfare offender with five kids, two live-in boyfriends and an under-the-table bartending job never defrauded thousands of workers of their retirement investments. Their monthly welfare payments caused neither a huge deficit nor a recession. And, their money went right back into the economy -- not to an offshore tax haven.
Furthermore, welfare existed for anyone who hit upon hard times. It got an especially good workout during the Reagan recession of 1981, shortly after the rich got a tax cut and the economy soured, putting millions out of work.
The think tanks also used their influence to turn us against public education. They convinced some of us that the teachers there can't teach and kids can't learn. So, we started testing the teachers.
They announced that kids still weren't learning, so we administered standardized tests to decide who gets the precious public education dollars.
They told us we needed a voucher program -- that kids who can't learn need a good old-fashioned parochial or private school funded by public dollars.
But they always fail to mention that private and parochial schools don't necessarily want kids who have problems learning. And they certainly do not want behavioral or emotional problems.
Many parents bought into the public education lie, yet they never stopped to consider that our colleges and universities have never been at a loss for applicants. Millions of kids graduate public schools every year prepared for higher education. But the American Enterprise Institute failed to mention that fact.
Any mention of financial inequality among Americans is volleyed back by right-wing conservatives as "class warfare" as though we should be ashamed of ourselves for even suggesting such a thing. But there is war between the classes. The mighty rich have declared war on every tax-paying American in this country.
The conservative think tanks are responsible for the suggestion that we privatize Social Security. They can't stand to see that much money just sitting there, benefiting many, while they can't get their hands on it.
They thought up the idea of repealing the estate tax -- something that does not benefit the poor. And they are the ones who wanted to deregulate everything. We all saw what that did to service and cost in the banking, insurance and telecommunications industries.
With their millions of carefully placed dollars, these conservative behemoths can manipulate public opinion on anything from unwed mothers to irradiated food.
The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy says that an organization called The Philanthropy Roundtable, comprising a dozen right-wing foundations, "is adding its voice to the growing number of New Right grantees aggressively articulating the virtues of a philanthropic paternalism that would in effect place the poor under the direct moral guidance of the rich, or those who have presumably demonstrated their moral superiority through hard work, self-reliance and personal responsibility."
Somehow, defrauding investors, robbing people of their 401ks and ripping off energy customers while ignoring government checks and balances don't sound like moral superiority.
And limiting family planning while teaching kids abstinence instead of scientific facts about reproduction doesn't seem very responsible.
These smug, pompous individuals want to either get rid of or privatize anything that works for the people. They pay little or no income taxes -- certainly not their fair share -- yet regularly raid the public coffers.
With less funding for education, social programs and family planning, we can have our own Third World country right here at home.
This scenario is far worse than a vast, right-wing conspiracy. Those very people who are making much ado about pledging allegiance to God are themselves morally bankrupt, soulless and inhumane.
Deb McMurtrie is a community columnist and a Bellefonte resident.
Oh, really?
This is not a joke! A real live wacko wrote this!
These smug, pompous individuals want to either get rid of or privatize anything that works for the people.
Yeah, like public government schools and the Social Security Ponzi scheme?
Figures.
Yet another socialist heard from.
I take a sip, and I know that everything's going to be okay....
Just what is a community columnist? Is this just someone getting her screed printed in the paper?
Putting Millions out of work? Notice no mention of Clinton who signed the Welfare reform act. What an idiot!
Wish I'd thought of it myself.
Even the worst welfare offender with five kids, two live-in boyfriends and an under-the-table bartending job never defrauded thousands of workers of their retirement investments.
Yes, she was. Who does the author think was working to pay for her boyfriends, her boyfriends' drug habits, her kids' bail, her own milking of the system?
Any mention of financial inequality among Americans is volleyed back by right-wing conservatives as "class warfare" as though we should be ashamed of ourselves for even suggesting such a thing.
This is simply remarkably incoherent. No one considers the mention of financial inequality to be class warfare. Class warfare is using the power of the state to coerce the transfer of wealth from one "class" to another, as if economics were all that describe class. What we see here is indeed a conspiracy, but it belongs not to the right or left, it is the conspiracy of the resentful and wilfully ignorant, convincing themselves that merit has nothing to do with inequality of wealth, and that it is the duty of the state to see that the deserving garner no more than the undeserving. This is "fairness" as defined by those who demand but do not earn.
****DRAMAQUEEN ALERT****
the last part should read ....all liberals can do is throw more money at failed schemes that haven't worked and will never work....except in guaranteeing taxes will increase.
Thanks for letting me hitchhike on your excellent post!
Say what??? She is describing the rats to a tee. What a totally brainless soccer mom statement. (One of many in this article)
"What luck for rulers that people do not think." Adolf Hitler
I think he was right about this. This article is proof that propaganda works.
Any professor - like my late father, who taught from 1965-1992 - can convince you otherwise fast!
College students - all high-school graduates, almost all from government schools - so frequently are unprepared for college that about half never graduate. Many are appallingly unskilled in junior-high math - which is the main reason (other than disciplinary problems) most flunk out. Near-illiteracy isn't uncommon among college students.
Nearby N.C.A&T.S.U. almost lost its nursing program during the 1980s because so few of its nursing grads were passing the licensing test. Did the government schools those students went to prepare them adequately?
This dizzy dame has a short memory (if she has one at all)!
Oh really?
And, their money went right back into the economy
Yeah, the drug markets....
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