How to Destroy the Government in Three Easy Steps
In eight short years, conservatives have effectively bankrupted many state governments and left the fed in shambles. And now citizens have to “make tough decisions” and share the suffering equally across the land (unless of course, you’re part of that lucky 1 percent who co-opted the functions of government to serve their own ends … they’ll be cozy with their offshore bank accounts, golden parachutes and permanent tax holidays).
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Ever wonder how conservatives did all this?Well, here’s your very own how-to manual for getting Big Government out of the way so you and your buddies can horde all the wealth to yourselves and build your empire.
Step 1: Blame the Individuals
[…]Step 2: Cut Taxes
[…]Step 3: Exploit Disaster
Read the article for the details. It’s short and very to the point.
It wasn’t the conservatives that caused this financial mess but the shenanigans of people like Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Nancy Pelosi, Franlin Raines and Maxine Waters. Hardly names that fall into the conservative category.
Conservatives are guilty of staying quiet while all this was happening, but hardly where the bulk of the blame should fall.
Yes, the Bush admin was there and iced the cake. But there would not have been any cake to ice if it hadn’t been for Clinton preceeded by Bush and Reagan. When greed goes unchecked this is what can happen…CANCER of all government, financial and manufacturing sectors. We destroy ourselves from within.
First throw out the lobbyists who in effect are the money lenders in the temple. They bend the will of the government to their short term narrow vision. Once the leader’s decision making is no longer clouded they will start making long range decisions for the good of the country rather then funding their next election. End of rant.
Does TWIT stand for This week In Twitter? I am with you on this John.
EXCELLENT article. I ensure it gets resurfaced in 3 years as a stark reminder of why people need to vote.
Hmmm. The Bush admin was not conservative by a mile. In most of the article you can substitute “government” for “conservative and it still holds true. Blame the individual and spread fear is an art form that Obama has taken to a whole new level.
Just an angry little rant by a deranged Bush hater.
ummm, I’m sorry, I’m not going to support the Bush admin, but last time I checked it was the Democrats that had control of the hill and it was the Democrats that called Bush and Co “fear mongers” when they tried to pass a few bills to prevent this in 2001. I’m just sayin’. I personally am sick of the blame game, especially when the people blaming others have no fucking clue.
Contempt:
Hahahahahahaha! Conservative aided and abetted neocons and some neolibs, in this effort for years BEFORE Shrub took office. It really wasn’t 8 short years but it was mostly a conservative philosophy that is the cause of this. Neocons and the few neolibs (neither of whom are true conservatives or liberals) took the ball that conservatives started down the hill and ran with it to the end zone for their own profit and power. Our situation is a direct result of this.
And mbpc2d.user, you are wrong on this assertion. Please check facts. SOME conservatives tried to prevent some changes but mostly conservatives – and yes some blue dog dems – did push for further erosion of regulations. But the push for deregulation of all things financial was supported by Shrub and friends. No amount of revision changes that. And of course, such deregulation began under Nixon if you care to look it up. It really took hold under Reagan and has steamrolled ever since, and yes, even under Clinton.
Now, if we can get away from the whole liberal conservative paradigm and back to honest, intelligent debate so that we can get this country on its feet again.
I’ve posted this article several times over the past few months, but I’ll do again for the newbies.
The New York Times did an in-depth piece on how the bubble was created and how oversight was withdrawn.
I know that the Bush supporters, all three of them, and the neo-cons will still prefer to blame the Democrats. It fits in with their blame everything on someone except those who screwed the pooch.
The Liebertarians will blame those who interfered in the “Free Market” system. Gee, I bet LibertyPoser will even come on telling us how private inspectors can do a better job than government inspectors.
another misguided blame game article.
the banks control both sides and they use the
left-right paradigm to “blind” the people from joining forces and squashing them.
get a clue people.
-s
#1
You did not even bother to read the article did you?
Step 1: Blame the individuals, and there you go blaming individuals, its so ironic.
BTW how in the hell are Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Nancy Pelosi, Franlin Raines and Maxine Waters responsible for the financial mess? Or more importantly how are they more more responsible than banking deregulator Phil Gramm, bubble architect Alan Greenspan, or the targeted tax cuts of George W Bush and the GOP?
It was a bipartisan cluster *&^%!
# 8 gmknobl mentioned “honest, intelligent debate”. Let me know if/when you see any.
Instead, we get “It’s all Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi’s fault!” Like the Dems forced financial institutions to create cons like credit default swaps, and tranches requiring 1000+ pages of documentation, and 30-to-1 leveraging of everything not nailed down, all designed to work only if everything kept going up and up and up and up forever and ever, amen!
What actually happened was we let the reins of the country fall into the hands of the con men and their C-average stooges and dupes.
From the preponderance of commentary on this blog, it’s obvious the steps outlined in the article are still working, and working very well.
HAHA!
That’s a funny article. Cute and full of half truths. The reality was closer to what contempt said. Conservatives were guilty of not speaking up and allowing it to happen. I can only think of one that did, and the press labeled him a fringe fanatic for it.
I get a laugh at all the liberal demonizing of Bush being an example of bad conservative principles run amok. He’s no conservative and never was just a wolf in sheeps clothing with R in front of his name. If he had any conservative principles at all there would have been a lot more trust busting during his administration.
What rubbish. The article is not worth the photons used to view it. It is more liberal ranting. Now that Bush is out of office, the left have simply substituted “conservative” for “Bush” in their blame of all the world’s woes. They want us to believe that somehow the Democrats did not exist while all this was happening.
Can someone explain the logic of the Reagan Republicans to me:
Big Government is bad,
but,
Big Business is good.
Government represents the interests of the citizens, regulate and downsize it.
Big business represents the interests of… the market? Deregulate and rewrite the laws to favorable their growth.
We could use a Trustbuster like Teddy, never let them get “too big to fail”.
You gotta love it how Cons always:
1) Manage to mention the Clintons and blame them for everything.
2) Supposedly, profess “responsibility” and “self-reliance”, but always end up playing a “victim” card.
3) Choose to ignore any facts and specifics that show that yes, in fact, most of the sh*t happens on their watch and under their leadership (or lack of any).
Pathetic!
“Federal spending stood at about $1.9 trillion in 2000, when Democrat Bill Clinton ended his presidency. In his final year in office, Bush proposed to spend $3.1 trillion for fiscal year 2009. President Obama’s budget proposal for fiscal 2010 is $3.6 trillion.
Nor can Republicans blame a Democratic Congress for being responsible for these trends. Much of the expansion took place between 2002 and 2006, when Republicans controlled both Congress and the White House. The Weekly Standard’s Fred Barnes was writing about “big government conservatism” back in 2003.”
http://cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/18/zelizer.small.government/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
#18, Alphie,
Bush wasn’t conservative, neither was his congress…
So, are you telling us that the right wing nuts lied to us when they said that their Republican President was a conservative?
Talking of re-branding. Notice how Bush + co are re-branded as not Republicans. Or not ‘real’ Republicans.
And this is fairly recent – pretty much after the election. So now if anyone points out something that was bad in the last 8 years, and it can’t be directly bent to being ‘democratic congress’, its not the republicans.
Well that’s convenient.
First stage of fixing a problem is admitting having a problem.
Just saying.
You did not mention “spend like drunken Democrats.” That is why the Republicans lost in 2006 and then the Democrats are trying to out do the Republicans in pork.
Don’t blame conservatives for this. Conservatives are not a bit to blame except for them saying nothing. Just being a Republican does not make one conservative.
Both the Democrats and the Republicans are to blame for this. The article is stupid and biased, so consider the source.
#21, Yes.
http://tinyurl.com/bosjq8
#8, Neocons and the few neolibs (neither of whom are true conservatives or liberals)
Neoliberalism is a return to true classical liberalism. The progressive New Liberals are the ones who co-opted the term and twisted its meaning. Liberalism is a good thing and should be promoted; using the force of government to create certain desired socioeconomic outcomes is not liberalism.
#21, “So, are you telling us that the right wing nuts lied to us when they said that their Republican President was a conservative?”
In the same way that the Federalists were really big proponents of federalism. Which of course, they weren’t.
Eight years?!?!?!?! So when exactly did the Democrats win control of Congress? 🙂
Since some of us here are wanting to use the left-leaning NYT, here’s an article written by them indicating that Bush tried to fix things with Freddie and Fannie back in 2003: http://tinyurl.com/cmf3u8
And the NYT even had the dignity of quoting Frank who responded with “These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis, … The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.” 🙂
They forgot step 4: “Profit”
#9, The Libertarians [sic] will blame those who interfered in the “Free Market” system. Gee, I bet LibertyLover [sic] will even come on telling us how private inspectors can do a better job than government inspectors.
They can. 700 people out of 300,000,000. More people than that get sick from the flu each year.
However, if you truly want to ensure the inspections are made, you need to stomp on the violators.
Gingrich had a republican congress large enough to override a presidential veto from 1998 folks.
That was when all the rules were changed.
This fact might not impress any of you inbred assholes who are obstructing the fix, but it is fact. Look it up.
#30, Which just goes to show that both parties suffer from Cranial-Analitis.
# 30 qsabe said, “Gingrich had a republican congress large enough to override a presidential veto from 1998 folks.”
Right, made it MUCH easier to pass balanced budgets over the protests of Clinton.
The six years that Bush had both the Congress and the White House was not run in any conservative way. They both spent like a drunken sailor (I remember being one, sailor that is) and acted just like Democrats spending like the tab wasn’t going to come due on their watch.
It didn’t and now we are screwed.
I for one support a lot of Liberal ideals but fiscally I’m a conservative and not the kind of conservative all the Libs on this blog blame for everything including the Lindbergh kidnapping.
Weapons and ammo