Conservatives Love Government, When It’s the Military

August 10, 2009 at 10:08 pm

In ranting against the government, one thing you seldom hear conservatives criticize is the military. Even though government, according to them, can’t run anything. Here’s the government conservatives go after:

  • Social programs
  • Public schools
  • EPA
  • Postal service
  • Libraries
  • Health care
  • Court system
  • Corporate regulations

Here’s the government conservatives love:

  • Armed forces and military
  • Police department
  • Fire department
  • Jails and the penitentiary system
  • Personal regulation – definition of marriage, etc.
  • Corporate rights

I’m sure there’s others, but it’s interesting to me that some government is ok for conservatives while other types of government are inefficient and ineffective.

Why is this? Where is the anti-government hysteria coming from.

A couple thoughts occur to me, but the one I’m going to play with is to think about who is generating most of the conservative anti-government propaganda.

One of the few things I agree with Rush Limbaugh about that most things in politics come down to money. The question I’d ask then is: who is profiting from the anti-government movement?

Here’s a couple industries that benefit:

  1. The big banks wanted to deregulate banking and financial regulations.
  2. The pharmaceutical industry got into Medicare and Medicaid and wants a bigger piece of it.
  3. The private education industry keeps pushing for more “options” in the schools.
  4. The oil industry wants more drilling rights on public land and less regulation.
  5. The book industry would benefit if they could get rid of public libraries.
  6. The health care industry want to put caps on lawsuit payments.

Industry lobbyists have learned that they can stoke public outrage about the government in order to “reform” it to their advantage.

I just wonder why no one seems to question why government programs such as the military, police, and fire departments seem immune from the “free market” propaganda.

Is it because conservatives really have a socialist “soft side”? Or could it be because certain industries have targeted certain government programs first?

For example, public school systems were not initially part of the target until certain businesses started to think about how they could make a profit from privitization.

Will the military ever come under question? Probably not until some business starts to think they can make more money from completely privatizing it.