Birthdays and Conservatives

Today happens to be my birthday. It also happens to be the birthday of the woman pictured on the left. Her name is La Shawn Barber and she writes a good blog if you happen to be  a believer in and follower of Jesus Christ and a renegade supporter of conservative ideals.

I am fascinated by the fact that a woman the same age as me, from the same culture, can have such a different set of ideals. I read her writings (she's a very good writer by the way) and I am usually bewildered.  She's like a Baldilocks without the military background.

At 38, you have pretty much figured out who you are. I'm a screaming agnostic, capitalist, libertarian with 2 ex-wives a daughter and a music fetish. Ms. Barber, though cute, is not.

Ms. Barber, Baldilocks, and her ilk are part of the cheap labor conservative movement which swept the blogospere and is slowly seeping into Black American culture.

And it is destroying us.

The ramblings of Black conservatives, to me, tastes a bit opportunistic and a slap in the face to their parents and grandparents. The civil rights struggle was not about seeing to it that wages are low, schools suck and  that the number of Blacks in prison continue to rise (which are what conservative ideas perpetuate.

I do not mind differences of opinion. I'm willing to sacrifice my vision of utopia for some common ground. But such thinking goes against the very thought process of conservatism. Just look at any "hot" issue. Conservatives say abortions should be outlawed. No room for compromise. It's the liberals who must bend.

It's conservatism which cause terrorism. It's conservatism which causes oppression. You don't have to be a genius to realize that. Osama and his ilk are conservatives. Any group that is not willing to compromise for the common good is dangerous. Which makes the right very scary to me and others who would just like to watch porn, smoke weed and be left alone. (o.k., I don't really smoke weed but the fact that I have to even say that disgusts me.)

I've worked for my self for the past 11 years. I understand small business struggles and opportunities. The Black community needs more Blacks in business. That is not a conservative idea. Keeping the minimum wage low. That's conservative and backwards thinking.

Just look at modern day conservatism (via Conceptual Guerrilla):

• Cheap-labor      conservatives (and modern US conservatism is really about cheap labor) support the “get tough” and “lock ‘em up” approach to      virtually every social problem in the spectrum. In fact, it’s the only approach they support. As for the 2,000,000 people we have in      jail today – a higher percentage of our population than any other nation      on earth -- they say our justice system is “too lenient”.

• Cheap-labor  conservative – you know, the ones who believe in “freedom” – say our crime problem is because – get this – we’re too “permissive”. How exactly do you set up a “free”      society that isn’t “permissive”?

• Cheap-labor  conservatives want all the military force we can stand to pay for and  never saw a weapons system they didn’t like.

• Cheap-labor conservatives support every right-wing authoritarian hoodlum in the third  world.

• Cheap-labor conservatives support foreign assassinations, covert intervention in  foreign countries, and every other “black bag” operation the CIA can dream  up, even against constitutional governments, elected by the people of      those countries.

• Cheap-labor  conservatives support “domestic surveillance” against “subversives” –where “subversive” means “everybody but them”.

• Cheap-labor believers in “freedom” think it’s the government’s business if you smoke a  joint or sleep with somebody of your own gender.

• And let’s not forget this perennial item on the agenda. Cheap-labor conservatives want to “protect our national symbol” from “desecration”. They also support legislation to make the Pledge of Allegiance required by law. Of course, it is they who desecrate the flag every time they wave it to support their cheap-labor agenda.

 

Sounds to me like the cheap-labor conservatives have a peculiar definition of “freedom”. I mean, just what do these guys consider to be “tyranny”?

That’s easy. Take a look.

• “Social spending” otherwise known as “redistribution”. While they don’t      mind tax dollars being used for killing people, using their taxes to feed      people is “stealing”.
• Minimum wage laws.
• Every piece of legislation ever proposed to improve working conditions, including the eight hour day, OSHA regulations, and even Child Labor laws.
• Labor unions, who “extort” employers by collectively bargaining.
• Environmental regulations and the EPA.
• Federal support and federal standards for public  education.
• Civil rights legislation. There are still cheap-labor conservatives today, who were staunch defenders of “Jim Crow” – including conspicuously Buckley’s      “National Review”. Apparently,  federal laws ending segregation were “tyranny”, but segregation itself was not.

See the pattern? Cheap-labor conservatives support every coercive and oppressive function of government, but call it “tyranny” if government does something for you – using their money, for Chrissake. Even here, cheap-labor conservatives are complete hypocrites.

Is the pattern becoming clearer? These cheap-labor Republicans have no problem at all opening the public purse for corporate interests. It’s “social spending” on people who actually need assistance that they just “can’t tolerate”.

And now you know why. Destitute people work cheaper, while a harsh police state keeps them suitably terrorized.

 I guess it's the lack of real values that piss me off about cheap labor conservatives.

This nation still exists because the founders understood that their values might not be that values of those to come, and so they gave us a government that can grow, change, and work always toward true freedom for all.  When we at last allowed women to vote, our nation became stronger. When we ended segregation, our nation became stronger.  When we ensured that our elders would live with an income that allows some of the dignity and respect they so clearly deserve, our nation became stronger.  When I humbly accept that the values of others are as deeply held, as sincere, and as valid as my own, I honor my values and I make my country stronger.

Hopefully, some of these conservatives will understand that and it will truly be a Happy Birthday.

Comments

[Dave]

You're agnostic, capitalist and libertarian.

You must be the only capitalist I've ever seen who rails about oppression and corruption. Everyone else who does that says capitalism is innately evil and always to be blamed for those things.

You fight for your right to watch porn, but would you happily agree if your daughter said, at age 12, "daddy I wanna be a porn star!"??? Any hesitation on your part is proof of hypocrisy.

And if you're perfectly happy with your daughter's future porn career and would collect and watch her movies, it's proof that you have no morals at all and are not qualified to take a moral position on anything.

And if you're truly agnostic, then you take the position that God has not been proven to you, but you're open to that proof when you see it. I submit with great respect that you have seen it already, countless times, manifested in the giggles and hugs and kisses of your little girl and the way they make you feel. She's your gift from God. She's there to teach you things you should already know but don't, YET.

don't just read LaShawn's blog. Talk to her. She's been down some bumpy roads. I'm glad you respect her; now do something about it.

[Hashim]

"The ramblings of Black conservatives, to me, tastes a bit opportunistic and a slap in the face to their parents and grandparents. The civil rights struggle was not about seeing to it that wages are low, schools suck and that the number of Blacks in prison continue to rise (which are what conservative ideas perpetuate.)"

Okaaaaaaaaaay. Before you can dissect, first respect that she and other Bl;ack liberals love their race and country just like you. But to start out with disrespect taints your view of everything else.

[PrinceC]

[to start out with disrespect taints your view of everything else.]

I don't think that I was disrectful. I was stating my opinion.

[You must be the only capitalist I've ever seen who rails about oppression and corruption.]

You actually are kidding, right? The majority of people, capitalist or not, are good and hate to see oppression and corruption. I assume you were being facetous...

[You fight for your right to watch porn, but would you happily agree if your daughter said, at age 12, "daddy I wanna be a porn star!"??? Any hesitation on your part is proof of hypocrisy.]

That doesn't even deserve a complete respo

[Les]

Interesting blog, brother. Join us for some soulful discussion at:

http://leslester.blogspot.com