A Rant On Conservative Radio..DON'T DRINK THE COOL-AID

Moderates,

My object here at FTPM is to be as moderate as I can and attempt to gain some form of understanding in the political realm. I try to listen to both sides of a debate and glean from them my understanding of the issue at hand.  Saying that, I cannot help but rail against what I heard Wednesday on the Rush Radio out of North Carolina (don't ask me the station or the show because I was so baffled by the conversation that it escaped my memory). As the conversation went further I could not help but feell sorry for those that called in as the chugged the conservative cool-aid.  One lady even called to to denounce government subsidized healthcare.  She later went on to tell how she used government subsidized healthcare to pay for her physically handicapped child.  That cool-aid must be some power stuff.  I'm sure glad it's not been passed to me.  

The conversation centered around the idea of government spending.  Understandably the host and all of those that phoned into the echo chamber were against any form of government intervention that would cost money.  No surprise there.  What I failed to understand was the dislike of the conservative host for the bank bail outs and saving Wall Street.  I realize that I am late to the table on this but it really struck me the other day how absurd their argument was. 

Wither they like it or not, Republicans are the party of business.  If you look at the majority of Republican measures from Bush's tort reforms to Eisenhower's building of the military industrial complex they have benefited big business.  Just looking at the occupations of say the last 5 Republican Presidents one would see very little in the way of public sector work.  G.E. (Reagan), Oil (The Bushes), and Auto (Romney, Nixon) have been in the White House when a Republican was in office.  So why would conservatives rally against the bailing out of banks and Wall Street?  

The only answer I can gather is that it was simply not their idea, but even that is too simple.  Conservative want us to think they oppose the bail outs because it makes them viable to the everyday citizen. My god look at trickle down economics as your paradigm of hope.  Big business was the only thing benefiting from that policy.  In the words of my grandfather, who was a New Deal Democrat "If it's supposed to trickle down, I'm not even getting wet." It was however, seen as a beacon of hope for the middle class. Sure those at the top will let that money come down to us.  To quote Kevin Bacon in Animal House "Thank you sir, may I have another."

This notion that Republicans have the good of the people in mind is for lack of a better word bullshit.  As for Democrats, I wonder sometimes too..have no fear there.  I simply do not understand the conservative bullhorn speaking out about something that benefits him.  The conversation turned from bad to worse when one caller called in to decry President Obama's plan to build up the nations infrastructure.  The caller say Obama's plan as something so radical that it "blew his mind who someone could agree with it."  To listen to the caller you would think President Obama is so liberal that he swings past socialist, waved communist goodbye and set his sight on some sort of inconsivable set of ideals that the aliens brought to him from outer space.  What the caller failed to hear, or believe for that matter was the benefit to the American economy these measure would make.  The nations bridges are falling apart, our ports need dredging, and the airline industry has yet to fully recover from 9/11.

America is having it's butt handed to it on the world market because it is simply so hard to move products in this country.  Look around the nation and see at where industry is located. It is not out in the open space, it's near a interstate, a major port , or international airport.  Should a business pop up away from a major means of transport, there is quickly manufactured a means of transport.  Take UPS and Memphis.  Forever Memphis's airport was a quiet little regional deal with few flights going anywhere but Chicago and Detroit.  Now it is one of the largest and busiest in the country.  Why?  The government took it upon itself to build a airport to attract UPS.  And while we are on it, who came up with the evil concept of roads being built by the government at the taxpayers expense?  I'll bet you it was that no-good, socialist FDR!  Let me check my book of evil government wrong doers.....Oh it was Dwight Eisenhower...Oh my it says here he was a Republican

I understand the idea that we (the average taxpayer) do not want our hard earned money going into the pocket of some wealthy, underworked, undertaxed CEO.  I even understand how bank bailouts look and are similar to socialism.  Attribute that to the fact that I went to college, majored in political science and had to take a few economics classes..unlike just about all the nut jobs on the conservative airways. What I fail to understand is the mindless wonder of the average listener to conservative airwaves.  I have visions of sheep being led to slaughter whenever I hear people parroting the talking points of Sean Hanity, Rush Limbough (I don't even care to spell his name right) and the like.  Yeah, I probably sound like a parrot of the left at times, but at least I am educated on the subject and have some idea of how things really work.  Anyway, I'm not drinking that cool-aid Republicans so don't pass it my way.  I might just feed it to your dog and have him reading Ayn Rand to your kids for a bedtime story.