After many decades of observing and participating in American politics I have concluded that American Conservatism is a form of Communism. There simply is no other explanation for the behavior of American Conservatives over the last 30 years. Don’t listen to their beguiling words about limited government and personal responsibility– look at what they do. The first impulse of conservatives, whenever they have gained power, has been to cut taxes. The advocates of this policy have long claimed that tax cuts solve every ill. They stimulate economic growth; they reduce the growth of government; and they return riches wrongly stolen from deserving citizens. Ronald Reagan cut taxes; George W. Bush cut taxes; and Donald J. Trump has recently enacted a tax cut. The only conservative president of the last 30 years who did not cut taxes was George H.W. Bush, and he was excoriated by the leaders of his party for that failure of principle.
Each of those tax cuts was specifically tailored to benefit the super super super rich. The argument in favor of this economic policy is that those with money to burn will invest it in high risk ventures that create innovation and, consequently , jobs.
The most dramatic change in the American economy over the last 30 years has been a massive concentration of income and wealth. The super super super rich have become ever more rich, while the wages of the average American worker have stagnated. The portion of personal income going to the top one percent has increased from 8.9 percent in 1980 to more than 22 percent today. And only the top two quintiles of families have seen their net worth increase between 2000 and 2011. Families in each of the lower three quintiles have actually seen their net worth decline over the same period. See inequality.org for more details.
Conservatives must certainly be aware of this massive shift of economic power. As they have reminded us at every opportunity, conservatives have a deep and abiding understanding of economics, whereas liberals only know how to waste government funds. Certainly they must view this most dramatic shift of the economy as a consequence of their own strivings and machinations.
Conservatives must also know of the revolutions of France, of Russia, and of China. They must be enough aware of historical trends to know that as wealth is concentrated in the hands of an ever diminishing minority of ultra ultra ultra rich plutocrats the masses will turn to the only option available for the redress of their disenfranchisement– revolution.
Conservatives have been advocating tax cuts that have chiefly benefited the rich for the past 30 years. Each time they achieved their goal of passing tax cuts they have claimed victory. They have repeatedly taken credit for the one governmental policy that has most influenced the structure of the American economy. Hence they must approve of the long term impact of this their most favored policy. The only logical conclusion is that conservatives are planning for the long term. They must be arguing for tax cuts because they intend to skew the economy to such an extreme that the masses are forced to rise up in revolt. In short, they must be planning for a communist revolution. American conservatives must be communists.
Copyright (c) 2020, David S. Moore
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