CPAC: CONSERVATIVE, PARANOID, AND CRAZY!

CPAC (the Conservative Political Action Conferencee,or, more accurately, Conservative, Paranoid, And Crazy), just wound up its annual meeting of 10,000 deluded loud fanatics, egged on as usual by the most ignorant, pasranoid, dishonest, hateful, and intolerant members of today's far-right Republican Party. There was the usual bevy of mean-spirited speakers: Dick Cheney, the man who lied and manipulated us into war in Iraq for the benefit of his company Halliburton, smirking and smugly declaring Barack Obama to be a one-term President (to thunderous applause); his spiteful daughter Liz peddling her lies about Obama being soft on terrorism; the mindless and opportunistic Sarah Palin sucking up to fanatical teabaggers and urging them to support Republican candidates this fall; the obstructionist Jim DeMint, insanely insisting that "free markets and deregulation did not wreck our economy." And then there was master conspiracy theorist and dishonest Fox "News" commentator Glenn Beck, spinning his nonsense about "progressivism is a cancer in America" and that America is being gobbled up by socialism.

Michele Bachmann didn't disappoint, either, with her fictional lie about Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt "turning a manageable recession into the Great Depression," and obscure and unexplained references to "Obama's thought police and Obama's speech police." The insane invective this woman spews forth never ceases to amaze me. She loves to parade and portray herself as a solid, God-fearing Christian, yet she constantly comes up with irresponsible, distorted, and wildly exaggerated lies for her political rhetoric. What kind of utter nonsense did they teach you down there at Oral Roberts University, Bachmann? Or were you asleep, or daydreamingly gazing out the window the entire time your professors of history, economics, political science, and theology spoke? SPARE US, O CRAZY
WOMAN!

Numerous speakers, including House Minority "Leader" John Boehner, actively reached out to angry teabaggers in attendance, promising things will be different if only they will elect a Republican Congress this fall. But, of course, such claims are patent absurdity, as are the very foundation of arguments CPAC is based on.

For Republicans HATE government. Unless, of course, it is they who are in control of it. They constantly talk about reducing its size, but they never do. The federal government GREW in size under Presidents Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II, all of whom proclaimed themselves to be bedrock conservatives. And Republicans only hate government when it attempts to regulate greedy big business interests or protect average citizens from corporate excesses. Their naive belief in free markets magically correcting themselves and turning a blind eye to the very real threat Wall Street and huge corporations pose to average, everyday, working and poor Americans who make up the overwhelming majority of our population is unforgivable. So, once in office, Republicans allow these business interests to further erode workers' standards of living, as well as reward them with huge tax breaks and subsidies - even lucrative, non-bid government contracts.And, as we have seen, the conservative Republicans now act as saboteurs, never shying away from an opportunity to stonewall or derail some woefully-needed pro-people initiatives like health care reform, economic stimulus, or environmental protection. All of which requires major investment by the federal government.

The teabagger and conservative Republican premise is a severely flawed one. To really get this country going again, what is needed is NOT "less" or "smaller" government, but a MORE EFFICIENT one. There is far too much duplicity and lack of inter-departmental cooperation to meet our needs. What is needed is NOT lower taxes, but FAIRER taxes. Our wealthiest elite pay far, FAR less in taxes than do those of comparable wealth in all other countries. Yet we have MUCH greater poverty than is found in other developed countries, and this is unjust and wholly unnecessary. What is needed is an INCREASE in top-scale income taxes and a REDUCTION in taxes for lower and middle incomes. Huge tax breaks for the wealthy have NOT resulted in largescale investment or the creation of millions of higher-paying jobs here, as had originally been promised. Instead, these tax breaks for the wealthy have only resulted in a lazy, unproductive, and speculative upper class of useless elites. Our country needs and deserves better than that! What is needed is NOT a belligerent and aggressive foreign policy which results in unnecessary and costly wars for plunder and profit, but diplomacy and interaction. In this country, government is NOT an oppressive or dictatorial force, nor will it ever be. It is THE PEOPLE, working together to solve problems and pool resources for the common good rather than greedily channeling every endeavor into something producing self-serving profit. To hate government, then, is to hate the people, and the very country itself. Such a premise is self-destructive and unhealthy, and benefits no one.


Teabaggers and conservative Republicans alike love to point fingers of blame for our nation's problems, but they never offer any pragmatic policy ideas or real solutions. Their aim is to bring the current government down so they can sweep into power and magically cure all our many ills. But this is not civilized governance. Rather, it is treasonous, self-centered subversion. As such, until teabaggers and conservative Republicans become part of a real solution, THEY THEMSELVES are the problem!