I guess they would say they’re only airing their grievances. It doesn’t sound like that to me, though. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a whinier group than today’s modern conservatives. Everything is either insult and injury or persecution and paranoia. Everyone is out to get them. Go ahead, just ask them, they’ll tell you. Simultaneously, they attack – and have pretty much destroyed – everything about this country I once thought made it a worthwhile effort. Technically, I believe it’s called projection. I accuse you of doing the things I am, in fact, doing. The cons do this so often, I don’t even have to list examples. Anyone who has ever listened to them for any length of time sees it in short order. Then, if you challenge them, they’re deeply wounded – followed closely by fury.

Listening to the Dumbass on his “Poor Me Tour” or his supporters trying to offer defenses is a little detestable. IS the whole world out to get you? No. The world doesn’t care about you enough to take the time to target you for anything. But, my gods, how they howl. And the farther from provable reality the currently held position, the louder the howling.

I’ll tell you this: I don’t feel sorry for them. In fact, I find it kind of disgusting…

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You may have noticed, I don’t have many positive things to say about today’s modern conservative movement. Many of the conservatives, themselves, I like very much. But the movement they represent and support? Abhorrent. I reconcile the two quite easily. I honestly believe the cons are being manipulated and deceived in their conservative bubble. They watch what they think is the “news.” (It isn’t, of course. It’s opinion, often outright lies, dressed up as “news.”) They believe themselves informed and they respond to the information they have accordingly – just like me. By the way, I believe this about Trump, too. One of the defining features of Trump is that he famously LOVES to watch television and we KNOW he was loyal to Fox “News” for a long time. Fox “News” has destroyed more minds than crack cocaine.

Most of my now conservative friends were once solidly blue. They became red only after a solid, sustained dose of Fox “News” or, these days, whichever outlet they get drawn into. Literally, the only difference between them and me is that I’m better at discerning the difference between facts and fictions. Not perfect, mind you, but better. Perhaps it was the critical thinking and logic classes. Maybe it was that history speaks to me so I paid attention in that class, too. It’s true, history DOES repeat…

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One of the falsehoods held by a large segment of this once-great nation is that government is bad and has no place in people’s day-to-day lives. But the government’s proper role in any transactional society is to act as referee between the have’s and the have-nots. The problem is, business exists for one reason: profit. Big businesses are amoral. That is, they don’t make moral or ethical choices. They choose profit. Always. But I continue to hold that any person or entity that acts amorally will, inevitably, act immorally. Business should, by rights, do any and every legal thing it can do to create profit. It’s up to the people in the society in which the business operates to define the limits of that behavior and we’re supposed to do that via our government.

Recently, one of my conservative friends complained to me that libs are calling cons “Fascists.” He was upset but I think it’s true. See, I’ve always accepted Mussolini’s definition of the word: “the marriage of corporation and state” – very much the America we live in today. (The rank and file cons have been handed a FAR more convoluted definition – one that conveniently frees them of the possibility they might be Fascists.) Mussolini was, after all, the original frontman of Fascism. He must have a voice in it’s definition, right? Fascism abdicates the proper governmental responsibility, creating, instead, an environment where government and corporations work together – with government taking it’s cues from the corporations.

But if business is to be the conscience of government, government will inevitably act immorally, too. (I mean, just look around you. It’s everywhere.) It’s not that either group SEEKS to behave badly. It just becomes the de facto outcome. When the government “marries” business, there is no more guardian watching out for the people.

Of course, the team that is supporting our current nightmare are, in fact, the cons. The rank and file don’t set the policy. They don’t even understand that’s what they’re advocating.

But I’ll tell you this: the conservative policy makers at the top don’t need the rank and file’s understanding. They need their support – and they have that…