What do neo-conservatives support these days? Guns and Prisons. Money for the nation's war program is always okay. Support for hurting people and punishing them, and larger fines and levies to penalize people. But there is no support for individual troops. No armor, for example. No worries about pulling people from their lives for several years while they fight a war in far off lands.
Torture is now okay. Haven't quite figured out how to torture American citizens, but we're trying to ship them to Middle Eastern countries and seeing if they can torture our citizens for us.
Prisons. Seem designed for destroying people incarcerated in them. Don't seem designed towards making the people inside them actually function in society.
Security is the ostensible motivatation behind these programs, security of the citizenry. But the truth is these programs do not make us more secure. Jails breed more criminals, not fewer. Is there any support or funding for prevention? No. But programs that cause more potential criminals are supported. Programs that don't work but follow ideology are supported. For example, DARE gets funding. Does it work? There are plenty of studies suggesting it does not do a bit of good.
Jails destroy people. Admittedly not necessarily great human beings. But it seems to make them worse, not better. War and the armed forces also damage individuals. Individuals dying in the course of war is normal and seems to be ok.
The neo-conservatives hostility towards lawsuits follows along these lines as well. Make it harder for individuals to sue corporations and doctors. What is the value to society? Now corporations can hurt individuals and this is ok. No protections for individuals. If your corporatation damages you, tough. If they take away your pension, tough. Its ok to hurt individuals but don't hurt corporations.
It's sad, all this hostility to individuals. Antagonism to HIV prevention programs and sex education. What is the result? More dead and injured individuals. Do we care? We should, but do we do anything about it? No.
The antagonism to the great society programs: social security, medicare, medicaid, welfare, AFDC. These programs help individuals live and be healthy. Cut 'em. Slash 'em. Burn 'em. People don't need to live, to eat, to have medical treatment. Especially poor folk don't deserve these things.
The neo-conservatives are killing us.
-- DCJ
