General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRepublicans really do believe that government can't solve problems
That's why they focus on manufactured issues like caravans, abortion, and CRT. It's hard to really tell if anything got done. They strayed into dangerous territory with the promises of a free border wall and great health care, and you see how that all turned out.
Contrast that with Biden's ambitious and testable Build Back Better Framework.
Interestingly, right-wingers tend to be big big supporters of the military. I've asked them why the military doesn't count as a government program which solves problems (this gets crickets). So how exactly is an aspiring right-winger to know which are the "good" government programs and which are the "bad" ones? Well you see, they generally can't work this out themselves with any sort of consistent conservative logic. They must wait for the relevant talking point to be developed by Those Who Decide Such Things.
Xolodno
(6,330 posts)...they say that, and then say COVID is a massive government conspiracy which requires absolute cohesion but they see through it.
I just don't get it.
rickyhall
(4,889 posts)Propaganda is brain damaging? And they call me crazy.
inthewind21
(4,616 posts)A hurricane, wildfire, failed power grid, flood and direct deposit of SS are at hand. Then they become true believers in government.
TheRealNorth
(9,435 posts)And don't forget the farmers that get subsidies.
Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)to conservatives.
WHITT
(2,868 posts)Corporate Welfare and tax cuts for the Rich & Corporate.
ananda
(28,780 posts)And they are really good at it.
Caliman73
(11,690 posts)Conservatives believe that there is a natural hierarchy where Wealthy White men are and should remain in charge. The function of government is to maintain that power structure. That is it. Protect property rights of the wealthy, protect commerce, and enforce the social and economic order. The military enforces the economic and social order abroad, and police forces enforce it domestically.
Conservatives understand that their true policies only appeal to a fraction of the population. They are very good at understanding certain motivations of people to belong to the ruling class. They can generally enlist support from people who are by status, cut out from actually sharing power, by allowing them to enforce the social order. Much like the Southern Plantation owners disrupted any solidarity between poor Whites and enslaved Black people by creating a system of overseers and slave patrols, which provided opportunities for poorer Whites to achieve a status higher than slave or poor while still effectively shutting them out from any real power. They use religion, racial differences, and other symbolic measures of being American to manipulate people who would not ever directly benefit from their actual policies.
Because we as a country, have never really had any kind of deep discussion about race and class issues, because many of us have bought into the concept of American exceptionalism, Conservatives can easily bat away any arguments against their strategies as attempts by "un-American" people to destroy our great nation.
GoCubsGo
(32,061 posts)Wouldn't it be easier to just let the government fail on it's own if it "can't solve problems"? There would be no need to keep sabotaging something that is supposedly destined to fail. It's not that they don't think government can solve problems. They just don't want it to. They and their donors make a shit-ton of money off those problems.