The more I hear from conservatives I disagree with, whether they be Republicans "Libertarians," or conservatives within our own party, the more I see they are united in a reverence for wealth, and the idea that it is rightfully the measure of power, that runs through all of their thinking.
Republicans try their best to restrict voting to the most comfortable, most mainstream. No students, please. No minority groups. If they could establish landowning men as the only voters, they would do so. Occasionally, they actually opine that someone with more money should get more votes.
"The Tom Perkins system is: You don't get to vote unless you pay a dollar of taxes," Perkins said.
"But what I really think is, it should be like a corporation. You pay a million dollars in taxes, you get a million votes. How's that?"
http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/14/investing/tom-perkins-vote/
Libertarians (American style) say government should basically just protect wealth. Police, contract enforcement; nothing else.
The recent unfortunate Supreme Court configuration believes corporations and Super PACs have "free speech" rights that include denying people basic health care or overtly trying to purchase elections.
And I keep seeing this odd take on the legitimacy of opinion in general, where efforts on behalf of the common good -- unions, activists, etc. -- are suspect, while the paid shills and lobbyists are somehow absolutely legitimate.
I saw this in a local effort to guarantee earned sick leave for all workers. Local Chamber of Commerce shills and Tea Partiers showed up to county commission meetings armed with "charts" tying the ballot initiative to unions and liberal activist groups (duh?) and essentially argued that cooperation among groups trying to better the lives of workers was inherently a dark, sinister Communist conspiracy. The fact that groups like Disney were paying lawyers and lobbyists out of pure greed was fine, of course.
Money, they think, is the only thing we should ever trust in, protect, or believe. People and principles are distant afterthoughts.
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