reagan-300x199Much is made now that the current GOP is the “Party of No”. But let’s remember that throughout American history conservatives have always been against progress. Whether it was first the Democrats in the 19th century or ultra conservative Republicans in the late 20th and early 21st century conservatives have tried to set the nation backward or maintain the status quo.

The Ronald Reagan Republican Party wanted to set us back to the 1950’s before the civil rights movement, Medicare and Medicaid. However the current anti-science and racist Tea Party Republican Party is not satisfied with moving the nation back to 1950s, instead they would rather go back to the 1850s because they reject all the ideas of the Scientific Revolution and 14th amendment.

I like to publish this list periodically which is compiled from other progressives and things I’ve added.  It truly demonstrates how conservatives have only held this country.  Feel free to add to the list.

Conservatives wanted to stay loyal to England.
Conservatives wanted to make President a life-long appointment.
Conservatives fought against bringing in slave-free states without slave-holding states.
Conservatives fought for the 5/8 rule that counted slaves.
Conservatives fought for secession from the Union because they wanted to keep slaves.
Conservatives fought against woman’s suffrage movement.
Conservatives fought for prohibition.
Conservatives want to conserve everything but the environment and natural resources.
Conservatives think science should by made by ideological policy not that science should make policy.
Conservatives wanted to keep us out of WWI and WWII and lied us into war in Iraq.
Conservatives created Jim Crow laws.
Conservatives terrorized African Amercans by lynching thousands.
Conservatives fought against integration.
Conservatives put up “whites only” signs.
Conservatives fought against the civil rights act.
Conservatives wanted to stay in Vietnam.
Conservatives don’t believe in the separation of church and state.
Conservatives believe in torture and taking away privacy rights.
Conservatives eliminated state-run asylums and put those with mental health problems out in the street.
Conservatives don’t believe in organized labor and fight to break unions.
Conservatives brought you homelessness and huge deficits.
Conservatives back corporations and big business by giving them all the tax cuts and tax loopholes.
Conservatives eliminated most welfare for people but support corporate welfare.
Conservatives want to keep gay Americans 2nd class citizens by denying them the same rights the rest of us enjoy.
Conservatives deny Global Climate Change and fight ANY environmental legislation.
Conservatives fought against Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Conservatives are still fighting against the ACA.
Conservatives gave us the Patriot Act.
Conservatives only represent the interests of rich white men and corporations.
Conservatives want higher standards in schools but don’t want to build new schools or pay teachers what they deserve.
Conservatives want to teach Intelligent Design in schools instead of the scientific theory of evolution.
Conservatives want to do away with the education cabinet post.
Conservatives believe we are a Christian nation want religion imposed into all aspects of your life.
Conservatives advocated the war and occupation in Iraq.
Conservatives advocate going back to the Gold Standard which was responsible for making the Depression worse.
Conservatives want to do away with Medicare for old people and with Medicaid for poor people.
Conservatives are against conserving the environment, wild life and energy.
Conservatives have no solutions so they vote “NO” for any change.
Conservatives put party ahead of country and hope the president fails.
Conservatives fought for deregulation which led to the banking crisis and are fighting new regulations now.
option
Conservatives want to halt any recovery by slashing the budget while making the Bush tax cuts permanent.
Conservatives want to intervene in the democratization of Egypt by scaring us into radicalizing the Muslim Brotherhood.
Conservatives fought against ending DADT.
Conservatives fought against the START treaty when they use to be for it.
Conservatives defeated the DREAM act.
Conservatives stifled the union movement and since then wage disparity has gone back to pre-Great Depression levels.

What have Conservatives EVER done that benefited America?

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TheLateGrardini
Guest

Our congresswoman took to the floor the other day to extol the virtues of Red Ink Ron, or Genghis Ron to those of you who thought the invasion of Grenada ranks among our greatest military excursions. Can’t wait to talk to her Monday morning and present some FACTS about his terms in office and if that type of “governing” would find favor with today’s cons. Ought to be interesting.

KillgoreTrout
Member

I would hesitate to call today’s GOP conservative. They are akin to right wing fanatics that go way beyond classic conservatism.
The problem with conservatism is that it doesn’t allow for the natural changes of life itself. Nature, which includes us all, is changing constantly. It is not static. Conservatives cling to old ideas, and this makes them rigid and unbending.
Liberalism, especially progressive liberalism does not cling to old ideas and is open to the constant change inherent in nature and society.

funksands
Member

Today’s GOP is nothing but a kleptocracy in theocracy drag.

Conservatives are their unwitting but too-often willing dupes.

KillgoreTrout
Member

For the most part, that is true.

funksands
Member

I should clarify: National GOP.

There are still a few good local ones. But they are a rapidly dying breed.

KillgoreTrout
Member

The TPers are the biggest dupes. They haven’t a clue.

funksands
Member

I think many of them do. I don’t think many of them care.

creole-girl
Member
creole-girl

Fascists alway need useful idiots to help them with their diabolical agendas.

Silentdances
Member
Silentdances

I would say that many groups don’t care. They see the GOP as a useful tool that makes their aims easy to achieve. Something to be tossed to the side once their done.

Buddy McCue
Member

It’s a downright shame that people are so easy to manipulate, that the science of perception management works so well.

TheLateGrardini
Guest

Our state senator and rep are good examples of that. Both really good men who would be considered Democrats in Oklahoma or Texas. Both voted to raise our state sales tax one cent against their party bosses. Their reason…the state needed it done (which it did).

TheLateGrardini
Guest

Good evening Mr. Trout!

KillgoreTrout
Member

Hey LG, formerly known as GL!

teamplayer
Member
teamplayer

Hi Killgore.
Now I know where the cool kids are.

teamplayer aka termgirl

Chernynkaya
Member

Hey teamplayer! Welcome!

teamplayer
Member
teamplayer

Thanks, Chemynkaya. I’m happy to be here.

KillgoreTrout
Member

Glad to see you made it, teamplayer.

RavenWytch
Member
RavenWytch

That was painful to read, because sometimes the truth does hurt, and as I watch their ramped up war on women I’m, well, I’ll admit it, I’m a little scared.

TheLateGrardini
Guest

Anybody registering to vote for the first time (or ever) should be required to read a little essay titled “A Day In The Life Of Joe Republican”. If they still vote con after that they are on easy street to begin with. 98 per cent of the country is not.

KillgoreTrout
Member

GL, is that you?

PocketWatch
Member

Yeah, that’s him!

LOL He thought he was sooooo camo’ed up! Not!

Good to see you here, KT!

8)

KillgoreTrout
Member

What’s up PW?

Buddy McCue
Member

Conservatives opposed rural electrification; that’s another thing.

I like to point that one out to conservatives who live in the country. Every time they plug something into an electrical outlet on the wall, they should thank a liberal.

The Conceptual Guerilla has a similar list that you might want to check out. It has some different things that you may want to add to the list.
http://www.conceptualguerilla.com/?q=node/393

PatsyT
Member

Yes, Buddy, and they now oppose rural areas getting high speed internet!

Buddy McCue
Member

Some things never change….

Plutocrats really suck
Member
Plutocrats really suck

“Git your big government hands off my not having electricity!”

Khirad
Member

Conservatives believe we are a Christian nation want religion imposed into all aspects of your life.

Whilst fearing the creeping sharia of halal of course!

choicelady
Member

Oh indeed, Khirad. I know how scary pure food is to these people. Humane slaughter, standards of excellence – absolutely un-American.

The best part of this post? Seeing KQ BACK WITH US AGAIN!!!! We have missed you terribly and are delighted to see you here!

Khirad
Member

Hey C’Lady, I’d just come across this and it was on my mind again.

Can you honestly tell me this would be a problem had it been kosher?

http://swns.com/oxford-university-students-secretly-served-muslim-halal-meat-071224.html

Might it not come off as anti-Semitic?

Although it’s fair to be informed, does this not make kosher part of the creeping sharia plot that sites linking to this story hysterically proclaim?

Do they ever think?

Aaaaargh.

Khirad
Member

I have a problem with the following:

“Conservatives fought for prohibition.”

Yes and no.

The Temperance movement was tied to the Suffrage movement, was it not?

Those who opposed Suffrage were the people that had defended the Confederacy, and those that supported it were from the ranks of the Abolitionists though, this is true.

Maybe I watched too much Boardwalk Empire, but I’d thought there was a real historical connection here.

Or, that while prohibition by most standards is conservatively reactionary (though they spoke of it as “progress”), that the Suffrage movement was at the very least a coalition?

I’ll admit my ignorance here to this period of history. Someone help me out.

AdLib
Admin

However, the Suffrage Movement was very conservative and very much based in conservative religious beliefs. It was a coalescing of the Prohibition and Suffrage movements that pushed both forward together.

choicelady
Member

Hey! Don’t tell that to my grandmother, suffragist and Iron Jawed Angel!!! She was no prohibitionist and risked a LOT to get women the vote. She was a tough old bird – I admire those women a LOT. Some were religious, most were just peeved. My grandmother went to college, graduating in 1911 when women just did NOT do that, and then went on to get an MA and was a social worker during the Depression. She voted Republican as a legacy of abolition but switched to FDR when she saw the plight of so many Americans. Prohibition came out of several religious groups, indeed, and we have a LOT to be apologetic about because of it, but I never have seen the link firmly established between Prohibition and the Suffrage movement even though that argument is sometimes made. It was a small part of the Suffragists, not the mainstream, who argued for both.

AdLib
Admin

My apologies, would never cast aspersions on any relative of the wonderful CL!

Just did a bit more research, it seems there was a schism in the Suffrage movement, some Progressive women and some Conservative who also strongly supported and campaigned for prohibition.

Both causes were seen as pro-woman because there was rampant domestic violence against women back then, blamed on the alcoholism and the preponderance of men-only bars. So these two causes were entwined in the same feminist mindset by some women.

But as you’ve described, there were also brave and committed woman fighting a chauvinist society, where they were seen as second class citizens who weren’t smart enough to vote.

It was a remarkable accomplishment, both were actually, though Prohibition messed up this country and the problems are still around today.

Khirad
Member

Boardwalk Empire really did do an amazing job in hitting some of those nuances.

Margaret, for example, is the progressive who sort of uses the Temperance Movement for her goals of Suffrage.

I think there was a lot of gray and dovetailing.

The linkage with domestic violence does make sense, too.

creole-girl
Member
creole-girl

I just read an excellent book on Prohibition – Last Call-the rise and fall of prohibition By Daniel Okrent. Highly recommend it!

escribacat
Member

Hey adlib, I’ve read a lot of stuff that the suffragette movement was closely aligned with prohibition as well. Booze abuse was really widespread during the period before Prohibition — much worse than today I think. And as you said, women were not the drinkers but were the ones who usually “paid” for the binges in one way or another. This was particularly true out here in the west. Colorado enacted prohibition Jan 1 1916, well before the rest of the nation. Public drunkenness had gotten way out of control.

escribacat
Member

Choicelady, what a wonderful grandmother you had. And you have followed in her footsteps.

PatsyT
Member

Conservatives brought us “Fox News”
Frank Luntz and a focus group
httpsh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kGasHGXSy4&feature=player_embedded

Khirad
Member

How did they fit so much hateful stupidity in one room?

The guy in blue says liberalism is intolerant – lady next to him goes on about the Moooooslims. *facepalm*

Oh no, not Muslim sympathetic!

Egypt’s 90% Muslim you dumbfucks. What the hell are you trying to say?! They deserve tyranny because of their faith? Their skin color? What?

This made it to Loonwatch:

http://www.loonwatch.com/2011/02/iowa-voters-still-believe-obama-is-a-muslim/

PatsyT
Member

I didn’t see on face of color in there did you?

Plutocrats really suck
Member
Plutocrats really suck

“What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried?”
Abraham Lincoln

Old and tried being the operative words there. New and adaptive is what we need now.

KB723
Guest
KB723

PlutoCrats really suck… Soo glad you made it here…

Plutocrats really suck
Member
Plutocrats really suck

Hiya! :] Say, how do I put a picture up in my avatar? Just got here ya know?

AdLib
Admin

We use Gravatar so go to http://en.gravatar.com/site/signup/ and register your email address and upload your graphic there, it will show here and everywhere that Gravatar is used.

Buddy McCue
Member

“What is conservatism?”

I think William F. Buckley Jr. put it well when he described the proper role of the conservative as one who “stands athwart history, yelling ‘Stop!'”
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/223549/our-mission-statement/william-f-buckley-jr

Since history never stops, this description also illustrates the futility of the conservative movement as well.

escribacat
Member

😆 Love that description, Buddy. How interesting that it comes from Wm F. Buckley! My republican brother has expressed feelings like that…that it’s best for the government to just do nothing.

AuntieChrist
Member

In answer to your question:
“What have Conservatives EVER done that benefited America?”

The answer is quite simple:

They’ve made it easier for those of us who are NOT Conservative to identify psychopathy.

Now if only we could get them to seek help and take their meds.

AdLib
Admin

😆 AC, you crack me up! Nice to see ya!

Chernynkaya
Member

There are some cool tests to see if you are a conservative or a liberal here–just scroll to the bottom:

http://planetpov.com/2010/04/08/you-might-be-a-conservative-if-you%E2%80%A6/

PlatoSunTsu
Member
PlatoSunTsu

OK, so I googled “conservatives are…” and found this FAUX news link that tells:
Why Conservatives Are Happier Than Liberals

“Individuals with conservative ideologies are happier than liberal-leaners, and new research pinpoints the reason: Conservatives rationalize social and economic inequalities.

Regardless of marital status, income or church attendance, right-wing individuals reported greater life satisfaction and well-being than left-wingers, the new study found.

Conservatives also scored highest on measures of rationalization, which gauge a person’s tendency to justify, or explain away, inequalities.

The rationalization measure included statements such as: “It is not really that big a problem if some people have more of a chance in life than others,” and “This country would be better off if we worried less about how equal people are.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354424,00.html#ixzz1DWm4HgLF
( forgive me haven’t figured out how to do quotes here yet)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354424,00.html”

They can’t even see the irony of what this says about them, they wear their badge of rationalizing( self and selfish delusion)with honor and abandonment.
They say “look at us libs we’re happy because we don’t care about anyone below our current class,we’re always looking towards the stars ( read: more money) you’d do well to join us, after all the well being of the serfs could never be our lot ( even when they themselves are…) and would never affect our proper place in the current caste we inhabit, soon to move up…it’s the “American Dream” after all now isn’t it, excuse me whilst I drape a flag over my shoulders.”

escribacat
Member

Plato — I call that a lack of imagination. They can’t imagine what others are going through and see no reason to try.

PlatoSunTsu
Member
PlatoSunTsu

Agreed, the real problem is that many of them are suffering for whatever reason and fail to see that ‘their’ party is only interested in making things worse, not to mention the hypocrisy of “Keep you goddamn government hands off my medicaid…social security…library… whatever”

jdmn17
Member
jdmn17

But by god, I want to dictate to your uterus and sexual actions

Khirad
Member

You know what else a pathological lack of empathy is called?

Haruko Haruhara
Member

Narcissistic personality disorder?

Khirad
Member

That or psychopathy.

bito
Member

Khirad, I posted this video from FORA.tv last night. Do we all have this malady? Psychopathy or everyone’s own irrational behavior?
Best watched on The You Tube site and he has other presentations there so I’ll not embed it.

We’re All Predictably Irrational – Dan Ariely

Khirad
Member

Oh yeah, I started that. Maybe that’s where I channeled that from. I’ll finish it.

Finished it. Irrationality sure seems hardwired.

jdmn17
Member
jdmn17

Borderline personality?

david p canada
Member
david p canada

So what you’re saying is, “you might think you’re happy but you’re not really happy and to be happy you should join with us who are not happy”.

I’m sure you will correct me.

kesmarn
Admin

I think that what is being said is not that conservatives only think they’re happy (when they really aren’t). It’s that they really are paradoxically happy in the face of the great suffering of others.

david p canada
Member
david p canada

Some Conservatives, to be sure. Many Liberals are much the same.

Apathy for the suffering of others is not restricted to the members of any one Party.

kesmarn
Admin

I think it is pretty much restricted to the Republican party historically…after Lincoln, that is.

PlatoSunTsu
Member
PlatoSunTsu

Of course it’s mainly a generalization, afterall walk into a room of any ten people from any walk of life and/or political leaning and there’s bound to be at least one complete asshole there, just more than likely to find two or more if they lean right, :).

PlatoSunTsu
Member
PlatoSunTsu

Exactly, but also that in the face of obvious economic realities, they are delusional.
Conservativism in one way attempts to reach back into time…a “better” time, when everything was just peachy in their view, it’s really quite fantasy based.
“Happy” is a relative term, the article does not go into great deal about defining it, but I would think that the opposite of a conservative would be a realist…and well, sometimes reality isn’t such a ‘happy’ place on the face of it, especially when you’re constantly striving for progress, as it is.

We all know “reality has a well-known liberal bias”.

kesmarn
Admin

Yes, PST, so many of the conservatives I know are in a really “Disney head.” Quaint small towns circa 1890, white picket fences entwined with roses, no minorities, the town band playing on the village green, no poverty, no abuse, no illness, pretty Miss Clara in the one room schoolhouse, preacher Jones in the only (and, of course, Protestant) house of worship in town…that’s the land of their dreams.

It never did exist. So there’s no “going back” to it.

Buddy McCue
Member

The “good ol’ days.”

I guess that’s why Thomas Kinkade has been such a popular painter among the conservative crowd.

His paintings illustrate what you describe perfectly.

kesmarn
Admin

You’re right, Buddy.

Those paintings make me gag.

(And — hey, they teach people how to do correct perspective in drawing at the local community college, Mr. Kinkade…) 😉

choicelady
Member

If I could figure it out, yes.

KillgoreTrout
Member

Who says we are not happy? Happiness can’t be measured as a group. Happiness is individual. And happiness varies from one individual to the next.

choicelady
Member

I once read a poll of Republican vs. Democratic women. Republican women prefer TV to sex. Democratic women are the other way around. So where are all the philandering GOP finding compliant partners? God forbid they date Dem women! Overall the Dem women sounded MUCH more fun! About EVERYTHING.

david p canada
Member
david p canada

What about porn?

Where does that fit in?

AdLib
Admin

In MN airport bathrooms?

kesmarn
Admin

😆 …or along the Appalachian Trail.

kesmarn
Admin

“I enjoy being a Demmm!” (to the tune of “I Enjoy Being a Girl”)

Must admit though, c’lady: there is one thing that really does get Republican blood coursing through their veins, brightens their eyes, colors their cheeks, quickens their pulses.

Money.

Khirad
Member

Shot.

Literally.

kesmarn
Admin

😉

Buddy McCue
Member

Very good point.

I’ve always felt that one of the defining characteristics of the Right is exactly what you describe: the propensity to go around believing whatever one wants to believe.

Does that make one happier? Maybe, but I don’t think it’s worth it.

KillgoreTrout
Member

It has been said, that ignorance is bliss.

KillgoreTrout
Member

Good to see you made it over here, Plato Sun Tsu. I have always enjoyed you writing and look forward to your future comments.

PlatoSunTsu
Member
PlatoSunTsu

Hey brother,right back at you and great to see you here as well!!!

funksands
Member

If I may add to your good post:

Right Wing fears (not Republican leadership­, they are just disingenuo­us)
1. What terrorists might do them
2. The gay agenda
3. The liberal agenda
4. What Obama’s plans might do the debt
5. What healthcare reform might do to them

Liberal fears
1. Actual wars started for no reason that are bankruptin­g us
2. Actual debt piled up primarily by Republican presidents for the last 30 years
3. Actual wire-tappi­ng
4. Actual suspension of habues corpas (sp?)
5. Actual people dying every day from lack of health care and / or going bankrupt

Right-wing­ers are nervous and afraid of things that are either imaginary or might happen.

Liberals are afraid of things that are actually happening.

For me “conservative” is an awkward label. I know a lot of conservatives that really don’t resemble the list you have compiled.

I prefer “right-winger” or “Republican” (no matter if they lable themselves a conservative) because the right-wing deliberately embraces your list and Republicans manipulate conservatives to advocate for that same list.

Conservatives are fine. It’s the shitty clubs they join that make them go bad.

Thanks for a great post.

LINY01
Member
LINY01

“For me “conservative” is an awkward label. I know a lot of conservatives that really don’t resemble the list you have compiled.”

That’s because conservative, what it used to mean, is not the same as a neoconservative or as you say, right-wing. Historical conservatives were slow to war and fiscally responsible. Neocons are quick to war, empire builders who won’t let money get in the way of their folly.

So, no. I don’t think a true conservative would resemble anything like the neocons that we are all so familiar. I think a conservative is more along the lines of a Libertarian (fiscal responsibility and hands off people’s lives).

They (neocons) have corrupted the Grand Old Party and taken them far, far right.

jdmn17
Member
jdmn17

I like that description because I think a lot of real conservatives are appalled at the direction the “conservative movement” has gone. It seems that’s it become so radicalized or turned into a religious movement that no one can really recognize it these days. I suppose the same could be said of liberals. What we seem to have are two variants of the terms. What if most of us turned out to be in the middle? Would that be a shock? I don’t know. Brain’s tired tonight but I think I’m feeling the need for some kindness tonight. So I’m handing it out where I can. Except to the farthest extremes of the fringe.

ADONAI
Member

I disagree.

Most people wanted to stay loyal to England.

Most people wanted to make George Washington another king.

Most people were against women’s suffrage.

The Civil War was so much more complex than “we wanna keep slaves” It’s not like “liberals” were rushing to end slavery.

Most people agreed with Jim Crow laws.

And most of the political points, like the Patriot Act and the Iraq War, received full approval from Democrats as well.

Liberalism and conservatism are generic tags derived from the old French Parliament. Neither idea is represented by the 2 major Parties.

Abbyrose86
Member

AND this is why I like you A…you don’t play the “PC”game…

You are right, our history is not as pure as many think it is…and the struggles of the past are not necessarily solved. THERE is still much division among the same lines.

OUR history has an effect on our present and our future (if we allow it to be) THE history is NOT as clean as many like to think it to be.

ADONAI
Member

Indeed

Chernynkaya
Member

Well, then most people were Conservatives. And if you think there is no difference between liberalism and conservatism– I just have no response to that, as it is so patently false. And terribly reductionist.

However, if you are claiming that there has been a troubling convergence between the two parties over time, I can’t argue that.

ADONAI
Member

I’m not saying there isn’t a difference. There clearly is.

I’m just saying that neither ideology is truly represented by either Party.

Chernynkaya
Member

Fair enough, Adonai. I see what you are saying. And it’s true that neither party is ideologically pure.

Khirad
Member

One more than the other, I’d still argue – but even the GOP has its factions – they just don’t include many social liberal/moderate members anymore.

Silentdances
Member
Silentdances

Didn’t know about origins of the words. Thank you for giving me something to go learn about 🙂

Khirad
Member

Yup, it’s also where we get ‘left wing’ and ‘right wing’.