Lunch with a Republican Co-Worker yesterday

He's a nice guy, but has always been dyed-in-the-wool conservative.


He noticed I was sitting alone in the cafeteria and sat down to join me.


After various small talk ("How's the family?", etc) we started talking about the oil spill.


I had remembered him always railing about government regulation stifling business, so I asked him... "after what's happened in the financial world and in the gulf now, how do you feel about de-regulation?"


His answer was interesting. I'm paraphrasing:

"To me, there is politics and there is religion. In religion, your views don't change with the facts. You believe something, and that's that. But in politics, when the facts show that what you believe is wrong, it is time to change what you believe. I've come to the conclusion that big corporations cannot be trusted to police themselves. I had believed in the inate goodness of mankind and that an unfrettered free market would allow mankind to achieve its full potential. I was wrong."


Believe me... if this guy is having a philosophical sea-change in his head over the events of the past few years, then it is happening to a lot of other "thinking" conservatives as well.


Get used to hearing the term "responsible capitalism" in the future. The laissez-faire capitalism of Ronald Reagan, as a political force in this country, is all but dead.

the big money

it's a start.

A way will be found.

A congress that polices itself amidst an uncaring electorate feels no pressure to police those who give them money.

there was already so many othermajor problems caused by lack of regulation. Like the Bush Depression
- lead paint in toys
- jobs going overseas
- pets being poisoned by ingredient from China
- people dying from Vioxx

Those are just a few that come to mind.

All the "deregulation" of the Raygun era and forward got rid of those free markets and competition. It invited corporates to write the laws and rules to the exclusion of any competition. That's how we got "too big to fail"...large corporates dominating the marketplace to the detriment of the public and society on the whole. There's a good reason we are helpless as the walls come tumbling down...it's that we, including the government, all but gave up on the free market and are now at the mercy of the "too big to fails" whose interests will always be tied to the bottom line.

Unfortunately while some rushpublicans and "conservatives" may be waking up to what has happened, they are more than happy to blame the current administration as the cause of all these failures and will gladly vote for a GOOP shitstain who blurts the "smaller gubermint, less taxes" bullshit.

Well, that may be true for people who embrace a Fundamentalist Big Daddy brand of religion.

But in my view people who have the courage to directly engage Spirit -- without the binding or limiting impact of dogma or intermediary priests and ministers -- have no trouble whatsoever dealing with facts or reality. But few people -- certainly not among the so-called 'conservatives' -- have such courage. They prefer to cling in fear to Big-Daddy Dogma and Big-Daddy Big Mommy Ministry.

I knew this instinctively when Obama wiped the floor with McCain.

I've come to the conclusion that big corporations cannot be trusted to police themselves.

And pray tell, how many years did your friend take to reach this blindingly obvious conclusion? I assume Enron didn't do it for him. Or WorldCom, or Tyco. Or AIG, or Goldman Sachs. Or Toyota. Or Massey Energy. How did he miss all of these recent stories of flagrant corporate abuse of the "free market"?

I have known about the "new truth" your friend has just now discovered for many decades. (Remember the S&L debacle?) While I am glad that he finally came around, why is he so incredibly slow on the uptake? Is it that "religion" thing he mentioned?

:eyes:

"In religion, your views don't change with the facts. You believe something, and that's that." Is that an admission that there is nothing factual about religion?

Religion has ALWAYS been about faith, not facts. That doesn't make religion fake or false. It just means that religion has never been based on logic or reason. It's based on FAITH. It's utterly stupid to hold religion to a standard of fact. Anyone who does so is an idiot.

:applause:

So what, are there like 8 or 9 of them left?

With the GOP going further and further to the right and indulging in Beck/Limbaugh/Backman paranoid nonsense, they alienate moderates and even more rational members of the conservative movement.

I still don't get why people think the GOP is going to do well in the next election.

;) I'm glad he woke up.

God bless him. And you for keeping up the communications.

Human beings are supposed to be stewards of the environment not despoilers. Many who are conservative are also good Christians or Jews.

I've found that most conservatives have their brains turned off or are so incredibly narcissistic that you don't want to spend much time around them. Either way, two conditions that allow one to be conservative. :dunce:

Every now and then, some do wake up and see the facts. :think:

I believe this and act on this -- even though I know it to be false.

That's why religion is bad for the world

Religious thinking is rigid thinking, in other words.

I'll bet a million dollars that he'll still vote for the next W or Reagan the toadies put up in a general election.

I kid you not. First, I thought the whole Wall Street fiasco would wake them up. Then, I thought, surely this oil spill & BP's horrifying level of criminality would at least get them wondering... but no. They are still sending me liberal-bashing emails, and not a single one of them has even so much as mentioned the spill. Last I heard (3 days ago), they were extolling the virtues of Glenn Beck.

WTF????

:banghead:

Looks good on paper, doesn't work AT ALL in reality.