TRUE BLUE REPORT: There is no such thing as a "compassionate conservative"

by TrueBlueMajority for Black Star Resistance

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(This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday, Feb. 24, 2017 Friday, Feb. 24, 2017 at 8:58:15pm PST

George W. Bush tried to paint himself as a “compassionate conservative” during his 2000 run for the presidency.

That’s because Karl “Turdblossom” Rove was always good at giving names to things that were the opposite of what they really were.

After a few memorable examples such as the Clear Skies Act that actually helps polluters, the Healthy Forests Initiative that made it easier for loggers to clear cut old-growth trees, and the Defense of Marriage Act that didn’t defend anyone’s marriage (especially not the marriages of same-sex couples), people with three brain cells start assuming that the truth is the opposite of whatever the Republicon label says.

There is no such thing as a compassionate conservative. Yeah, I said it.

Compassion, empathy and fairness are the watchwords of the Blue Team.

The Red Team belittles these traits. They openly laughed at the idea that empathy would be a desirable trait in a judge. They cheered at the idea that uninsured people should die. The television propaganda arm that calls itself “fair and balanced” clearly does not know the meaning of either word.

Look at this Karl Rove quote:

"Some on the right argue that by putting the word compassionate in front of conservatism, George W. Bush somehow diminished the principles that have animated the conservative movement since at least the rise of Barry Goldwater in 1964..."

Hold up, there, Turdblossom. If “some on the right” think that modifying conservatism with the word “compassionate” diminishes the principles of the conservative movement, isn’t that an admission that “some on the right” believe conservatism is not supposed to be compassionate? Yeah, yeah, Rove went on to say why he thought GWB deserved the term compassionate conservative, but that was pure spin and not worth taking seriously.

The current Speaker of the House, otherwise known as the “Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver”, worships at the altar of Ayn Rand, who thought altruism was a character flaw. He is salivating ike a drooling dog at the prospect of repealing Obamacare, slashing Social Security and eliminating Medicare, and having the vile legislation of his dreams passed by a Republicon-controlled Senate. Frankly it’s a little disquieting that Ryan is willing to look the other way while a clearly mentally unstable person sits in the White House in control of weapons that could destroy the entire world, just so he can force some desperate women to have babies they can’t care for.

This week we watched the entire Rcon party sit silently while Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) dragged a woman out of a hospital for deportation while she was being treated for a brain tumor. A woman at a town hall begins screaming as her congresscritter smiles smugly while she begs for healthcare coverage for her child. Transgender children, required by law to be in school, apparently are not expected to need to use the bathroom. The Secretary of Education makes a “joke” about no such thing as a free lunch, when there are millions of children who go hungry on the weekends because they don’t get the free meals many public schools currently provide. DeVos will have them cleaning the floors during the P.E. period so they can earn money to pay for those lunches soon, no doubt.

Libertarian and authoritarian types like to say that this is a dog eat dog world (which for some strange reason ignorant deplorables think is “doggy dog world”). They point to the survival of the fittest and the strongest in nature as the way things are supposed to be, even as they oppose evolution being taught in schools. Lift yourself up by your own bootstraps! Why should I pay for your healthcare? Why should I educate your child? I take care of mine and you take care of yours, period!

But I spend a lot of time watching nature videos as David Attenborough describes the wonders of nature. And I am struck by how many species have an instinct where all the adults will cooperate in a time of danger. I saw a herd of musk oxen encircle the young to protect them from hungry wolves. A swarm of arctic terns swooped down to repeatedly bloody the muzzle of a polar bear hoping for a meal of a few eggs, the tiny birds conquering an animal many times their size. Male emperor penguins huddle together as they incubate their eggs through the bitter antarctic winter, a constantly shifting mass as each gets a turn in the warmth of the center. (What—you mean you haven’t seen March of the Penguins?)

The musk ox does not say, you should have watched your child more closely, then the wolf wouldn’t have tried to grab him! The tern does not say, hey, the bear isn’t after MY nest, you protect your own eggs! The penguin does not say, hey I made my way into the middle on my own without help from anybody—you stay on the edge where the 50 below zero winds will get you!

Conservatives have a bee in their bonnet about being called selfish. This time last year they wrote a 45-page document called Challenging the Caricature, a plan to persuade the world that conservatives are not heartless and selfish as they are depicted.

But it’s not a caricature. It is an accurate description of them. The proof is how 100% of them have remained silent while vulnerable and innocent people watch their families torn apart by the new immigration directives and the Muslim Ban, while others weep at town halls fearing a lack of healthcare coverage will kill them, their spouses or their children.

This, my friends, is why we will win. Cooperation and compassion are just as much the way of the world as the ruthlessness conservatives pride themselves on. Cooperation and compassion are the way many small creatures can unite to defeat a force that would easily overwhelm any of them individually. Rs think they hold all the levers of power right now and in a sense they do. But we outnumber them. Our snips at their muzzle have just begun to draw blood.

I have a tip for Republicons who don’t want to be thought of as lacking in compassion. All they have to do is come up with some compassionate policies.