Conservative Selfishness and "Toughness"

The fraud behind the whole "conservatives care" argument which includes Conservative Republicans talking about "compassionate conservatism", various Libertarians discusing how we need to be free from government and regulation, etc... is that they deny how much they depend on the labor of others, and how much they rely on government intervention to help them out. Corporate bail outs anyone?

One major failing of us progressives and liberals is that we generally critique the conservatives for advocating an individualistic ("not caring, not sharing") world, when in fact, the conservatives do believe in sharing, they believe in taking from the lower and working classes and using what others do (or we could argue fail to do to challenge the political and economic status quo). Conservatives love to share what others provide for them with other conservatives.

Leftists, liberals, and progressive are much more effective when we critique conservatives for being hypocrites and liars AND when we expose all the ways that the government helps the rich, rather than concede the myth that the rich earned their wealth, but that that the government "should take more from the rich and give to the poor".

The sharper approach is especially more effective with those young, white males who are drawn to the conservatives because of their preceived "toughness" and who scorn the left because the left appears so weak, as they truly are.

There is no reason why progressives have to propose a one-sided "Let's all play nice" in opposition to the nasty appeals to selfishness that is the core of Rightwing philosophy (which they try to cover up with their talk of moral values).

Of course, "being nice" is a major part of our philosophy and I'm not proposing that we trade the vicious "strength" of the Right with a one-sided nastiness of our own. But when we expose the contradictions, myths, and lies, especially the lie that the "tough conservatives" really did it "all on their own", we have a much more accurate, and effective way of critiquing the core of selfish philosophy that leads more people to the right.

And that would be good.