Why Conservative Thinking Doesn’t Work, Part 2: Putting Ideology Ahead of People

     Continuing from my previous post, we'll get into the three reasons why conservative thinking doesn't work. The first is that it puts ideology ahead of people. There is a common thread here: ideology tends to trump all other considerations in conservative thought. They have their preconceived beliefs and they don’t let much of anything-necessity, evidence or the popular will-get in the way if they can help it. They call it “standing for principle,” but what principles are served when millions remain jobless and hungry, or an unnecessary war is launched that kills tens of thousands and maims and scars many times that number?

      The liberal asks, “How do we get good health care to more people,” and then starts figuring out how to do it. The conservative asks, “How do we keep government involvement to a minimum and, if possible under those conditions, improve health care?” The liberal asks, “How do we make the air cleaner for people to breathe?” The conservative asks, “How do we avoid enacting any new government regulations and, if it is possible without them, make the air any cleaner?” By putting ideology before human needs the conservative forecloses a whole range of solutions to problems, solutions which sometimes are the best or perhaps even the only reasonable ones that can work. 

     Medical care for senior citizens stands as a good example. By the 1950s, medical care for senior citizens had reached a crisis stage. There were four times as many seniors as in 1900 and hospital costs were rising at almost seven percent a year. Consequently, only one senior in eight had health insurance. It’s easy to see why. What insurance company could make money selling affordable insurance to the oldest and sickest members of society? Health insurance for older Americans was therefore prohibitively expensive and only the wealthiest could afford it.     

     John Kennedy campaigned in 1960 on doing something about this, but once elected couldn’t get a plan through congress. After President Kennedy’s assassination he was succeeded by Vice President Lyndon Johnson. LBJ won election to a full term in 1964, and the voters also sent an overwhelmingly Democratic congress into office with him. In 1965 they passed the Medicare program, and basic coverage for senior Americans has never been a problem since. Conservative spokesman and later President Ronald Reagan said Medicare would be, “the end of freedom in America.” Instead, it has become one of the most successful and popular programs ever enacted, a true lifesaver to millions of people. Everyone pays into it during their working lives and it’s there for them in their retirement years. 

     Medicare is a great example of liberal effectiveness at solving human problems contrasted with conservative obsession with ideology. Medicare was and is necessary because the private market cannot make money providing a necessary service to people who need it--and all of us who live to a ripe old age will need it. If old folks are to get medical care a government program must either provide it or pay the medical professionals to do so. The alternatives are to bankrupt practically every senior citizen and their family as medical bills mount, or simply to let them die. 

     Medicare shows the liberal ideal of meeting human needs. Conservative opposition shows their ideological approach. It is more important to them to stop the establishment of government programs than to solve urgent societal necessities. They opposed Medicare before it passed, have attempted to repeal it since, and would currently like to take it away a little at a time until it is no longer effective. That is the intent of the Paul Ryan Budget, passed by the Republican House of Representatives in 2011, 2012 and 2013, which would have turned Medicare into a diminishing voucher program. Fortunately for the well-being of 49.4 million American seniors, the Ryan plan was not passed by the Democratic-controlled Senate. But the effort illustrates the general point that the conservative ideology of opposing government action is more important to them than meeting urgent human needs and solving the problems people face.      

     The same prioritization of size-of-government ideology and opposition to society using the democratic process to meet human needs goes well beyond the issue of Medicare, of course. It also includes such matters as job training, scholarships, Social Security, food stamps, immunization programs, Obamacare, and labor, safety and environmental standards. The alternative to government action on these fronts is that people do not get jobs, go broke, go hungry, lose their health, and even die. That is one reason conservative ideas don’t work.