Unfortunately, that means thinking about a truly pathetic year.
My goal for the last
I consider health care to be the most important issue of our generation. Considering the importance of the issue; one would think there would be people interested in discussing it.
Unfortunately, I live in Utah which is the most conservative state west of Iran. Conservatives in Utah are so closed-minded and so oppressive that open discourse simply does not exist.
I spent time researching the history of conservatism and finally have a solid definition of the term.
Conservatism is simply the partisan ideology of the Conservative Party.
The Conservative Party was founded in 1831 from the remnants of the Tory Party.
During the US Revolution the Tories were the ones who stood shoulder to shoulder with the Red Coats and leveled their musket fire at the US Founders.
When Benjamin Franklin said: "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately," the Tories were the one's holding ropes and fastening nooses.
The Tories changed their name to the Conservative Party in 1834.
The evolution of "modern liberalism" is even more bizarre.
The term "ideology" was coined by Antoine Destutt de Tracy in 1796 simply to refer to the study of ideas.
Napoleon Bonaparte rose to power simply by labeling those opposed to his empirial rule as "liberal ideologues."
The modern term "ideology" came from people who were using the term in the negative or as an insult.
Pundits and politicians who rise to power by denouncing ideology are part of a grand tradition started by Napoleon.
The term "Right" and "Left" comes from the French and English Parliaments.
In France, the Right sought to preserve the class structure of the ancient regime. The Left sought radical social change.
The division in England between the Tories and Whig party often had more to to with religion that ideology. The Whig Party officially changed its name to the Liberal Party in 1859.
Pundits who babble on about the division between Conservatives and Liberals are referring to a division of the English Parliament in the 1800s.
Both the Whigs and Tories were oligarchies. The primary political concern was the secession of the monarch. The King of England is also the head of the Church or England. The parties often mirrored religious divisions.
These divisions took a strange turn with the death of Queen Anne in 1714. Queen Anne was of the House or Stuart. Her fifty closest relatives were raised Catholic; So, in 1714 rule of the House of Stuart came to a close and King George the First from Hanover (now part of Germany) rose to power.
The Hanoverian Kings of England were German! King George II founded the University of Gottingen. The German Universities which produced the likes of Hegel, Schopenhauer, Feuerbach and Marx were funded by the Kings of England.
The new modern logic (aka Dialectics) was funded by England and became the rage in politics.
Both conservative ideology (aka the Tories) and liberal ideology (aka the Whigs).
The Liberals of 1859 had an alliance with the Radical Party which supported Catholic Emanicipation and universal male sufferage.
This led to a huge division in the 1880s about Irish Home Rule. In 1886, the Liberal Unionist Party split with the Liberal Party to form a coalition government with the Conservative Party. The Conservative Party merged with the Liberal Unionist Party in 1912 at which time the Conservative Party officiall changed its name to the "Conservative and Unionist Party."
After the defection of the Liberal Unionists, the Liberal Party began to switch from classical liberal views to the new social liberal views.
The party itself grew out of favor and was eventually supplanted by the Labour Party in the early 1900s.
Dialectics is just a method used by the ruling elite to divide and conquer the people. The partisan ideologies of Conservatism and Liberalism simply seek to divide the people and centralize power.
The great left/right divide in the early 1900s saw the Conservative Union Party supporting an ideology of National Union while the declining Liberal Party and emerging Labour Party were defining a new system of Social Union (also known as Socialism and Progressivism).
The same division appeared in other European nations. The Conservative Right would preach divisive rhetoric about national union with the Radical Left preaching Social Union.
The shrill partisan ideology on the right led from Toryism to Fascism while the shrill ideology on the left led to Stalinism.
After World War II, Conservatives found it difficult to push the message of National Union. Realizing that Modern Liberalism (aka progressivism, aka socialism) was an enemy of classical liberalism, Conservatives began infiltrating the Republican Party.
Conservatism is the ideology of the Tories rebranded. The American Republican Party was actually founded by Whigs who sought to stop the expansion of slavery in the West.
The watershed event for "conservatism" came during the Civil Rights Movement. Prior to Civil Rights, the Democrats were the party of Jim Crow. Democrats demanded government expansion and big government to keep the races separate.
A group called The Dixiecrats left the Democratic Party and became the base of the shrill conservative movement that now dominates the GOP.
By capturing the GOP; Conservatives found that they could rise to power by preaching free market economics. In power they would promote economic and political centralization.
/From the Civil Rights Movement onward one sees a steady stream of Conservatives rising to power on the issue of free market economics only to support centralization when in power. Some call this phenomena RINO (Republican In Name Only) but if you consider the history of Conservatism from Toryism to the party of National Union one realizes that the phenomena is inherent in Conservatism.
Remember, Conservatism is the ideology of the Tories. The primary goal of true conservatives is to establish a class society. Conservatives fought against the US Founders. Conservatives opposed free trade reforms in the 1800s. Conservatives opposed religious freedom in the UK. They opposed expansion of suffrage in Ireland and supported the cause of National Union up until WWII. The Conservative Party is still called The Conservative Union Party.
Anyway, I begin 2014 with the foolish hope that perhaps I could find a Conservative or Libertarian group interested in discussing free market health care reform to simply be rebuffed at every turn.
Trying to figure out why Conservatives are so adamantly hostile to free market economics, I decided to research the partisan ideology and simply became depressed as I watched the Fascist elements of the GOP take control of the party and am ending the year wondering why people are willing to follow such a hateful ideology as Conservatism.
I find myself staring at 2015 in a state of deep despair. I might take another stab at finding groups wanting to talk about free market health care reform. It is a fascinating topic.
The partisans on the Right and Left are rogues divorced or principle and reason. A partisan is driven a driven solely by a desire to increase the power of the party. Conservatives (ie the Tories) are every bit as bad the Liberals that they and Napoleon claim to detest.