Racism, Misogyny and Privilege: The Basis Of Modern “Conservatism”

Ken O’Brien

The Dow Industrial Average is approaching 18,000. Job growth in November hit a fifteen year high. Unemployment is below 6%. Gasoline prices are approaching $2.50 per gallon. And we are finally making progress in achieving universal health care – first proposed by Harry Truman over 60 years ago.

By any objective measure the Obama Administration has been a success.

This is especially true by comparison to our sister economies of Western Europe, which have consistently teetered on the brink of resurgent recession. 

Conservatives’ Pockmarked Past

Conservatives can't name one previous policy of theirs that helped the nation

Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg in Salon

Republicans are determined to dismantle Obamacare, not because they have any chance at succeeding–the president’s veto can’t be overridden–but because it’s of a piece with everything else they’ve been doing to embarrass this two-term chief executive.  They do so, they say, in the name of conservatism.

Now, name one program since Eisenhower, initiated by conservatives in Congress, that the nation looks back on and breathes a collective sigh, on the order of: “Whew, we dodged a bullet when we reversed that progressive misstep.” The left reflects proudly on the strongest part of its history: