During the past forty years new information has emerged as to how and why government grows without bounds. In the early days of conservative talk radio hosts contrasted liberals and conservatives. Liberals were those who believed in government programs and sought social justice through politics. Conservatives believed in small government and strong national defense.
What 80s and 90s conservatives believed is still valid. However, while still expensive, liberal programs are no longer the principle driving force behind the growth of government.
All governments transfer wealth and income but today’s U.S. Government does nothing else. Today, even wars are fought to expand the bottom lines of the politically powerful.
It turns out that there are no longer any conservative talk show hosts. None are aware that socialism is moving into our system from the top down. Socialism is often thought of as producing a level income distribution. In theory it does but income concentrates at the top even in poor countries.
In the modern world the rich are the driving force behind runaway government spending. Every bill congress sees is part of a business plan. Government growth benefits those who make it grow. Only lots of money can do that.
One need not get a degree to figure this out. Few are paying attention, but all it takes is observation.
Chances are, any given talk show host has only a naive understanding of economics. Certainly that applies to Rush Limbaugh. In the minds of most, being pro business is a conservative stance. Conservative is not being pro anything but relying on free markets is. That takes discipline.
The fact that government has become a tool for elite to generate profits is far more dangerous to the conservative movement than anything the poor are doing. The poor have plenty of shortcomings but they don’t lobby congress. When legislation is passed ostensibly to benefit the poor, the sponsors of the bill end up with a huge economic advantage.
The founding fathers worried that the poor would vote rich people’s money into their pockets. They had a lot of foresight but dangers of democracy turned out to be different than anything they fathomed. The potential is present for the poor to use their great numbers in voting to extract money out of others. That isn’t happening. The founding fathers had no way to know the elite would find ways to control public opinion and neutralize the right to vote.
The seven or so major news outlets have been lost over the years as centers for providing citizens with good honest information. Now conservative talk radio is turning liberal by way of dismissing the most serious threat to our free market system. It is the free market which allows everything else work.