John Boyle

jboyle@citizen-times.com

So, ever since the election of the groper-in-chief, the man who mocks the handicapped, routinely lies about the most mundane facts, and can't seem to come clean about his Russian connection, the left has been tarred in this country as being hopelessly out of touch.

Or worse. Apparently, if you're a progressive, liberal, Democrat or even lean left, you're just an idiot. This came home hard for me last week when I got into a heated argument with a relative, who wondered why the press is being so mean to President Trump for lying and suggesting former President Obama had Trump Tower wiretapped while lingering on these strange Russian doings.

So, I went off. To lay the groundwork, I consider myself a pretty moderate person politically. I have voted for some Republicans in the past and in some Republican primaries, but I'll be honest: I usually vote Democratic, or more accurately for people I feel want real progress.

And here's why: Progressives have usually been right in this country on the big issues, the ones that really affect our daily lives.

Now let's not confuse being progressive with one party or the other, as the progressives of the mid-late 1800s and early-mid 1900s were Republicans, including Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. They wanted progress for society, whether it was freedom for slaves or the preservation of pristine lands as national parks.

Democrats, the conservatives of the day, wanted what conservatives have always wanted: to keep things exactly the same, and that means no progress. So yes, Southern conservatives wanted to preserve slavery, because that was the way of life, the pillar of their economy.

So this is a conservative-progressive argument. The parties change, but the philosophies do not.

I'll also say I don't think either side has all the answers or is right all the time.

Generally speaking, progressives tend to spend others' money a little too freely, boost taxes too much, and probably don't demand as much personal responsibility as I would like. Conservatives often have a keener business sense on controlling waste, believe government should stay out of the people's way as much as possible, and they want people to be more independent and less reliant on the government.

But looking at the big picture, the historical flow, conservatives have proven themselves to be wrong on the big issues over and over. Allow me to go scattershot: They've opposed freedom for slaves, opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, opposed women's voting rights, opposed the 40-hour work week and restrictions on child labor (really, they oppose anything that can cut into profits, including nearly all regulation), opposed integration of schools, opposed the establishment of Social Security and Medicare (both demonized as socialism, if not downright communism), opposed national parks because pretty much all land should be privately owned and developed as the owners want), opposed environmental controls to the point that the Cuyahoga River caught on fire and bald eagles nearly died out (couldn't curtail DDT profits, you know), opposed equal rights for gays and gay marriage, opposed women serving in the military and equal pay for women, opposed the right to unionize, which has brought us all higher wages and benefits such as paid vacation, although I'll acknowledge that some unions have become corrupt and overly greedy, and yes, opposed health coverage for everyone.

Sure, some more moderate conservatives had a hand in some of these programs and issues, but today, moderation has melted away from the Republican Party like a, ahem, snowflake in the sun.

Modern conservatives are more keen on war and military spending than progressives, often relying on baseless fear-mongering — think Trump's "Travel Ban," which banned travelers from Muslim countries, although the vast majority of terror attacks in our country have been from radicalized U.S. citizens and not from members of these countries. They do this while turning a blind eye to the less privileged, the poor and the elderly. One example: Trump wants to curtail federal funding for Meals on Wheels, for god's sake, which apparently hasn't shown good enough results, other than feeding poor, elderly shut-ins.

Also, I give you modern Republicans current struggle to "repeal and replace" Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act. They had eight years to formulate a plan, and they voted more than 60 times to repeal it, knowing Obama would veto it.

But they had no plan of their own, and now their replacement plan, which by the laws of the Republican obstructionists must be called "Trumpcare," looks like it will boot 14 million people off insurance. Trump's promise to provide "access" to health insurance seems to mean access for those with good jobs, the same way insurance has worked for decades, leaving millions with no access.

Hey, Obamacare has huge problems and should be fixed, but conservatives aren't looking at that. Most conservatives just don't believe every American has a right to insurance coverage and regular health care. They can spin, bloviate and obfuscate, but at a fundamental level, they believe "the market" will take care of all problems, as if "the market" understands compassion or basic human decency, or that a society has a responsibility to care for all its people, and that the pursuit of happiness might just involve being healthy and not going bankrupt and homeless because you get sick.

I encourage you to read my colleague Mark Barrett's excellent story on the Republicans' proposal in Sunday's paper, which details how the Republican plan will benefit wealthier folks at the expense of the poor. It's the conservative way.

The arc of history may bend toward justice, but it's not because of conservative philosophy.

This is the opinion of John Boyle. Contact him at 232-5847 or jboyle@citizen-times.com