Dumb on Purpose: Conservative Philosophy and our Iran Predicament

[applegrove]

Dumb on Purpose: Conservative Philosophy and our Iran Predicament

by Lorelie Kelly
Huffington Post


"The fact that the Bush administration is even mentioning nuclear options in dealing with Iran is only partly the last stand of the Neo-Cons. Likewise, it is caused by something more than a president whose political base is buckling up for their apocalyptic joyride. No, our predicament is deeper than that. It is a product of a conservative philosophy that has purposefully broken our open and fact-based democratic government.

Today's bad dream of policy options toward Iran is not an accident, but an outcome.

In a democracy that works well, government cares for the institutional memory of big, important public interest issues -- like the dangers of nuclear weapons. And long serving bureaucrats provide the steady ballast that keeps the government moving toward objective common goods -- like reducing such dangers. That way, government weathers the storm of deviant Executives and keeps the public interest intact. The conservatives in power today are of a breed that does not believe in government virtue nor common goods. Katrina-style government is the result of our failure to maintain a dedicated federal staff for disaster relief. The Bush Administration's ability to threaten the nuclear option with little articulate resistance is at least partly because -- for decades -- conservatives have marginalized or destroyed our government's ability to pursue arms control. Here are three examples:

ACDA

The Arms Control & Disarmament Agency (ACDA) was established in 1961 during the administration of President John F. Kennedy to negotiate arms control treaties, both bilateral (U.S.-Soviet) and with many nations (such as the Chemical Weapons Convention). It was an independent foreign affairs agency that reported directly to the President as well as to the Secretary of State (who you report to means everything in the DC food chain). Thanks to a reorganization championed by arch-conservative Senator Jesse Helms, ACDA was folded into the State Department and arms control has since steadily moved to the margin. Many specialists with decades of experience have either retired or left.

...SNIP"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lorelei-kelly/dumb-on-purpose-conserva_b_19889.html

[spag68]

1. neocons

Don't ever forget that the neocons objective is to bankrupt and dismantle the fed. gov. so there are no checks on their power!!!!!

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2. They want to weaken some parts of government - not the military.

Not the tie to huge corporations. Just the parts they deem useless. Like Fema.