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5/1/2008
From Lance Burri: The Great Conservative Con
Lance Burri is a long time leg aide in Madison, a Republican and a regular blogger with the often insightful and sometimes silly Badger Blog Alliance. JE
Thomas Frank discussed it in his 2004 book, What's the Matter with Kansas? Barack Obama brought it back when he said working-class people "cling to guns and religion" because the economy has left them "bitter."
What is it? The Great Conservative Con: that tax cuts – a Republican's first love – are only good for the rich, not the poor and not the middle class. So, to stay in power, Republicans have to manipulate those dumb rednecks into voting based on conscience, morals and family values.
Suckers!
It’s a nice little irony: the Left, which condemns the conservative fondness for the bottom line (we're so greedy!), telling working-class voters to forgo issues of conscience, and vote based on their bottom line. Imagine that.
And yet, the Left’s favored policies are bad for moral conscience and bottom-line voters as well.
Now, this doesn't mean there's never an example of a group supporting a party that doesn't support them back. Look no further than Janesville, Wisconsin, where the General Motors plant is laying off over 750 workers.
That’s bad. Bad for those families, and bad for the local economy.
But it’s not a surprise: the Janesville GM plant makes sport-utility vehicles. Large vehicles, lousy gas mileage. Given the state of today’s economy and the price of gas, it’s little wonder that demand – thus production – is down.
Making the problem worse: a two-month-old strike against American Axle, which supplies GM plants – including Janesville’s – with axles, driveshafts, and other parts. That’s had an affect, too.
The same union – United Auto Workers – represents workers at both companies: those on strike, and those being laid off. Could it be shortsighted of the union, given the conflicting interests of workers at the two companies? Given the economy, and the price of gas?
Or maybe not. Maybe they’ve got good reasons to prolong the strike.
That's a lot more possible than that same union doing something that fits its members’ interests in a far better way: supporting Republican candidates this November.
How’s that?
Answer this question: which political party is more likely to support drilling for more domestic oil; building more oil refineries; increasing the domestic production of gasoline?
Now: which party is more likely to oppose that?
And which of those parties do unions, including the UAW, traditionally support?
Producing more domestic oil will increase global supply, and bring the price down. In fact, just the credible threat of doing so could bring prices down, as speculators scramble to unload, and OPEC scrambles to maintain market share.
Knocking the price of gas down fifty cents will do far more good than any "stimulus package."
I’ll bet there’s a lot of good union jobs in oil production: drilling, refining, distribution. That’s more work and more money for union members. Plus, lower gas prices mean more demand for bigger vehicles, meaning a better chance that the Janesville GM plant can bring that second shift back on line, and those workers back onto the payroll.
You may not like those ideas. You may think our future depends on using less fossil fuel. That's fine. You may want higher gas prices, to force us to use less. That's fine, too. Those are perfectly legitimate positions.
Those are the positions taken, generally, by the environmentalist lobby that pulls the Democratic Party's strings. Again - perfectly legitimate positions – we can disagree with them, if we choose, but we are also free to champion them. The Democratic Party has chosen the latter.
Has the UAW, also? If so, they’re acting against their own members’ direct interests. If not, well…there’s still a home for you. It may just not be with them.
COMMENTS
So, we should destroy the environment to burn gas inefficiently to put Janesville workers back to work building inefficient SUVs? Maybe they should be building the cars and trucks of the future like Toyota and Honda instead those of the past?
And working people vote Republican because of economic interests? I believe many voters if not most vote in a combination of social, economic issues as they perceive them (not necessarily as they actually are). To say that auto workers will vote or have voted Republican because of gas prices and drilling is a stretch in my opinion.
Finally, there is no domestic production scenario that would drive US gas prices down significantly. For those (like the author of the blog) who haven't figured it out yet, it is a global market, supply/demand with some speculation thrown in and a weak dollar. Any increase in US production would benefit the whole world in a small amount rather than magically helping US consumers. We would become the defender of world oil prices at the cost of our environment. Let the others do the dirty work, we can just buy their oil, like the Japanese and Europeans do. The biggest and quickest thing we can do to drop the price of oil is increase interest rates and taxes.
Anyone out there for a tax hike and in increase in interest rates? By the way, there is a refinery issue here that swings gas prices wildly so I do think we need to build refineries. Finally, make sure your tires are inflated properly and get one of those consoles in your car that shows current gas MPG and average MPG. You'll find yourself changing driving habits simply to drive the MPGs up. Let's have a bit of personal responsibility here instead of wishing that the federal government will magically help us out by drilling every plot of oil land in our blessed country.
dave allen (Thu May 01 07:23:30 2008)
Jo: Couldn't agree more. The unions have forced auto makers in Michigan, perhaps other areas, to pay near $70 an hour including benefits. Gm also has over 400,000 workers on retirement. No wonder they can't compete with Toyota and Honda who keep building more plants here in the states and paying good wages. The same thing happened in La Crosse some years ago when the their largest employer, Auto Light, employing thousands in a huge 3 block plant, pulled out when they couldn't agree with the union demands. Now days we seldom need unions. They had their place when the U. S. was young and growing, but now they do more harm than good.
John HYland (Thu May 01 07:57:30 2008)
The title of this piece: The Great conservative con is meant to be ironic. It is not.
The piece opens with a reference to one of my favorite authors, Thomas Frank. Frank's new book is due out as I write. And it so happens that I'm reading one of Frank's earlier books-- pre-peak oil and pre-911 and pre-Iraq war.
The book is called "One Market Under God." Frank goes through the arguments that conservatives (but more importantly corporations) give to 'have faith in markets.' These ad campaigns have taken many forms over thirty years but the gloss (if that is the right word) is the argument that black is white.
By manipulating language in significant ways and only apparently appealing to self-interest the PR and advertising men have conned those who would be voting for governments protecting workers and the poor (their real self interest) and have duped them with market arguments.
Even as a youngster I could hear this beginning: "Own a piece of the Rock" for Prudential Insurance. You can probably think of many others.
The conservative con is in those very small pieces of the rock in the form of stock options to share holders and 401ks for workers which gives the illusion of being capitalists. Every insane corporate scam to drill in the wildlife and blow off tops of mountains appeals to 'the shareholders' and tax cuts. Bush calls this the ownership society. And this black is white con has worked.
You are not a capitalist because you have 5 shares of Shell Oil. Tax cuts by the very nature of economies of scale benefit the wealthy automatically.
This black is white con goes on everyday in spin jobs like the blog from Lance Burri.
Lon Ponschock (Thu May 01 12:27:00 2008)
Lon, we haven't "duped them with market arguments." We've duped them with MORAL arguments. Get it straight.
I'm being facetious, of course. Whether you believe it or not, Lon, the poor and middle-class are quite capable of deciding where their interests lie and of acting accordingly.
Dave, I fully agree with your last paragraph (well, mostly), and I am aware that the oil market is a global market. But you're wrong that we can't affect that market - we can.
As for the rest, I'd be perfectly happy to have the Left and the Democratic Party argue for greater dependence of foreign oil and that higher taxes will bring those prices down.
Lance (Thu May 01 13:50:33 2008)
Jo,
Do you have sources that discuss the impact on price of US oil from increases in domestic production? The sources I've seen show minimal impact.
Lance?? JE
dave allen (Thu May 01 20:10:25 2008)
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