Important Post

Come Over Here and Say That to My Face.

Please, go read.

Why Do Conservatives Hate The Government But Not The Military?

Seems to be the cool new question, or at least the new-this-cycle question, so I'll take a stab at explaining it.  As, counter some claims, conservatives are not a hive-mind, other folks may have other reasons.

First: this question is very poorly phrased.  Conservatives do not "hate" government in most meanings of the word; government is a needful thing.  Think of it as being like fire: when under control and properly monitored, it's wonderful and needed for life as we know it.  Let it get out of control, and the phrase "at least one of your children survived that fire" becomes a good thing.

Government is needed because people suck.  If, magically, tomorrow everyone was such that perfect voluntary communism spontaneously arose, and you could leave a stack of money in the middle of New York while you go for a month-long televised trip, if you could not worry when you get sick because the neighbors you've never met will pitch in to nurse you through it, if everyone suddenly was willing to set down and work out a mutually beneficial solution to any conflict on a one-to-one scale, if there was no law enforcement because there were no criminals, then we wouldn't need government.  We have government to minimize the bad actors and get the heck out of the way of the good.

Conservatives realize government is made up of people, and is powerful; thus, government should not be trusted any more than any other stranger who has power.

K, so that's what is meant by "hate"-- "distrust the motives of"-- how about "government"?

To keep this from being as long as my arm, I'll limit this to Federal branches for the creation and enforcement of laws and regulation as it affects the average person in their day to day life, especially the unpleasant sort of way.

Thus, the FDA usually isn't too much of a worry, but mandatory public schooling is.  (A quick google should find you lots of posts like this.  And this.  Or this series.)

 Bureaucracies tend to have inertia on their side, and they tend to expand their authority while they're at it.  They also don't hold to their original intent. (Income tax--temporary and only for the rich, right?)

You can probably see where I'm going, here, so I'll get going already.

The military is paid by the Feds, but the services do not make or enforce rules for the average citizen.
 Additionally, the nature of the military as a go-and-kill-them sort of problem solver tends to attract different people than the let's-fix-the-world-by-organizing public service jobs, and military units, shops or offices tend to have a high enough rate of rotation that crystallized bureaucracies can't form very well.

Oh, and military folks that do things which result in massive damage to the US face trials at the least; their civilian counterparts, not so much.

 It's also worth noticing that while conservatives respect military folks, they also tend not to trust military bureaucracies any more than their civilian forms.  (Wasn't it the Chinese who have hell as a bureaucracy?  Or was that their afterlife, period?)   We've all been screwed over by someone chasing a higher rank, probably several times.

Conservatives tend to see the Government as cubical-office politics writ large, with even less of a personal touch.  Know how dangerously folks drive?  K, now imagine they have even less of a risk than "my car will be damaged, too" and putting your life at risk will get them home early.  Yeah.....


So...

Short answer: conservatives don't like big gov't because it is a threat; the military is not a threat.

Theft

To the person who didn't want to pay for a replacement nipple for their child's sippy cup-- I bet you justified it to yourself by saying "well, Wal-mart is a big store in a big company.  It won't hurt them if I just open this one and take the part."

Well, it didn't hurt Wal-mart, because they didn't notice.  The whole opaque lid thing, and you got the box closed up very well.

You stole my daughter's sippy cup.  It was going to be her big-girl treat for being quiet at Church, but since you stole the parts it needed to work, that's not an option.

Congratulations, dirt bag.

Here is the "no one" you hurt.

I Won't Change Any Minds

on this topic, so I won't try.

But two jokes do come to mind.

First joke:
A man brings an old ax to an antiques road show. They look, and say yes, it is a very old ax, what's the story?
 "Well," says the fellow, "this is the very ax Washington used to cut down the cherry tree!  Been in the family for years."
 "Wow, really?  It seems very well used, but that's rather old."
 "Yep.  Had to replace the handle seven times, and the head twice, but it's the same ax."

Second joke:
 A group of scientists go to God and tell Him that he's no longer needed.
 "You see," they said, "we have learned to make life, just like you, so you're no longer essential."
 God nods and ask for them to show him their skill.
 The scientist chosen to give the demonstration picks up a hand full of dust, and God raises his hand.
 "Ah-ah ah!  Get your own dirt."

Good Idea

taking the simi-obvious--- be able to take care of your body-- and adding things important for your self.

Elf laughs, but our Work Utility Vehicle (that's a minivan, but not as embarrassing) has two medical kits, water, blankets, sleeping bags, a selection of knives, a range of things to make fire and when we go on a long trip, food.  (the stay awake candy stash doesn't count as food).

The Den has a LOT of canned food, dry rice, medical supplies, whatever.

But the Important stuff is in the treasure chest, ready to be snatched at a moment's notice of Bad Stuff Coming.  Our legal documents, sure, but any small treasures that would warm our hearts, too.



h/t LMAttila

A Telling Choice Of Phrase

"Illegals have been here, cutting OUR grass, cleaning OUR homes-"

Um, speak for yourself, kimosabe.

K, maybe I'm not of a high enough socio-economic level to qualify as one of your "ours," but I did grow up with folks handicapped by illegals.  They're called legal Mexican immigrants.  (I don't personally know enough from other countries to have a category--one guy in the Navy who was from Peru, immigrated as an adult and went straight into the service is not even close to a decent sample.)

A lot of the ranch hands where my dad worked were second or third generation, and a lot lacked good English because the schools taught them in Spanish, rather than English.  Illegal criminals assumed they were also illegal, so they were targeted for crimes on the assumption that they wouldn't call the cops.  Even at schools with a lot of illegals this pattern repeated.  (Seattle.  Machete.)

You want to hear a REAL anti-illegal rant?  Get some folks who came here legally started.  "F*ing stupid Mexicans" was the nicest of the phrases used, and that's toned down because a 15 year old girl was standing there.  Sure, his dad was from Mexico, but they're Americans.


I have no desire to base immigration policy on the personal guilty conscience of some guy who had enough money to hire folks to clean his house and do his yard work, but didn't want to pay to get it done legally.   You want cheaper help around?  Reform the laws around hiring folks so it's reasonable to hire an untrained 17 year old on summer break.

A Few Thoughts

If you were pissed off about this, you're probably pissed off about this.

My hasn't-had-coffee-yet brain latched on to there being some German pols on one of the ships with predictable musings.

Post coffee: WTF is WRONG with whoever planned this bloody attack?  Paintball guns?!?