Who Benefits from The Conservative Agenda?

First let's explore how many conservatives there are in the US.

As of 2010, Gallup polling found that 31% of Americans identified themselves as Democrats, 29% as Republicans, and 38% as independents. If we agree that Republicans and a fair amount of Independents also consider themselves conservative, then the number is >29%

Are all conservatives filthy-rich? According to recent studies corroborated by sources including Professor G. William Domhoff of the Sociology Dept. at the University of California, most of the wealth in the US is concentrated in the hands of one percent of the population.  This means, in no uncertain terms, that not all conservatives are mega-wealthy. 

Why does 29% or more of the US population share the ideology of the rich and powerful one percent? Fuck if I know, but they do. 

Let's explore the conservative agenda. 

1) Conservatives are anti-regulation. How does eliminating regulations benefit the 99%? It doesn't. Regulations are enacted primarily to protect citizens from large corporations who's only reason to exist is to make profit. Corporations do not have a conscience. They have been given the rights of personhood, but lack principles or moral judgment.

Regulations prevent companies from making money. Really? Does anyone in there right-mind think a little regulation will get in the way of making money? Please. Here's something you'll never hear: "...let's stop making that profitable item we sell to millions, because they won't let us dump chromium into the water supply."

OK, it might cut into your profits to dispose of some nasty chemical safely, or to buy protective gear for your employees. Regulations are just the price of doing business. If regulations cut into your profits excessively, then maybe you should consider a different business model.

I don't know about you, but I would rather not have to drink chromium in my water or have to inhale lead or un-burned hydrocarbons or any of the many regulated toxins into my lungs.

Still some argue that regulations hurt "job creation." How? Does anyone in their right mind think that a company is not going to hire people if they need them? Companies don't hire people because they want to, they hire them only when they need them. Regulations have nothing to do with hiring.

You know that in many cases the single largest expense for most companies is labor. Trust me if businesses could get away with doing what they do without people they would. They do. In fact this is the reason we have such high unemployment, and why companies outsource.

American corporations and businesses have been hurting during this recession, so they have been downsizing. If you get rid of as many employees as you can, make the ones you keep double their production output, you're going to increase profits. Oops, you're also going to increase unemployment. Who cares about unemployment? The 99% cares. The one percent-ers? Fuck no.

Conservatives would rather let corporations do whatever they want - self regulate, that's what got us in this recession in the first place. Decades of rolling back regulations allowed the finacial markets to make a great big mess of things. Did the 99% benefit from this long period of de-regulation? Fuck no. Did the rich one percent? Fuck yes.

The income disparity between the 99% and one percent-ers has been climbing steady since President Reagan was in office. Again the beneficiaries are the one percent-ers.

2) Conservatives hate social services. How does eliminating social services benefit the 99%? It doesn't. Social services are created by the government to help citizens in need. The one percent-ers don't care about providing basic care for seniors, or providing essential human services for those who are least able to help themselves.

Here's something I can't come to terms with; seniors on social security and medicare that are also conservative Republicans. There is nothing more socialist, left-leaning, almost communistic than these entitlements, but I bet that 99% of conservative seniors don't want anyone messing with their social security or medicare.

3) Conservatives worry about the deficit. Really? Who loves to spend the big bucks on wars? Conservatives. Why do they like wars? Because of all the money the big defense contractors get to make while nobody is paying attention.

During the Bush years nobody had a fucking clue how much taxpayer money was being spent on our two wars. Would you like to guess how much we spend a month on both wars? A few million a month? Try $9.7 billion every month. We have spent more than one trillion two hundred and seventy billion four hundred million five hundred thousand dollars, last I checked. http://costofwar.com/en/

Nobody really gives a shit about the deficit. Historically, it goes up and down and is usually offset by GDP. Everyone talks about how the Chinese own us because we owe them so much. Remember back in the late 70s and early 80s they were saying Japan owned us. Now look at Japan. ( China owns less than 10% of our debt, We own 69.7% of US debt - according to the US Treasury Dept.) Most righties just show you the "foreign owned" debt pie, and never include how much we own.

4) Conservatives love Ronald Reagan as much as they love tax cuts. Why? He seemed like a senile old man to me. During his first term Ronald Reagan slashed taxes and spent record amounts on defense creating a spiraling deficit and unemployment of 11 percent by 1982. He also cut social services dramatically. You remember seeing any homeless people around before Reagan?

Saint Ronald Reagan "The Gipper" - Patron Saint of  The Homeless

Oh yeah, the economy recovered under Reagan. Not because of anything he did, but because the price of oil sharply declined due to increased production levels by OPEC. I remember the eighties, what a fucking mess. By the way - Reagan raised taxes after 1982 twelve times through his two terms in office.

Tax cuts benefit the rich. Here's a nice little example I found at Mother Jones. It compares the tax rate of a Janitor to a millionaire:

The conservative mantra: Cut taxes and we will see job growth. Really! Where are all the jobs that were created during all these tax cuts?? President Obama has not raised taxes once!!  Bill Clinton was the last president to raise taxes and he presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history. 

I haven't even skimmed the surface, we can go on and on talking about how the conservative agenda mainly benefits the one percent of our population, and still, I am confused.

Someone please explain why >29% of Americans have a blind loyalty to the big corporations and the filthy-rich one percent-ers? I just don't get it.