Endgame, or Game Over?
I believe that we are reaching a critical juncture in the conservative anti-tax, anti-government campaign. For years the conservatives have been subjecting the citizenry to a 'cut of a thousand deaths' campaign. Small indignities, largely unnoticed at the time, but continuously mounting. Fewer postal deliveries, cutbacks in schools, shorter hours at public libraries, longer lines at airport security, etc. And most of these cuts have been waged within a class warfare strategy: poor schools have suffered more than middle-class schools, as just one example. But we are nearing the end of this game. We are at the point where the reckless deficit spending of our so-called president, and the anti-tax zeal of conservatives in congress, leave nothing but fiscal brutality as a way out. The question is, however, what flavor will the people demand: slashing of popular programs, or tax increases?
This decision facing the public is the last phase in this game. Recent polling seems to suggest that given the choice between funding for schools and health care, or tax cuts, most Americans prefer the funding. And as much as the conservatives have tried to dance around it, the fact is that you can't cut taxes without eventually taking away things that people care about. Government waste is a nice campaign phrase, but when people realize it means their kid's school, or their parent's health care, conservatives will have a problem. Or will they? One has to consider the possibility that the conservatives are right, that people would prefer to pay no taxes, and get nothing at all from government. If that proves to be the case, if people eagerly sign up for dismantling the whole government to preserve tax cuts, then it may be game over for the New Deal and twentieth-century liberalism in America.
People might decide on economic balkanization. That is, agreeing to pay taxes to fund their community, but not the community next door. This may prolong the game a little longer, but is also, I believe, a losing proposition for the conservatives. If that is how things play out, then expect to see an end to the stream of government benefits that have been flowing to red states with blue state dollars. Agricultural subsidies will probably be high up on the list of things to go. When the real economic pain of the conservative base spreads, how many people will stick to their belief that abortion and gay marriage are the most important issues a politician needs to represent them on? When it is the heartland of America that is crying out for a government handout, can conservative rhetoric of self-sufficiency, and the punishing of those portrayed as too lazy to work, continue to hold sway? The answer to those questions may well determine the future of liberalism, conservatism, and civil society in America.