Whatever happened to the conservative ideal of being held responsible for your actions?

What kind of snack food does Trump favor? I’ll send him a bag.

I do not want to live in a country where everything I need to live is a commodity I have to buy from a businessman, and my only way of earning a living is to work for a businessman who’s only obligation and duty is to work me as hard as he can, pay me as little as possible, and fire me as soon as he’s able.

I have no problem with capitalism in principle, it is self-regulating, it taps into human creativity, ambition and risk taking, and has proven itself to be able to create great wealth and distribute it equitably to the general population. But in practice, unregulated capitalism is inherently corrupt and unstable. It cannot be trusted to not use its economic power to influence political policy for its sole benefit. And when left to itself, it inevitably leads to economic collapse. It can’t be trusted to not spiral out of control. It is the primary purpose of government to provide a stable and fair environment for capitalism, and to regulate its excesses, instabilities and tendency to criminal behavior.

I believe it is the purpose of government to do those things we, or our business community, can’t do for ourselves. This includes, but is not limited to, trying to anticipate future problems, studying them, and developing solutions and strategies to deal with them before they become intractable. Like global warming. These activities simply cannot be done by private industry or by private citizen’s efforts.

It is also the purpose of government to provide us with basic research and physical infrastructure to lay the groundwork for future industries and economic and cultural growth. Like space exploration. You can’t trust private industry to do this either, and it wouldn’t be fair to expect it to.

And it is also the purpose of government to invest in those activities and projects that the private sector has either found unprofitable or too impractical to engage in, unless it subordinates them entirely to its self-aggrandizement; like providing as many as possible with health care, justice under the law, education and a basic level of decent financial support, housing and social services, and public utilities.

I understand no society can provide all these services, but I don’t want to live in a
society that feels it has no obligation whatsoever to provide any of them.

As for your comforting, and I might add, patronizing comments about how I should tone it down until the ’20 election, all I can say is I am doing nothing no different than what you guys did in between 2007 and 2016. The Conservative movement has poisoned political discourse in this country. It first started in the 1960s due to the reaction to the civil rights movement (which is why racism plays such a role in these discussions), but you have really been going at it hammer and tongs in the 21st century. Now we’re all going to have to live with the consequences.

Pop “racist” into the search function of the comments and look for your name. Doesn’t even count all the others here pounding that drum until they wore a hole in it.