John Kenneth Galbraith said, “The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”I wouldn’t limit this statement to, “Modern conservatives”.Conservatives have always taken a strong stance against anything that prevents an individual from making a profit, even if making that profit ruins the lives of other people. Conservatives are the true capitalists of the world because not only does succeeding at the expense and detriment of others not bother the conservative, the conservative believes that this is the natural order of life.Therefore, life’s “Greater good” is anything that helps the individual succeed; anything.  

The Civil War, the emancipation proclamation and amendments to the constitution were no match for the Conservative Capitalist of the Southern States. The Southern Capitalists needed cheap labor to build railroads and dig mines in inhumane conditions.The Southern Capitalists needed their slave force back and no stupid Federal Government proclamation or laws were going to stand in their way of using blacks for cheap labor.  

These Southern Capitalists violently threw-out the blacks who been elected to local government positions.They passed laws to outlaw vagrancy and defined vagrancy as “any freed slave not under the protection of a white man” (1). After being arrested for vagrancy a black man was hit with fines that he had no means to pay back. The punishment for not paying the fines was more years in prison and more fines. These vagrancy laws helped whites to easily re-enslave the black work force.  

Once enslaved in the prison system the Southern state governments “loaned” out the prisoners to the Southern Capitalists who used this near-free labor (for example 250 convicts at a rate of $12.50 per month) to do all the hard labor of digging mines in unsafe conditions (2).Thus, the Southern Capitalists defiantly disobeyed the laws of the Federal Government and went back to enslaving blacks and using and abusing them the same way they had before the Civil War.  

Today, literally today, we see the conservative capitalist movement trying to sweep away the healthcare reform bill by suing the federal government: “10 states line up to sue over health bill, Florida AG says.” (3).Conservatives see no purpose in helping everyone to get good healthcare, because the individual (private corporations) are losing a chance to make a profit. Conservatives believe that only those who can afford healthcare should get treatment for injuries and illnesses.And the conservatives will be damned if they will sit quietly by and let the Federal Government force them to care for their fellow man!So, they are suing.  

If history proves correct, conservatives will get their selfish way and no poor person will ever get good healthcare in this country; not while there is breath left in the conservative. Conservatives once enslaved a race of people to help themselves and when slavery was taken away from them by law, they simply found ways to re-enslave that same race of people.Today healthcare-for-all became law.The only thing that is certain now is that conservatives will “search for a superior moral justification” to circumvent that law.    

References:  

1, 2: Blackmon, Douglas. Slavery by Another Name. The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II. New York: Random House, 2008.

3: 10 states line up to sue over health bill, Florida AG says. From CNN 3-23-2010. Here is the link to the story: http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/22/health.care.lawsuit/index.html?hpt=Sbin