Hypocrisy, immorality and the conservative way

I doubt I’m the first to reflect on the hypocrisy of many conservatives. While always ready to mouth off about moral issues they seem to fail miserably in broad ethical thought and behaviour.

Two fresh examples assail me this week; first, to be dispatched with appropriate brevity, is the whole conservative backwash around the pro-life moose hunter. The sounds of salivating conservatives is sickening.

The other issue has broader social implications and was triggered by a .25% cut in interest rates. Even after 10 consecutive interest rate rises under the former Howard government the coalition, now in opposition, had the hide to attack the cut and Rudd government policies that allowed it.

The Opposition argues that rates have dropped because of a slowing economy, rather than because inflation is under control. Rudd took action to slow the economy after the conservatives had spent so many years giving their business buddies free reign. Their disregard for the needs of the wider community downright immoral, attempts to cover their tracks now total hypocrisy.

Liberal (conservative) ‘Leader in Waiting’, Malcolm Turnbull, blames the Rudd government for a rate cut that comes at the expense of jobs, accusing Treasurer Wayne Swan of being reckless for talking up the threat of rising inflation in an attempt to discredit the previous Howard government.

For many of us Rudd and Swan have been far too lenient on the legacy of the Howard government. Communities have been milked dry of essential funding for essential infrastructure under Howard. While job grew, notionally, hours and incomes in fact dropped. Business was encouraged to rape and pillage and now we pay the cost.

The immorality in the conservative economic approach manifest in so many ways, beyond the havoc of dubious policy. The part I find most distressing is that within their need to rewrite economic reality they also make this basic social necessity confounding to most people. But they can never cover up the damage they do to household finances.